The Trailer Park Rules

by Michelle Teheux

All wealthy families are alike; each poor family is poor in its own way.— Leo Tolstoy, if he had written about a trailer parkFor residents of the Loire Mobile Home Park, surviving means understanding which rules to follow and which to break. Each has landed in the trailer park for wildly different reasons.

Jonesy is a failed journalist at a dying newspaper with one dream left. Jimmy and Janiece Jackson wanted to be the first in their families to achieve the American dream, but all the positive attitude in the world can’t change their predicament. Darren is a disabled man with a dark past just trying to enjoy his life. Angel is the kind of irresponsible single mother society shakes its head about, and her daughter Maya is the kid everybody overlooks. Kaitlyn is a former stripper with a sugar daddy, while Shirley is an older lady who has come down in the world and lives in denial. Nancy, the trailer park manager, runs it like a tyrant but finds out when a larger corporation takes over that she’s not different from the residents.

When the new owners jack up the rent, the lives of everyone in the park shift dramatically and in some cases tragically.Welcome to the Loire Mobile Home Park! Please observe all rules!

Genres: Fiction

387 pages, Paperback

Published March 20, 2024

Reviews

[Jim Thomsen]

This Is Real Life

Told without sentimentality or sensationalizing, this novel shows the compromises within and without that people who have undergone setbacks — or whose entire lives have been one big setback — to continue waking up and facing each day without feeling completely defeated the moment they get out of bed. Even if and when such compromises curdle into delusional thinking, it represents effort of a sort to keep on. Even when everything they can’t control seems to be conspiring against any semblance of momentary serendipity. This the real stuff, and these are real people, and Michelle Teheux has delivered a real winner in THE TRAILER PARK RULES.

[Julie Carpenter]

For many people, the lives of the poor are opaque. Even those who have experienced poverty or lived around the edges of it, often don’t look back if they manage to escape. Fear keeps only one eye open so the middle class and rich see only the “poor choices” made by those who can’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and not the system that could easily subsume almost anyone—no matter how much they have in the bank—in a moment. The reality is too frightening to take in, so we look the other way. We blame. We assure ourselves that this could never happen to us.
Teheux takes on the system by giving readers a glimpse into the lives of some people who are surviving on the edges of capitalism and trying to find a foothold or falling into despair. From Jonesy, a newspaper reporter whose nearly 24-hour days have very little financial payback, to a young family that loses its way due to pregnancy and medical bills, to a young woman who makes her money by having a sugar daddy, these are people who are struggling to survive, both abhorring the system and trying to find a way in.
The characters each get their own story arcs as the trailer park is sold, rents are jacked, and everyone in it must either find the money to remain or land somewhere else.
One of the real beauties of this novel is the way that the characters’ relationship to the system that traps them is portrayed. For instance, Nancy, the manager of the trailer park, who desperately tries to follow all the rules, even when it means harming those around her, finds that her subservience buys her nothing. There is no acquiescence that guarantees survival.
There is no blame in this book. No moralizing about choice. Yes, some of the characters make mistakes. Who doesn’t? And that’s the point. We’re all in this together.
There are funny scenes, sweet scenes, scenes of violence—in other words, life and humanity— to be found in Loire Mobile Home Park (don’t pronounce it like an elite! It’s Lori!), but in the long run we see people trying to maintain their dignity and humanity in the face of unlikely odds.
And when you read this book, the tables turn. How many billionaires could survive these circumstances? How many kids who grew up in middle class homes? When you see people, really see them, struggling through the mire of impossible situations, you realize the people we shun are often the most inventive, the toughest, and the smartest people in our society.

[Mike]

What we do when we think no one else is looking.


Michelle Teheux is an incredibly gifted writer - I'm a long time fan of her writing on Medium and highly encourage checking it out. When I saw her debut novel, I jumped at the chance to pre-order it and anticipated it's arrival. It was worth the wait!


I would encapsulate this book as "what we do when we think no one else is looking." There is sex, sex, and more sex in various permutations - and the characters all behind it feel very real and incredibly well developed.


Trailer Park Rules isn't preachy, isn't opinionated, but what it offers is an incredibly witty and complex view into one neighborhood's residents, including those that get along and those that don't. At one point it makes sense for them all to ally and at others for each family to go their own way.


