"Strange as this Weather Has Been"

Let me tell you something before you go on and read this, thinking it's a run-of-the-mill review:
It's not.
I'm not gonna summarize it (go to this page if that's what you're looking for) or sing praises to it (okay, maybe I might do that a little); I just want to point out a few things....

Ann Pancake's novel, Strange as this Weather Has Been, is real, sad, and strong in so many ways that it's still flipping around in my head with me trying to get a good look at all of it.

Mountaintop removal -strip mining at its worst- is the backdrop of this novel set in southern West Virginia.

As usual, the folks who have lived in these hills for generations are being fucked three ways to Sunday by the coal companies (with the help of their bought-and-paid-for-politicians).

What is important here is that it's NOT historical fiction. This is happening NOW. Yes, really. RIGHT NOW.

That whole coal-company-fucks-local-folks-and-destroys/steals-everything-they-own (and then some) scenario was just something from history class, right?

Nope. It's still happening, only on a grander scale.

Near as I can tell, the facts of mountaintop removal are set out pretty clear and true. There is no ranting and raving or exaggeration. This is true. This is really happening. This book gives us an up-close view of what it really means. (The cover art is pretty darn cool, too.) You can learn more over at ilovemountains.org or Ann has a longer list of resources on her main page.

Mountaintop removal is disgraceful, but it couldn't be a novel all by itself, now could it?

Jayne Anne Phillips says, "Ann Pancake is Appalachia’s Steinbeck..."

That's a pretty strong sentiment, but I think I might just agree.

The family that centers this story is real. These are characters people who will live and breath for a very long time, just like the Joads. However, unlike the Joads, this family doesn't pick up and leave to seek something better, at least not as a whole and functioning unit.

If you're from West Virginia (does this phenomenon extend throughout Appalachia?), then I don't have to explain to you what I'm talking about. For those of you who are not, I'll try a cursory explanation: There's just something about West Virginia, some deep connection between the people and the place. Even if you've moved off and managed to make a go of it, likely you'd move back home in a minute if you could (could generally means a comparable job/income). Ann Pancake does a fantastic job of weaving this into the story; it's a major factor for a lot of us, whether we live here or not: moved away and came back (or moved away and can't wait to come back).

This bond to the land is a very real phenomenon; I don't know a native West Virginian who'd tell you any different.

Add to the mix a minimum wage job at the Dairy Queen and four kids and you're starting to get the idea.

There is no melodrama or bullshit. This isn't someone's made up fantasy land. This stuff is real.

It was the no-bullshit writing that drew me in, but it was the honest use of language that kept me in. The words and word order (word arrangements?) made me feel at home, like setting on the porch and listening to Gramma tell one of her stories, the lightning bugs flashing in the yard and the heat lightning off in the high clouds up over the hills.

I think Ann Pancake has succeeded in showing me the value of how we talk.

That's a big statement (even bigger, for me, than naming her Steinbeck), so let me back up and explain a little bit.

I have always claimed West Virginia as my 'Where are you from?' answer no matter where I went. I've always been proud to be from West Virginia, even when (maybe I should say 'especially when') folks asked me about outhouses and indoor plumbing. (Yes, I've really been asked about outhouses and indoor plumbing. Not just once or twice, either.) With that said, I also have to tell you that there's been an awful lot of times that I felt as if I were treated as less of a person because I'm from West Virginia. I never considered changing my answer, no matter how long I lived somewhere else, but I did change my speech. I got to the place (it didn't take long) where I considered it highly important to speak correctly - neutral accent, proper grammar, and no syllable dropping (You try saying something 'hillbilly' in front of a group of sophisticated, urbane folks and see if they don't drop right out of their polite airs and poke fun at you. I kid you not).

Avoiding ridicule in any form was a good motivator to change my speech patterns, but the most important reason -for me- was to 'set a good example.' Like saying, "I'm from West Virginia and I speak correctly" which, I suppose, is just a nice way of saying "I'm not a hick like you think I must be when you have to ask did I grow up with running water."

