"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis--Book Review

Pendarvis, Edwina. Raft Tide And Railroad How We Lived and Died. (Frankfort, KY, Blair Mountain Press 2008)

"Raft Tide and Railroad How We Lived and Died" by Edwina Pendarvis is labeled as memoir although I would tend to call it more of a historiomemoir if creating such a word does not bend the English language too far.  Eddie Pendarvis, as she prefers to be called, and I have been friends for a couple of years and the better I come to know her the better I like her and her work.  She is a retired professor emeritus of the Education Department of Marshall University, an Appalachian author and poet of some note, and the author of numerous books in several fields.  She grew up in several locations in Appalachia including the Left Beaver section of Floyd County Kentucky and Kopperston West Virginia. Several members of her extended family worked in company stores and the coal mines.  

This book covers the history of her family as it immigrated into Pike County Kentucky and then spread out over Appalachia, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Central Kentucky.  The first several chapters are highly fictionalized which, while it may have been necessary due to poor or no documentation two hundred and more years ago, is a quality I do not like.  There is also some fictionalization in a few of the later chapters but it is of a much more creative and deliberate nature and much more acceptable in the work.  Ms. Pendarvis does an excellent job of researching and documenting the available records, both verbal and written, about her ancestors.  The book will be especially popular with individuals who have spent at least part of their lives in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.  It is filled with wonderful stories and vignettes about the family, its many unique members, and the complex lives they lived.  Ms. Pendarvis, as a babe in arms, was present at the murder of her maternal grandmother on the porch of the family home in Pike County.  As a result, her maternal uncle Donald Johnson spent most of his remaining youth in Ms. Pendarvis' home under the care of her mother who was his older, married sister.  He grew up to become rich in the Pike County coal industry and eventually made and lost two fortunes.  He was also the breeder and seller of a Thoroughbred colt who set a world record auction price of $10.2 million dollars at the Keeneland Summer Select Yearling Sale in July of 1983.  In a mildly strange coincidence, I was present in the arena at Keeneland the night that colt sold since I had spent nearly twenty years working in the Thoroughbred industry of Central Kentucky.  

This book is full of wonderful moments which remind the native Appalachian reader of home, the old home place, mother's chicken and dumplings, and of the winter evenings when there was enough fire wood but maybe not enough pinto beans.  It takes us back to our youthful aspirations and memories of little failures we thought we had forgotten.  It is well worth the price of admission.  If you are a native Appalachian, buy it, read it, use it to remember the good times, the bad times, and those hopeful times when you knew in your heart that there were better times a coming. 

"The Barefoot Man" by Davis Grubb-- Book Review

As a lifelong student of Appalachia and Appalachian Literature, I have known about Davis Grubb and his work ever since the early 1970's. But I had never read a single word of his work until this month.  I had mistakenly arrived at the conclusion that all Davis Grubb wrote was suspense and thrillers.  Damn, was I mistaken! Davis Grubb set nearly all his work in the heart of Appalachian West Virginia even though he lived for many years in New York and wrote several scripts for Hollywood productions. His most famous novel, "The Night Of The Hunter", is based on the life of a West Virginia serial killer although it can be described as a thriller.  I deprived myself for all those years of reading his work and finally realized one day that "The Barefoot Man" is a novel about an ongoing coal strike in the coalfields of West Virginia in the fictional town of Glory and that is much more in my bailiwick.  I picked the book up somewhere a few years ago and actually listed it for sale on a website where I marketed used and rare books for several years.  It never sold and I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and read it.  Damn, what a nice surprise!  This man could write and not in an ordinary, functional kind of way. His work can survive comparisons with any major American novelist and I will leave the choice of particular writers to you. "The Barefoot Man" well above average literature and teeters on the edge of greatness in my opinion.  It is worth the time of any student of exceptional fiction whether or not you give a hoot about unionism, the coal mines, West Virginia, or Appalachia.  

