Reviews:

In the vein of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael,” “Quiet Man” is an intentional tale crafted to unsettle the intellect. It sneaks in through the back door of storytelling, a thief that that takes nothing but seeds its reader with doubt. Covid exposed the human toll of meat-processing plants on its lowest rung workers, and Kaufman probes their pain and mental distress to anguishing effect.

Not for the weak-stomached, “Quiet Man” insists on our witnessing the cost of eating meat while maintaining the horror of slaughter at arm’s length, and the terrible price somebody somewhere eventually has to pay. 

–Linda Lowen, New York Times essayist, writing instructor, Publishers Weekly nonfiction book reviewer 

Angela Kaufman’s moving novel, Quiet Man, provides a devastating exposé of the meatpacking industry. The book, set in small town North Carolina, centers on the work of a giant corporation, Monarch Industries, that not only slaughters vast numbers of pigs with the utmost brutality, but routinely injures and dehumanizes its workers.

Kaufman tells this story with great sensitivity, peppering it with believable characters and imaginative vignettes. Overall, Quiet Man provides an exceptionally well-written, powerful indictment of corporate greed and its devastating consequences.

-Lawrence Wittner, author of Confronting the Bomb

Quiet Man by Angela Kaufman is a book that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. A well-told story that explores the life and tragic death of the men and women whose lives have been destroyed by factory farming and the subsequent dehumanization of workers and mistreatment of animals.

The story pulls at our heart strings and awakens us to the tragic conditions for animals and workers subjected to the toxic and dehumanizing work conditions of the meat packing industry. Quiet Man slams us awake and asks us to take hard look at the tragic impact that deregulation and the consolidation of the industry has had on the health and well-being of slaughterhouse workers, their families, and our communities. A good read.

–Colleen Geraghty

Quiet Man is set in a small town in Mosier, North Carolina in 2016, the location of Monarch Industries: a place where 1000 pigs per hour are killed each day.

As a veterinarian working for the Fairness in Farming Project says, “If you write a story about the slaughter industry, you would have a best seller, but you would have to put it on the shelf labeled Fiction.”

Or as Ricardo, a man who worked on the chain doing the killing tells it: “electrocuting, slicing, cutting, taking the guts out of squealing pigs… you get fucking crazy.” And “crazy” is what happens to Collin Griffin, a young father who needs employment so badly., he works on that chain for almost a year until in a psychotic, delusional break, he accidently kills his infant son. Collin Griffin, the quiet man, is at the center of this compelling novel and his story is given to us through multiple points of view: his father, mother, and wife; his legal aid lawyer, Cam; his social worker; a vet with his own Traumatic Brain injury who becomes a therapy dog handler who brings his pit bull, Dodger, to visit Collin in jail to finally bring him back to reality.

The page-turning is increased by gripping trial scenes as we sit with the jury and many in the town to hear the witnesses, and then Cam and the prosecuting attorney’s arguments to learn the verdict: Will Collin Griffin be sent on to rehabilitation care or will he be found guilty and be executed?

–Ginnah Howard, author of Night Navigation, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

“I appreciate Angela’s Queen Up! and her powerful re-visioning of the tarot’s queen of wands, swords, cups, and pentacles as a way to guide women to harness and express their inner potential. Just as we need more warrior goddess women, we need more women who have claimed their archetypical queen: their sovereignty, wisdom, and strength.” –HeatherAsh Amara, author of Warrior Goddess Training (Reviews)

“Queen Up! takes a fascinating new approach to the ancient art of Tarot. By focusing in great depth on just four cards, the Queens in the different suits, she shows us how we can use the cards not just to understand our lives, but to transform them.” –Rachel Pollack, author The Fissure King–A Novel In Five Stories, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, and others (Reviews)

“Angela Kaufman has created an impactful book that draws you in with each page you read. It is indeed, empowering and relevant to women of all ages. Read it and you will find yourself in it.” –Tina Zion, bestselling author of Become a Medical Intuitive and Advanced Medical Intuition (Reviews)

“Take Jung’s archetypes, mix in tarot, add guidance from someone knowledgeable in the ways of psychology and magic, and you have Queen Up! – an insanely accessible guide to becoming a more complete person.” –Rebecca Elson, Publisher The Magical Buffet website (Reviews)

“Queen Up is a delightful exploration of the self using timeless methods. Kaufman has beautifully given readers a tool for increasing their confidence and reaching their goals that is both spiritual and practical. When reading this book, I feel like I’m in a helpful, insightful and fun coaching session with Kaufman. A great read!” –Courtney Weber, author of Tarot for One: The Art of Reading for Yourself (Reviews)