Fiction
Chris Cander
Whisper Hollow
New York: Other Press
Trade paper, 978-1-59051-711-6 (also available in e-book and audio)
400 pages, $17.95
March 17, 2015


Whisper Hollow is IPPY award winner Chris Cander’s second novel, a multifaceted story of family, religion, superstition, redemption, and (mostly) good people pushed to desperate means who prove, again, that Faulkner was right – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Divided into two parts, beginning in 1916 and 1964, respectively, this novel spans most of the twentieth century in Verra, a coal-mining town tucked into the hills and hollows of West Virginia, populated by hard-working immigrants building better lives for their families in a new country. Sadly, not much changed in Verra in all those years. The aspirations of the second generation are just what their parents hoped for, but the attempted fulfillment of those dreams causes conflict and dredges up pervasive European class issues that have stowed away in their steamer trunks.

Cander has created vivid women in Whisper Hollow. Myrthen is a damaged creature whose hubris in the name of religion is breathtaking in its selfishness. “Everything under the heavens was unfolding according to His great plan….If that was so, then whatever she said must be grounded in truth, even it if didn’t actually happen.” Alta, “who tangled with an unrequited lust for life beyond her bounds,” is Myrthen’s foil but not merely that. She’s kind, patient, practical, and loving but she’s not perfect. She is wise and empathetic precisely because she is not perfect. This is Alta-essence, unable to sleep: “Finally, she flung back the sheet, pulled her work pants on underneath her nightgown, stepped into her boots, and went outside to confront the sky.”

Cander can turn a phrase into an unexpectedly evocative image. Alta’s glamorous Aunt Maggie from New York: “Maggie stood so still amid the excited, doting movements of her uncle Punk that she seemed to be floating in the stir of air he whipped up around her.” This is a description of the mountain: “[T]he sounds of the mountain itself, what being inside the body of a very old man might be like: creaking joints and groaning shifts of position, something trying to get comfortable even while being methodically eviscerated in three eight-hour shifts every day.” This is Alta upon discovering a note containing a decades-old secret: “She stood holding it with both hands, staring at it beneath the bulb light as though it were a time capsule or a present or a bomb.” It is all of those things. And asparagus has never been so romantic.

Intricately plotted and executed, the book’s foreshadowing as the climax of part two approaches steadily ratchets the suspense level until you want to jump up and down and holler and point. Whisper Hollow is an unforgettable example of both the smallness and the largeness of the human heart and a lesson in absolution: we get it from each other and we owe it to each other. Hats off to Cander for the research required to reproduce a place and an era, as well as for the talent that alchemized that research into this novel.

Published in Lone Star Literary Life. ( )

Whisper Hollow is the story of three women: Myrthen, Alta, and Lidia, set in the small town of Verra, West Virginia. This mining town is filled with secrets and some people will go to great lengths to keep those secrets hidden.

Myrthen Bergmann was a first generation American, born to German immigrants in 1910. She, along with her twin sister Ruth, and her parents lived in a small mining community in West Virginia. Just days before Myrthen and Ruth's sixth birthday a tragic accident resulted in Ruth's death. A few years later Myrthen decides to dedicate her life to God and has the goal of becoming a nun. Myrthen sees herself as devout and pious; others see her as judgmental, hypercritical, and without compassion. Myrthen's desire for a cloistered life dedicated to God changes when she is caught in flagrante delicto with a male suitor, Giovanni "John" Esposito, and rushed into marriage.

Alta Krol is only a few years younger than Myrthen and has had a crush on John Esposito. Alta knows that there isn't any hope for her with John, but it doesn't stop her from dreaming about him. A few years pass and Alta is married to Walter Pulaski and the mother of a young son. Her life isn't great, but it isn't altogether bad either. She loves Walter but she isn't in love with him and she accepts that her life as a wife and mother in Verra, West Virginia is all she's going to get or is it?

Fast forward a number of years and both Myrthen and Alta are widows due to a tragic mine explosion. It is now the 1960s and Lidia Kielar is a teenager in Verra. She marries her high school beau and they have a beautiful son, Gabriel. Gabriel isn't the usual toddler and seems attuned to something no one else can see or hear. This doesn't bode well in a small Appalachian town where people may believe in ghosts and ghouls, but they don't want anybody to uncover their secrets.