The language in this book flows, rolls, sneaks around corners, whispers, shouts, surprises, pleases, and uplifts the reader.  Davis Grubb was an exceptional writer who apparently never received the critical attention he deserved.  "The Barefoot Man" title comes from a coal mine and union term for the person who is likely to become a strikebreaker and scab.  For those of you who don't know the term scab, the best way to learn what it means is to read the timeless description Jack London gave us.  A scab is a scurrilous, scrofulous, scabrous individual who is willing to cross union picket lines to work for a company in order to break a strike.  A "Barefoot Man" is a person who is literally poor and hungry enough to become such a despicable person.  Early in the book, the protagonist, Jack Farjeon, and his eventual lover, Jessie, both lose their spouses to strike breaking gun thugs on the same night as Farjeon and his blind, heavily pregnant wife are fleeing to no place in particular after having been evicted from their farm which has been lost in a foreclosure auction.  The bodies of both spouses and the murdered, stillborn child are all swept up by the county and buried in unmarked graves.  The surviving spouses seek each other's company as Jack Farjeon falls into pneumonia and delirium.  The ensuing sex scene is powerfully, emotionally, and lastingly written.  While it, and one other sex scene, are both clearly about sexual encounters, they are also about mutual suffering, bonding, and redemption for the two characters in the book.  Do not make the mistake of letting a few sexy words keep you from reading a wonderful and wonderfully written book!  

Davis Grubb photo by The Grubb Family

The book is also graced by the presence of a third very important character, Mother Dunne, the mother of Jessie's dead husband.  This character is based loosely on the highly important union organizer Mother Jones although the historical figure is never clearly named.  But her most important historical quote is used in the ending paragraphs of the book: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."  For me, the one noticeable weakness in the book is the under utilization of this wonderfully gritty, and realistic character.  The characterizations of both the protagonists and the villains are  artfully constructed.  The characters are realistic, believable, and follow you to bed at night after an evening of reading this book.  Go buy it!  Read it!  Reread it!  It is well worth the time and effort. 

"Facts And Fears Hard Truths From A Life In Intelligence" by James R. Clapper--Book Review

Clapper, James R. with Trey Brown.  Facts And Fears Hard Truths From A Life In Intelligence (New York, NY Viking 2018)

First and foremost, let me say that this is one of the books that every American citizen should read.  If you only intend to read one book this year, this book is just as viable a candidate to be that singular book as any other.  James Clapper grew up in the American intelligence community because his father was an American intelligence officer.  His wife's parents also raised her in the intelligence community and she spent her career working in that area also.  Clapper rose from the lowest entry level position to be in charge of the entire seventeen agency American intelligence service.  He served honorably and well at all levels of the intelligence service and is one of the most experienced former intelligence administrators to ever work in the field.  His co-author Trey Brown served as his speech writer for several years both as an intelligence agency head and as Director Of National Intelligence.  The two men have produced an informative, honest, well written book.  

The one real drawback to the book in my mind lies in the fact that both authors are incredibly well versed in the language of acronyms which permeates all levels of government service.  The average reader is not likely to be so and the book is filled with hundreds of acronyms for numerous agencies at all levels of the federal government.  In defense of the authors, editor, and publisher, the book does have a Glossary of Abbreviations in the back which actually covers more than three pages.  But, if you are not particularly adept at reading and remembering those acronyms, you find yourself flipping back and forth to that glossary as you read which makes it time consuming and mildly irritating.  But, once again in defense of the team which produced the book, eliminating the glossary and printing the full names of all those government agencies every time they appeared would have added a sizable number of pages to the book, expense to the purchaser, and a different set of problems.  But nothing I have said in the preceding sentences should ever be considered justification for not reading the book.  If you love America, American Democracy, and world peace, you should definitely read it.  

