Check out this new title, featured in our Fiction Friday spot! The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, by Chris Scotton Review from Amazon.com: “The Amazon Debut Spotlight of the Month, January 2015: This earnest debut is part coming of age … Continue reading ![\"secret](\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/library\/files\/2015\/01\/secret-wisdom-earth-199x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Review from Amazon.com<\/a>: “The Amazon Debut Spotlight of the Month, January 2015:<\/a><\/strong> This earnest debut is part coming of age story, part tale of redemption and part Greek myth played out in the holler. After the horrific death of his younger brother in an accident on the lawn, 14 year old Kevin Gillooly and his distraught mother seek healing in the rural Kentucky home of his grandfather. There, Kevin \u2013 who is suffering from survivor guilt at the very least \u2013 meets up with a local boy, Buzzy Fink; the two embark on the kind of Huck Finnish boyhood adventures \u2013 fishing, hunting, hanging out in the tree house \u2013 meant to be wholesome and soul-cleansing. But this rural Kentucky town is rife with bigotry and rage, and soon Kevin and Buzzy are drawn into local politics that involve a mountaintop clearing project and the death of a local gay man who had opposed it. There are unabashed good guys, like Kevin (who has a bit of a pyromaniacal tendency, which could have been more thoroughly developed) and his \u201cPops,\u201d a gruff old man who charms with remarks like \u201cI\u2019ll take another bullet before I eat any more of this hospital slop.\u201d There are some very very bad guys, like the townsperson who murders his neighbor because of his own not unexpected issues. And then there are the guys \u2013 like Buzzy and Kevin \u2013 who find their characters forged and burnished by one particular hike this particular summer, the summer \u201cwhen we left the coverings of boy behind,\u201d as Kevin puts it. Readers might recognize something in the tone and style and plot; take one virtuous man, one redneck town and two scrappy, interesting kids. Add in the narration by a boy now all grown up. And you\u2019re just begging for comparisons to Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill a Mockingbird. And yet, Scotton\u2019s very earnestness, the obvious love he has for this particular bit of land, and the perfect ear for its youngsters\u2019 dialogue (\u201cShe smiled at me and I almost lost breakfast\u201d) make this novel his own. At once familiar and modern, it is always poetic and compelling. –Sara Nelson”<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"