A riveting unfolding of past traumas and joyful celebration of nature and renewal.
In Dunn’s novel, a retired English teacher returns to the now-transformed Appalachian Rust Belt town he lived in during his senior year of high school, revisiting the love and loss he experienced a half-century ago.
An unnamed narrator remarks that he feels like a “bloomed-out iris in a patch of Wildcat mayapples” now that he’s has retired to Wildcat, a mining/mill town where “Interlopers are rare, even ones like [him] who lived here for a short time.” He has returned, some 50 years later—after living in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Upstate New York—at the suggestion of an old friend, Dominic Vitali, who informed him of “Wildcat’s magical changes, ones so different from the disastrous ones of the past” and the news that Carolyn Zalewski, the narrator’s first love when he lived in Wildcat during high school, is back in town. The main character, who had a career as an English teacher and writer, describes “Hotel Wildcat, my new home”—a living/dining collective with inhabitants engaged in artisanal activities (mushroom farming, sassafras furniture molding, and so on) and enjoying locally sourced food. He walks around Wildcat, interacting with various townsfolk and locales, including the riverfront where there are “chunks of concrete scattered here and downstream, a result of the time someone blew a hole in the dam.” The narrative eventually details the momentous events at which it hints early on—mine and dam explosions and a mill fire—that, decades before, jolted the town and the narrator’s relationship with Carolyn. The story ends with sightings of ghosts (dubbed “The Shadows”) that linger in the area, and a celebratory community event.
Dunn appropriately gives his book the subtitle “An Appalachian Romance”; it is indeed a love story, although it’s less about the man and woman at its center and more about the strikingly vibrant world that the author has created. The exact location of fictional Wildcat within Appalachia isn’t revealed, and one can argue that Dunn’s depiction of a modern Rust Belt town as a hub of back-to-the-earth sustainability and artistry is a utopian vision. Still, with his specifics about Wildcat’s new craft-making (who knew sassafras had such uses?), Dunn effectively makes the case that retooling is possible for any town, which makes this book a welcome alternative to the downbeat works that one often sees regarding the region. The novel’s other strengths include how Dunn dramatically shapes the narrative with headline-style punctations; he gives the word “Bang” its own page, just past the novel’s midpoint. His slow revelation of what led to the town’s tragic events is also effective, as when he introduces Carolyn’s brooding brother and the “sickly yellow” interior of her home. At its core, however, this novel is a lovely ode to nature, from a ramps-collecting idyll of young lovers to the “confluence” of the riverfront where “all thoughts and feelings and experiences fail, and it’s upon places like these that The Shadows endure.” This theme culminates in “Lost Surreal Interlude,” a marvelous final section that offers a lightning round of observations of the natural world.
A riveting unfolding of past traumas and joyful celebration of nature and renewal.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9798873878420
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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