Writing this down makes it sound kinda' lame or embarrassing or...I don't know... something, but the fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of ignorance floating around about West Virginia (it can't be all bad, though, because it's kept a lot of folks out that we wouldn't want here anyway).

Okay, there's a lot more to write on this subject, but I'll leave it for now and come back around to what I mean about this novel. Ann uses our way of talking in a useful way. That's not saying it well, but I'm not sure how to say it. She uses our speech patterns as a way to make this work real. There is no ridicule, only truth.

Let me try again: She has shown me, in a new way, the value of our unique way of speaking. It's as if by validating our 'talk,' I have a new appreciation for our culture. It's like taking the 'history' out of 'culture & history' and plopping 'culture' right down in the here and now.

It feels as if my need to show other folks that I'm an intelligent, valid human being -West-by-God-Virginian - has been replaced by a need to get over the need to prove anything (and that always feels good).

This way of talking and being is mine -ours- and there's not a damn thing wrong with it.

I feel like it's a new freedom that leaves me open to write in a way that feels more real.

Yeah, this book really did that.

More Reading and Writing (Seeking)

This post was going to be a book review, but I got a bit (ha!) off track and so, since it's my blog, I'm just gonna keep on babbling about reading and writing.

I'll get to the book review eventually.

If you read my last post, you know that I have little patience for reading crappy novels. After I gave up 'Free' as a reason for reading a book, I started to comb through yard sale boxes and library sales for classics. If the truth be told, 'Free' was still (still is) a good reason to take it home with me, but well worn paperbacks often cost as much as 10¢ or 25¢ (it adds up quick).

I spent several years reading everything of value from the last century. I've been through quite a few stages of reading progression (don't worry - I won't get into all of them today), but this period of reading the classics was slowed dramatically (now mind you, 'slowed' -not stopped) when a good friend with way more education than me caught me reading The Scarlet Letter.

S, who is not only an astute reader, but also has a highly functioning brain, a sharp wit, and a degree in English (not to mention the post-graduate degree), asked me, "Why are you reading that?"

"Why wouldn't I read that?" was the first response that popped into my head. However, I must admit I was embarrassed. Not necessarily because I was reading that particular book, but more probably by the fact that I felt she was implying that I was wasting my time. Again.

(Remember that's what I was trying to avoid by reading the classics in the first place. I may have been better off - hell, I would probably still be better off- if I invested my money in some formal education. However, that comes with a price tag far bigger than the few nickels and dimes I was spending on my fumbling self-education. I feel a tangent coming on, but I will try and get back to the topic at hand....)

S, as usual, cut right to it with her next question: "What do you hope to learn from reading that?"

And, really, this was the million dollar question, wasn't it? Isn't it still? Because that's what it's about for me. That's what it's still about: What can I learn from reading this?

Don't write me off as a total book-snob, though, because I still read every book Stephen King publishes and truly believe in the value (and, yes, necessity) of entertainment. I don't like to read boring books and isn't that what entertainment is - the opposite of boredom?

**(I have to allow a small tangent here to say I've been very disappointed in your last two publications, Steve. At what point can you publish without slashing a third of what you write [I could be wrong -I'm not going to go look it up right now- but didn't you repeat {somewhere in On Writing} the sage advice of hacking a bunch of shit out of the way to get to the real, page-turning, keep-you-up-at-night story? What happened to that?] and just leave all the crap in there because your publishers know that you're gonna sell a million-gajillion copies no matter what's between the covers? Perhaps a part of it is all that crap makes the book bigger? Bigger book = higher retail price? Hell, I always buy one, but write a few more time-wasters and that'll be the end of my support.)**

Another important aspect of reading is identification. Personal connection. Yep, we're still talking entertainment here, but we're also talking education. Isn't that how we learn? Or maybe the question should be 'Isn't that how we learn the best (the fastest, the most efficiently)?' or maybe 'Isn't that the information we seek out?'

If we connect to a topic - if there is something personal, some connection to us as a real, multi-dimensional person, then doesn't that give us some extra tie to the topic at hand and, therefore, a 'want' of the subject?

Kids always are asking, 'Why do I have to do this?' They SHOULD ask. Who gives a shit about sentence diagramming (To all of you grammarians: sorry, but I HATED diagramming sentences and I still find no use for the minutiae of sentence destruction and labeling in my life, even the writing part of my life.) when you can dive into a whole story and rip it apart?

But, for the record: Yep, all that math has come in handy. Even some of that geometry crap comes into use every once in a while. a² + b² = c² really does help when you have to square a building to lay it out right, or to build a wall or a window or whatever.

But the point is -before I lose it in another digression- finding a personal connection to the subject matter not only makes things more interesting, but also more worthwhile and valuable because they're meaningful.

I suspect good teachers already know this, but again, with my awkward, groping, fits-and-starts education, I just realized this about 4 or 5 years ago. Being away from West Virginia played a big part in that (that's a-whole-nother post or two or three...) realization, but without going into details (right now), that brings us to my current mode of reading (seeking): Anything about West Virginia, fiction or non-fiction. West Virginia can be the setting, the topic, or the home state of the author, as long as it is connected to home.

I just got started (relatively) with this method of seeking (reading, learning) and I'm pleased to find I have a lot of work ahead of me to even begin to feel like I'm making a dent into the works of West Virginia writers and writings. There are years worth of personal connections just sitting and waiting on me. (Yay!)

All this brings me to what I originally intended to do today: A book review.

I'm going to start another post, though, so I don't have to fight with the pictures....

Reading and Writing

When I was younger I would read anything I could get my hands on. Yep, I did read a lot of crap that way, but it caused me to pick stuff apart and figure out what made it crap (or not). What makes this one take me two weeks to read (and read three other better books at the same time) when this one over here I couldn't put down and stayed up all night to finish? Why do these characters live on in my head for a couple of weeks when these others never even took a deep breath? What is it about that scene that makes me remember it every time the wind blows whistly around that paint-flaking window pane in the basement? What gave this a sleek polished feeling while this one has rough-edges? Was that the intent? Does it add to or take away from the whole?
Anyway, you get the idea. And if you're a reader, you're probably nodding your head, maybe sucking in your bottom lip, and thinking about the first book you put down and never finished because it wasn't worth your time. I remember mine. I was working the night shift and, while that probably was partly to blame for my short attention span, for the first time ever I put a book down and didn't pick it back up.
I had no interest in reading another schlocky novel that didn't have something to say or, at the least, some entertainment value. I don't remember the book or the author, but what I do remember is getting to Chapter 2 and I'd just walked down a street with too many adjectives and walked with a fancy-shmancily dressed lady with a flowery umbrella. I walked up the steps to her porch and into her house and nothing had happened and I just didn't give a shit about the lady or about where she lived or what she did or anything else.
Plus, I was wet because she didn't share her umbrella. Okay, not really, but I just didn't give a shit. I was sick of reading shit and I remember thinking that if I was going to learn what made a good book, then I'd better set the shit aside and seek out the good stuff.
This realization, plus the fact I had a tracheotomy to clean, a couple of stomach tubes to replace, an order to insert a urinary catheter, a serious case of sleep deprivation, morning meds and report to get through all combined to make me realize I didn't have time to waste - especially not on an uninteresting, crappy novel.
That was the beginning. I've become even more (nit)picky since then (hard to believe, huh?).

The point in all this?
I'm feeling rather bloggity today and I have some time this morning (time created through procrastination, mainly). So, if you've a mind to stick it out with me a bit, we'll see where this is going....

I need to add, too, that I have very little patience for formatting pictures into posts. Usually I just deal with it and do it anyway, but not today. Today I'll just make multiple posts. Patience may be required. :)