Title: The Secret Wisdom of the Earth Author: Christopher Scotton
Published: January 6, 2015
Genre(s): Literary Fiction
Page Count: 466
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:After seeing the death of his younger brother in a terrible home accident, fourteen-year-old Kevin and his grieving mother are sent for the summer to live with Kevin's grandfather. In this peeled-paint coal town deep in Appalachia, Kevin quickly falls in with a half-wild hollow kid named Buzzy Fink who schools him in the mysteries and magnificence of the woods. The events of this fateful summer will affect the entire town of Medgar, Kentucky.
Medgar is beset by a massive mountaintop removal operation that is blowing up the hills and back filling the hollows. Kevin's grandfather and others in town attempt to rally the citizens against the "company" and its powerful owner to stop the plunder of their mountain heritage. When Buzzy witnesses a brutal hate crime, a sequence is set in play that tests Buzzy and Kevin to their absolute limits in an epic struggle for survival in the Kentucky mountains.
Reeling from the death of his brother, Kevin comes to live with his grandfather in Kentucky for a summer. The town of Medger is small and is the sort of place where being different won’t just get you shunned, it’ll get you killed. Kevin makes friends with Buzzy Fink, and together they explore the nearby mountains, even while the big mining companies are threatening to destroy those same mountains forever.
This book just took me completely by surprise. I was definitely interested in The Secret Wisdom of the Earth when I started reading it, but I don’t think my idea of “coming of age tale in a Kentucky mining town” matched up with reality at all. Everything about this: the setting, the family dysfunction, the relationships, the storyline—it all came together and worked so well, in ways that I honestly had not anticipated at all.
The majority of the book, I’d say, is a slower-paced examination of a southern small town and how Kevin is finding a place there while he gets over his brother’s tragic death. Christopher Scotton’s prose and skill bring the setting and its atmosphere into excellent detail, and though The Secret Wisdom of the Earth does move along at the quickest of paces, it’s nevertheless a wholly engaging story, told through Kevin’s eyes.
However, the last third (or so) of the book sees a change, as Kevin, Buzzy, and Kevin’s grandfather go on a “Tramp” (known more commonly as a mountain backpacking trip). While the “Tramp” was remarkably different from the hazy town scenes, I liked it just as much, being the kind of person who frequently does overnight trips in the mountains as well. This, I thought, was something I could really identify with—crossing rivers, fishing, jumping into freezing cold lakes, watching the stars, getting shot at by hillbillies…okay, maybe not that last one. (Although one time I was backpacking through some Montana rancher’s land to get to a trailhead and he pulled a gun, and that was sketchy for a little bit.) Anyway. There was a lot of action in the final act of the novel that was pretty different in tone from what came before, but not in a way that felt like it didn’t match the rest of the book. The Secret Wisdom of the Earth is remarkably cohesive, and I think Scotton did a wonderful job bringing everything together. This book certainly lives up to it’s “coming of age tale” reputation.
And I think there’s just so much to be said for the expertise that the author brings to this novel. It’s not like these kind of gritty bildungsromane are too terribly rare. But Scotton’s fluid prose made this book truly special. This is only his debut, but he shows amazing ability and mastery of his craft, which is wonderful, both because it makes the story about a million percent better, but also because (hopefully) I’ll be able to look forward to more novels from him in the future.
Kevin’s story is an excellent one for readers who a) like small-town settings or b) enjoy coming of age tales. The Secret Wisdom of the Earth really shines in both those areas, and is also a testament to what superb writing can do for a story that’s already solid. Christopher Scotton’s debut is a book I very much enjoyed.