There is a common misconception about this book that it is intended as an indictment of the crimes of Donald Trump just as there was a similar misconception about James Comey's book, "A Higher Loyalty...".  Nothing could be farther from the truth in both cases.  These are books about the lives of loyal, patriotic, American public servants and heroes and not remotely about the TRAITOR who is illegally occupying the White House due to his TREASON. Any and all references to the TRAITOR Trump are necessary as a part of the story being told and support the greater threads of discussion in the book.  This is a book about patriotism, heroism, and honorable government service by a man who will someday be clearly and universally honored as the hero his is, always has been, and will always be.  James Clapper would much rather have been allowed to end his government service quietly and peacefully in the company of his family and friends instead of finding it necessary to continue to serve his country as a retiree in order to further the defenses of America, American Democracy, and a peaceful world in the face of a Russian originated and directed plot to destroy all the aforementioned.  James Clapper is an American hero.  Read this book and you will understand to just how great a degree his heroism has grown as his country has been faced with the worst constitutional crisis in our history.  

"Kentucky Voices" Edited by James Alan Riley & Elgin Ward (Ass't Ed.)-- Book Review

Riley, James Alan, Ed. & Elgin Ward, Ass't. Ed. Kentucky Voices (Pikeville College Press, 1997)

This book is a collection of short stories by authors with Kentucky connections.  Not all the authors are native Kentuckians but all do have some arguable connection to the state and its literary movement.  The editor is James Alan Riley who has taught Creative Writing at the University of Pikeville since 1987. His poetry collection, Broken Frequencies, has been accepted for publication in 2018 by Shadelandhouse Modern Press. ElginWard, who is listed as the assistant editor, can be found listed as an Associate Professor of English at the University of Pikeville since 1992 although he is not found when a search of his name is run on the university website.

The book has several stories written by well known Kentucky authors such as Ed McClanahan, Jim Wayne Miller, Chris Holbrook, and Chris Offutt.  It also has a few stories by relative unknowns.  In my opinion, the stories vary widely in the quality of work.  For instance, "My Vita, If You Will", by Ed McClanahan, was the title piece in a collection of his work published by Counterpoint in 1998.  The stories by all the established writers cited above are all well worth reading.   "Out Of The Woods" by Chris Offutt is an unusual and highly readable piece of work which uses an unusual plot that reeks of both originality and genuine Appalachian Culture.  A few of the other stories would have been better off left on the cutting room floor. 

One truly baffling aspect of the editorial work, at least to me, is the fact that the stories are arranged in straight alphabetical fashion by author and the story used in the first position is not one that I would have selected to publish at any level.  I tend to believe that such a choice of arrangement speaks to some level of trepidation about making editorial choices such as using the better stories or more well known writers to "tent pole" the placement of the individual pieces. It leads me to believe that the editors chose to avoid the possibility of hurting the feelings of any of the contributors.  For the uninitiated, "tent poling" is a method of placing short stories by a single author in an arrangement where the best works or previously published works are scattered throughout a book to ensure that the reader will be less likely to become bored with too much lesser work running consecutively and, therefore, more likely to finish the entire book.   In an anthology such as this one, "tent poling" would either have the editors bravely choose the best story in the book, in their opinion, and place it at the beginning of the book and to choose a nearly equal story to end the anthology in the hope of leaving the reader well pleased at the finish. 

But the book is worth reading by the person who has an interest in the literature of Kentucky or Appalachia although not all the work is Appalachian or clearly understandable as Kentucky literature.  Some of the stories are just stories which might just as easily been selected for anthologies in Boston or Seattle.  But, I repeat several of the stories are above average such as "Out Of The Woods" by Chris Offutt or "Death Is A Stranger" by Mary Lou Brown-Byrd, one of the lesser known authors in the book.  She wrote extensively in a small town newspaper in Salyersville for years but had no national, or even regional, reputation as an author of fiction.  Yet her story is one of the best and most authentically Kentucky stories in the book.  When you read it, if you know anything about Salyersville, you can see the buildings, know the characters, and smell the Licking River.  

Hiking At Broke Leg Falls On Labor Day!

