Finn (2007) by John Clinch

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Finn (2007)

by John Clinch

100 Center St, Hannibal, Missouri

Missouri: 8/12

    I was surprised that Jim, by Percival Everett wasn't included in this chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.  I suppose Jim wasn't published until after editor had made her picks, but it is hard to imagine a world where the audience is better served by this book, a full-ass novel about Huckleberry Finn's disolute father.  As told by Clinch, Finn is the neer do well son of the local Judge, called "The Judge" from whom he inherits a virulent racism and little else.  Finn the elder is a knock-down, drag-out alcoholic, and the entire book is punctuated by his physical need to get drunk every single day of his life.  In this telling, Finn is of mixed-race, his Mother being a run-away slave that Finn the elder "rescues" after her father is caught in the attempt to hijack a paddleboat to freedom in Illinois.  The virulent racism of The Judge is notable, even after my sweep through the deep south of Alabama and Mississippi- it's long been observed that the worst racists are people who don't have many interactions with black people, and the Judge fits that description- he is known in the book for being alone in having a white servant family instead of black slaves. 

  Finn the elder can fairly be described as a horrific monster, based on his behavior in the book. I was surprised when I listened to an author interview that ran after the Audiobook, when Clinch said that readers he talked to found themselves rooting for Finn despite his notable flaws.  Not me.

River of Earth (1940) by James Still

1,001 Novels: A Library of America

River of Earth (1940)

by James Still

Knott County, Kentucky

Kentucky: 5/16

   I don't think there has been a single work of art talking about the benefits of working in a coal mine. Similar to the art surrounding factory work, contemporary readers might wonder how places like coal mines and nineteenth century factories found anyone to work at all.  The truth is that work that now has a terrible reputation represented an upgrade for most people, like the seasonal coal miners in this book, who work in the coal mine when its open and tend to their hardscrabble family patches when it is not. 

  Something I've noticed is that precious few works of art dealing with this subject actually take place INSIDE the mine or factory, rather what you get is the impact the work has on the workers and their families outside the work environment.  I'd be more interested to read a novel about what it is like to work in a coal mine then what the experience is like seeing one's dad work in the mine, which is the situation here.

  I give extra points for any book in the 1,001 Novels project that is published before 1970, but other than the dialect, I wasn't a huge fan of River of Earth.

Somebody Else’s Mama (1995) by David Haynes

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Somebody Else’s Mama (1995)

 by David Haynes 

River Ridge, Missouri

Missouri: 7/11

  The closest geographical neighbor to Somebody Else's Mama is Winters Bone, but tonally the books couldn't be set farther apart. Somebody Else's Mama is set in River Ridge, Missouri, an all-black town near the Mississippi River.  This is a multi-generatonal family saga with a husband/wife/2 teen sons set up reflecting the present and past relationships with their mother's.  Specifically, the plot centers around the wife taking in the mother of the husband, moving her from St. Paul, Minneapolis, to this town in Missouri, where her husband was the longtime mayor and himself the son of an almost unbelievable founder figure who owns most of what counts in the town.  So soon after reading The Warmth of Other Sons I found myself wishing for more information about this founding grandfather, but alas, most of what we get is the wife complaining about their life together.   

  The wife of her husband has her own interesting story- the only daughter of a wealthy St. Louis area insurance agent and his widowed wife.  Their complicated relationship in the past is contrasted wit the complicated "sandwich generation" dynamics of the present.  I do find that the plight of the upper-class American housewife strikes similar notes regardless of the era and ethnicity of the housewife in question. 

The Weight of Blood (2014) by Laura McHugh

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Weight of Blood (2014)

by Laura McHugh

Henbane, Missouri

Missouri: 6/11

  It is hard for me to read Ozark set noir without thinking about the Netflix drama, Ozark, with Jason Bateman.  There is a strong connection between Ozark noir and Appalachia noir: characters who live in or around a "holler."   Few non-white people of ANY kind in evidence. Generally speaking, a world where the lives of people, particularly children are cheap. The Weight of Blood ticks all those boxes, with a story about an attractive Iowa orphan who "ages out' of the foster system and unwittingly signs a labor contract with a man who is going to turn her into a prostitute.  She thwarts his scheme by marrying his brother.  They have a child, who is the central protagonist, interspersed with flashback chapters from the POV of the Mom (now gone) and the two brothers, as well. 

  I think the plot is meant to be a thriller in terms of finding out what actually happened to the Mom of the protagonist and solving the gruesome murder of a local wayward teen.  Normally I'd take a shot along the lines of these characters are uninteresting because they don't do anything or go anywhere, but that is not quite the case here- probably because the central mother/daughter pair are outsiders (half outsider) and the two brothers are well off and reasonably sophisticated about the world.

Corregidora (1975) by Gayl Jones

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Corregidora (1975) 

by Gayl Jones

Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky: 4/16

     Gayl Jones was a Toni Morrison protege in the 1970's who disappeared for over 20 years before recently returning with new work. Corregidora was her fiery debut, about a Lexington, Kentucky jazz singer with a tangled personal history (slave owning great-grandfather who fathered her great grandmother AND grandmother.  Written decades before the phrase "intergenerational trauma" became common, Corregidora is nothing but an expression of the theme. Surely the best book in the Kentucky chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America- arguably a classic of 1970's American lit.   Something I've noticed is that precious few works of art dealing with this subject actually take place INSIDE the mine or factory, rather what you get is the impact the work has on the workers and their families outside the work environment.  I'd be more interested to read a novel about what it is like to work in a coal mine then what the experience is like seeing one's dad work in the mine, which is the situation here.