"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.