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

On Labor Day, Monday, September 3, 2018, my wife Candice & I traveled about 30 or so miles from our house to Broke Leg Falls County Park in Menifee County, KY, between Ezel and Wellington right on US 460.  Since Candice is in a wheelchair, she could not hike or even easily access the handful of available picnic tables since there are either steps or rough routes across grass to all of them.  She gracefully had come up with the idea for the trip so I could get some hiking in and continue my daily exercise routine.  She took a book and her reading glasses and found a shady spot in the edge of the parking lot to read.  I took our camera, which is possibly on its last legs.  I do not waste my time, money, or effort on an I-Phone since I really do not care to see the majority of people with their faces stuck in their phones in a multitude of places where they should either be paying attention to those around them or the scenery. I sure as hell have no intentions of becoming a part of that rampant desocialization of America.  I also somewhat despise the practice of taking selfies and have never done that and never will.  I use the internet every day of my life but last October on a 26 day road trip vacation across the south and southwest I was probably not on the internet five days total for any amount of time and did not miss it. But, anyway, I took some photographs of the area around Broke Leg Falls and will add some of them here.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Broke Leg Falls has a long and interesting history and I am certain that it extends well into prehistory as well. Since I am not very well versed in geology, I am uncertain just how far back in prehistory the area was formed. There are several commonly used travel and hiking websites which have pages devoted to the falls and I have provided links to two of those above. The website KYHomeTownLocator is one to which I have not bothered to provide a link because of their erroneous and condescending decision to list it as Broken Leg Falls which is not and has never been the correct name of the site.  It has always been and will always be Broke Leg Falls.  Enough said about that website and their condescending ignorance.  For many years, Broke Leg Falls was under private ownership and for awhile you had to pay ten cents to see the falls and there was a restaurant beside the highway run by the owners.  Then for  a few years, it was leased by the Kentucky Parks Department and operated as a state park.  Then, presumably because of low traffic and/or money losses, it was allowed to revert to private control.  Eventually, a few years ago, Menifee County bought the property and returned it to use as a county park.  The tornado which destroyed West Liberty, KY, on March 2, 2012, ravaged the trees around the falls and they are still not fully recovered.  The county wisely, and partly due to the difficulty of the geography, decided to leave most of the down timber around the falls to lay where it fell but cleared the paths and steps down to an area below the falls, built two picnic shelters, and set up a few other picnic tables after the tornado.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

No one knows exactly how Broke Leg falls got its name but it is safe to assume that some person or animal most likely suffered a broken leg in the area in the early days of white settlement.  I have never seen or heard any claims as to any Native American name the falls might have had.  But I am certain that the tribes which commonly hunted in the area before the white settlers came had to have a name for such a unique place.  The major waterfall is somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty or sixty feet high with a narrow, damp, and slick rock overhang which must have been used by both Native Americans and settlers at times. The overhang is not deep or dry enough to have been a long term living situation for either of those groups.  But I am certain that it has provided brief shelter in bad weather for thousands of years. The stream which runs over the falls is small and in places can be jumped across above the falls and most probably below also although I have never hiked the downstream area.  The stream flows from a small hilltop not far to the north of the falls and drops over a few small riffles until it arrives at the major fall.  There are a few pools of water which might be knee deep at times but are still not filled with fish, frogs or turtles.  The only wildlife I saw while I was there was a skink but there were several people in the area and some wildlife might have disappeared to avoid the noise and foot traffic.  But I also suspect that the falls are too high and the stream too small to support much wildlife of an aquatic nature or to allow it to return to the area after washouts.

Broke Leg Falls, Photo by Roger D. Hicks

  

Broke Leg Falls is a beautiful spot in Northeastern Kentucky, not far from Natural Bridge State Park, the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Red River Gorge, and Cave Run Lake and is well worth spending an hour or two hiking or having a picnic.  I actually met a couple from Northern Indiana who were on a motorcycle trip who had stopped to see the falls.  Visit it whenever you are in the area.  But be aware that there was no Porta-Potty on site and you would be well advised to go to the bathroom before you arrive.  There is also no overnight camping, no food available, and the area is thinly settled, but in a nod to modern business practices, there is a Dollar General Store at Wellington, KY, about three miles away which has a public bathroom and everything else you need to avoid starvation.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks