Our Country Friends

One of the more unique and interesting aspects of Our Country Friends is the contrast between the characters and the setting. This group of relatively wealthy, liberal people from New York City stays in rural New York, a conservative area of the state. This creates tension between them and the community around them that can be seen through interactions with town residents and the outward display of conservatism in the form of political signs. Some characters, like Karen, notice the differences immediately upon arrival:

It seemed almost impossible that the owners of the broken houses she had seen up the road, “shitbox Federals,” as Ed had once described them in his Ed way, could breathe in the same rich country air as Sasha and some of his neighbors (19).

Karen identifies a stark contrast between the likes of Senderovsky and others around him based on their socio-economic status. The neighborhood that his house is in is a mix of wealthy New Yorkers’ second homes and the run-down first homes of locals. She is shocked by the contrast in their identities and the equal access they have to the area. Senderovsky is clearly paying more to reside here than the local town residents and enjoys the area in a different way than they do. While they live and work in the area, Senderovsky, his friends, and his family vacation there, making their time in the town fundamentally different.

The primary way in which the tensions between the group and the town are revealed is by political signs. Masha expresses concern after hearing of far-right and antisemitic posters at the train station and tells her guests that the locals are pretty conservative. Dee witnesses the conservatism of the town residents as she walks along the road near the house:

Dee noticed an American flag done up in black, blue, and white, which also connoted a far-right disposition, fluttering from the back of a stationary black pickup truck. Maybe Masha wasn’t entirely wrong about the content of this particular neighborhood (91).

The group’s actual interactions with townsfolk are limited throughout the novel, so their conception of who the townspeople are is influenced by this outward display of political affiliation as well as their own stereotypes about this demographic. Many of the characters see right-wing support surrounding the houses of locals and therefore associate these rural residents with conservative politics. Conversely, the second homes of New Yorkers display competing ideologies, further separating the two groups: “The sun returned as soon as they entered the liberal estates section of the road, where hate had ‘no home’” (92). This side of the neighborhood not only boasts liberal slogans but is also described as housing estates rather than the rundown homes described earlier. There is a clear divide between the two sides of the neighborhood politically, and it follows the divide of town locals and city visitors.

The signs and slogans of the conservative locals begin to spread as the pandemic lengthens and Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd spread. This creates more severe tension with the group as they feel more politically isolated and also more vulnerable as a diverse group in this rural setting. As Senderovsky sees more and more conservative iconography, he begins to wonder about a possible confrontation:

Imagine what it would take for Senderovsky, the owner of the largest (by area) estate on the road, to ring that doorbell (after evading the dogs) and demand (beg?) for the flag to be taken down? What would he say? ‘Sir, it offends me’? ‘Sir, I’m scared.’ The whole point was to offend him. The whole point was to make him scared (187).

Senderovsky realizes that the flags and slogans are not merely an expression of political belief but a tactic used to express tension between the residents and the city visitors. There is an ideological line drawn between the two groups and the use of conservative signs and flags is a tactic meant to agitate and scare the likes of Senderovsky, his group, and others like them. This results in two communities forming within the town limits. There are the conservative locals unhappy with national politics and the presence of liberal city-dwellers, and there are the people escaping the city for rural areas who are politically opposed to their rural neighbors.