My favorite character is actually the on-site assistant to the regional manager, Nancy. She does her darndest to make sure everything runs smoothly, and delights in catching when it doesn't. She works hard, thinks her superiors notice, then gets canned. OUCH! People are in this trailer Park as a result of various circumstances - escape, poverty, unintended pregnancy, or nowhere else to go. But they all keep moving on at the forefront of their mind.

[Rich Sobel]

I first came across Michelle Teheux on Medium and then continued to follow her posts when she moved over to Substack. I purchased her book on kind of a whim because I liked what she had to say about how people were treated in her articles.

I'm glad I got this. It was a really wonderful read dealing with people that I would likely never have occasion to meet in my sheltered daily life as a privileged, economically stable, middle class white, retired person.

Ms Teheux really brought these trailer park characters to life for me; their daily struggles to survive, how they treated each other and how they managed to get by and in some cases, actually thrive.

I highly recommend this book. You'll see a sector of life you probably didn't know existed and you won't be disappointed. Kudos to Ms Teheux!

[Alicia Brown]

Slice of life, but more than that

I loved this book about the varied daily life experiences of the tenants of a trailer park (ahem, "mobile home community"). Not only because every character felt so well drawn and believable, or even because of how their stories intertwined in interesting and unexpected ways, but because Teheux sheds some real light on what it's like to live in poverty in modern-day America. Without ever being preachy or heavy handed, she weaves a narrative where the circumstances of each character feel truly relatable. You've either been one (or more) of these people or you have known them. The short chapters, crisp pace, and shifting perspectives on events make the book hard to put down. Highly recommend.

[Kit]

Michelle's writing is familiar to me, but this is the first fiction piece I’ve read by her. It starts off simply enough with sketches of the various occupants of the trailer park and the bossy young woman who serves as manager and self-appointed enforcer of the rules. However, as the plot develops and their lives intertwine, they go from being (what at first impression seemed like stock characters) to people whose lives and outcomes I cared about. I was enjoying the story and was sorry to see the book end—which it does in a way that perfectly captures what I suspect was the author’s point in writing the book. A superficially simple story with a deeper message, it was a satisfying read.

[Desbonnes]

Excellent writing by Michelle Teheux; I love her style. She makes the characters in Trailer Park Rules come alive for the reader. It was easy to picture the characters in their unique situations and this book definitely held my interest. Every person in the Loire Mobile Home Park was relatable to me in one way or another. I think that is the hallmark of a good author - being able to evoke some emotion from the reader, whether it is empathy, sadness, happiness or disgust.
I have followed Michelle Teheux's writing for quite some time and can assest that she is a gifted writer who loves what she does.
Trailer Park Rules is a really good book. I hope to read more books by Mrs. Teheux.

[VJ]

To Judge and Not to Judge

I'm glad Darren is dead, wish Nathan had been caught out, feel a bit of pity for Nancy, and liked Maitland more after Shirley and Tommy set her to rights. Jonesy, Jimmy and Janiece were good, regular folks. Angel is a ditz. Glad Maya got some actual parental care.

What a ride.

[Julie Geurin]

Admittedly, this isn't a long book, but it's long enough that my reading it one day (sitting really, but who is counting lol) should tell you I really enjoyed it. I recently discovered Ms Teheux on Substack and decided on a whim to buy her book. Good decision!

[Rohan]

Compulsively readable and a good set of characters (even though the reductive backstories make some them caricatures). But all of this amounts to little, given the thin plot and the clunky interactions between the characters.

[Sheila]

I'm sorry, I was expecting a story of multiple lives, clashes yes, interesting characters. Could take the sex parts when it came to masturbation, that ended it for me. Too trashy and too unnecessary to the story. Big disappointment.

[Jo]

Quirky book about the indivduals living on a trailer park. Different stories of how and why everyone is there and what their hopes and dreams are. I liked the way everything came together at the end

[Ellen Strohm]

Great storytelling

Great characters and eye opening glimpses into a world we’d rather forget exists. And if you’ve ever been poor it rings true.

[KELLY HYATT]

A great character read! I felt sorry for many and I wanted to strangle one… really quick fun read!

[Steve Madison]

I liked the read.