I was very excited to learn about Whisper Hollow a few months back. As a native West Virginian, I'm always interested in reading stories set in my home state. The story is told in alternating voices of Myrthen, Alta, and Lidia over the course of 53 years. The reader is provided background into the family dynamics for each lady as well as given glimpses into small-town mining life. Whisper Hollow, for me, was a story about secrets, guilt, and the lies we tell ourselves. Some of those lies become so distorted and warped over time that we simply can't face the truth. The biblical quote at the beginning of the book sums this up quite nicely: "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known." I enjoyed reading Whisper Hollow and found it to be a fast-paced and engrossing historical read. I found the characters to be well-developed and realistic, and the settings and action to be plausible. If you like historical fiction or simply stories set in small towns, then you'll definitely want to grab a copy of Whisper Hollow to read. ( )

WHISPER HOLLOW whispered nothing but sadness, loneliness, ​secrets, ​and isolation.

Myrthen's isolation and sadness began after the death of her twin sister and then her marriage. Alta's sadness began ​upon her marriage to the man she didn't love or have anything in common with.

Both women have desires that break rules and traditions. Myrthen and Alta are traditional on the outside, but on the inside are very strong women with very strong convictions. Tragedy brings these two women farther apart instead of closer together and leaves them both lonelier than before.

WHISPER HOLLOW is set in the coal mining town of Verra, West Virginia,​ ​before, during, and after WWII ​with traditional marriages of the wife at home and the husband working.
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Ms. Cander's writing pulls you in with her marvelous descriptions of characters and scenes. The characters are very authentic with some you will feel sorry for. You will definitely not like Myrthen as the years go on, and your heart will go out to Alta and Lidia. When Lidia arrives, the strong women of Verra, West Virginia, have another woman with a secret to take into their fold.

The beginning was a bit slow, but the characters, situations, writing style, and time period kept me going. ​I would recommend this book to anyone who likes secrets and family sagas. It is historical fiction and women's fiction rolled into one.
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WHISPER HOLLOW i​s an interesting look into the lives of the characters with circumstances that are very plausible. You will become attached to the women and to their situations.

The ending is redeeming in certain ways and definitely a page turner. ENJOY if you read WHISPER HOLLOW. I think you will. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation in return for an honest review. ( )

Early 1920's, in a mining town in West Virginia. Company owned houses, general store, a place where the miners work terrifically hard to support their families. Getting ahead is really not an option, just surviving and able to put food on the table is considered lucky. Myrthen, her twin sister and mother are supported by their miner father, a fairly content family until a terrible accident will change them beyond expectation. Myrthen becomes an ardent Catholic, wanting to dedicate herself to a reflected convent for life. Life though has other plans for her and these plans will not only alter her life but other lives too, far into the future.

Such a gritty perspective of the lives lived in these small mining communities.
The power of the local church and its outreach into people's personal lives. What lengths a person will go to using self justification in order to achieve the only life she can envision. What a moral conundrum these characters find themselves in, conflicted and wanting what they can't have. A horrible tragedy, every miner's nightmare, and one character Alma, a favorite of mine, will loose virtually everything she holds dear, but will have to find a way to move forward.

A good solid, dark story with some very interesting characters. An inside look at those who made their living from these terrible mines. A young boy who fourteen years later will have knowledge of the terrible event without even being born yet. This will shake up the people once again.

ARC from publisher.
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I picked up a copy of this book because it sounded exciting. It started out fine but then I quickly realized that I had no interest what so ever about the characters in the book. I put it down and was not planning on reading anymore of it but then I read some of the other readers thoughts who enjoyed the book and thought I would give it another try. Nope, nothing changed for me in fact, I thought that the story read depressing. Myrthen was frigid. Alta was uninteresting. In fact, I would not want to be friends with either lady. Yet, this book may have hints of being religious but it was not the main focus. So if you are worried about that aspect of the book then you don't have to be. I finally gave up at page 132. This book was not my cup of tea. ( )