The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton
My rating: 4/5 cats
so, i just loved this book.
it’s an incredibly strong debut, and i want this guy to quit his job at his venture capital firm (!!!???) and focus full-time on writing, because he is a natural born storyteller, and this book was fantastic, and i don’t even know why!
because there’s not a lot that is “new” here. i’ve read gritty coming-of-age novels before. i’ve read about dysfunctional families who have experienced tragedy. i’ve read about the way small communities huddle together and share a history and know each other’s secrets, even if they don’t publicly acknowledge them. i’ve read about hate crimes. i’ve read about the devastation following the “development” of rural areas. i’ve read all kinds of appalachia.
but there’s just something about this book that is so fresh, so appealing. and i think a lot of it comes down to narrative flow. there’s an ease to the writing of the first 2/3 of the book (more about that later) that is… delightful. it’s not particularly sparkly-luminous prose, but there is something charming about his storytelling that sucked me right in and kept me completely immersed in his story.
but.
around the 2/3 mark, the action moves up into the mountains, where the characters are going on a “tramp” through nature, and that’s where it started losing me a little. it’s not that nothing happens while they are up there, because it surely does, but it got a little more didactic than it was up to that point. a little too on-the-nose preachy about the evils of mining companies raping the earth. within the situation it makes sense, but to a reader, it’s a little too much telling at the expense of showing. and there are also some awkward insertions of mountain medicine that seem clunky. from that point on, i found myself a little less engaged in the story than i was in the parts leading up to that transition, but it didn’t run the book for me – it just brought it from a five star cat “best book ever” to a very respectable four star cat “loved it” rating.
the ONLY other thing i was conflicted about was the main character, kevin. he is supposed to be 14, but he reads a lot younger. he’s a little naïve, and comes across more like 12. i understand why he is older, since he needs to be physically strong enough to handle some of the later scenes, which would be unrealistic for a 12-year-old, and i loved the way he shades into understanding through his experiences, so i wouldn’t sacrifice that by having him be more savvy, but it’s just something i had to adjust in my head while i was reading. a flaw, but not a deal breaker.
not at all.
it’s a little reminiscent of stephen king’s “the body,” which is me paying a compliment, not crowing “derivative,” because if there’s one writer who does a strong coming-of-age book, it’s stephen king.
i definitely recommend it if you are into these kinds of stories, because despite my caveats and quibbles, i enjoyed so many of this book’s quiet moments, and the poignancy it evoked in my robot heart.
seriously, dude, stop venture capitaling, because no one even knows what that is.
