Wiley Cash

Cash is such a good storyteller that even when he makes some mis-steps, I still enjoy the journey. In this novel, he tells the story of Ella May (a real person), a poor young woman from the mountains of Tennessee who finds herself leading efforts to organize an integrated labor union in North Carolina. In his Afterword, Cash notes the various connections he had to this little known piece of history but that he didn't learn about it until he was in graduate school. I admire Cash's desire to tell this story.

Much of the book is very good, but a few things didn't work for me. He includes a number of perspectives, so that the story is not just Ella's but also that of others involved. This works to good effect in some cases, but a couple of the perspectives were not full enough to move beyond the superfluous. He also, especially in the beginning, does a lot of "telling" and not enough "showing" about the mills and workers and their situation.

All in all, though, this was a good read.

4 stars… (plus d'informations)

Serviceable but undercooked suspense/thriller about a Southern town, a bag full of money stolen from a crime boss, kidnapped sisters, a psychopathic killer hunting them and their father down, and a tragic ex-cop looking for redemption. It's set in the South and is by a Southern writer, but it didn't feel particularly Southern. It's a thriller, but it wasn't particularly thrilling. It could have definitely been noir, but shied away, as if its editor thought it would be a more lucrative idea to aim this at the Oprah crowd, so let's not make this too hard and violent, mkay?

I love the idea of the confrontation building to a climax at Busch Stadium in St. Louis as McGwire and Sosa battle for the home run record as the season winds down, but the execution was disappointing. The protagonists are hardly settled into their seats before they get shown on the jumbotron, and before you know it psychopathic killer has stupidly attacked his target in the men's room and been apprehended and all danger is over. Seriously, he hunts him halfway across the country only to attack him in a jam packed baseball stadium as soon as he sees him? No stalking? No chase? No suspense! That could have been such a better scene; instead it felt nearly wasted.

He wasn't ever going to recover any stolen hillbilly mafia money that way. It is suggested that psychopathic killer had personal reasons at play, stemming from a minor league beaning incident that may have ended his playing career, but that angle needed considerably more exploration than it received.… (plus d'informations)

I enjoyed this engaging semi-thriller. The author drew me into the story by introducing characters, throwing them into the action while making the reader gradually pick up each character’s full backstory and motivations through hints, interactions, and character reflection as events unfold. I was relieved to find it avoids the tiresome folksiness of many contemporary novels set in the American South. Although final events wrapped up a little too cleanly and with disappointing clarity of good guys vs. bad guys, it was still a fun ride.

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. The multiple readers were all quite good, but Jenny Lamia is a standout as always. The sound editing is very poor for one of the male readers as we hear every breath and swallow in between sentences.
… (plus d'informations)