The Unquiet Earth
Synopsis
Following her acclaimed 1987 novel Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina returns to the beautiful Appalachian mountains and the harsh hand-to-mouth existence of the coalminers trying to survive there in The Unquiet Earth.
Set in the mining shanty towns of West Virginia, this moving and passionate saga of family and community chronicles a disappearing way of life.
Dillon Freeman’s life journey takes him from Blackberry Creek to the distant battles of WWII. Back home, much has changed and he finds himself confronting the forces of the coal mining industry as a union organizer.
The heart, too, has its demands, and somehow in the shadow of the dying mines, Dillon, his secret love, Rachel, and her daughter, Jackie must find a new way of living. Buffetting their lives are the devastation of the Depression, the fearful pulse of battle, the dawning hope of the War on Poverty, and, ultimately, the untamable force of nature herself.
The Unquiet Earth is a bold and bittersweet story of unforgettable men and women, and the times that made them great.
First published 1992.
Hardback by W.W. Norton & Co, 367pp; paperback by Ivy Books (Ballantine), 352pp
Background
This is the novel about where I grew up. I have taken one liberty. The Buffalo Creek "flood" which destroyed an entire hollow in Logan County, West Virginia, occurred in 1972. It was not a "flood" in the normal sense, it was a dam break. A neglected coal impoundment gave way and destroyed an entire hollow, leaving thousand homeless and killing 125 men, women and children.
The Buffalo Creek "flood" was the heart of my young adulthood. It is the heart of The Unquiet Earth. In an earlier draft the flood occurs in its proper year, 1972. But such an event was too dramatic and destructive for the middle of the book; to conform to the shape of my novel, I moved it to the end. It is no great stretch. Despite some improvement in regulations, such a tragedy could still occur. We have had close calls in recent years, in Martin County, Kentucky, and in east Tennessee. A coal sludge dam run by an irresponsible company looms above a grade school in Boone County, West Virginia. It is only a matter of time.
In addition the coal industry is, unbelievably, leveling the oldest mountain chain in the world, the Appalachians. It is a horror that I find difficult to write about, difficult even to think about.
The coal industry is the most irresponsible, the most damaging, and the most destructive, in the United States. The Unquiet Earth attempts to show what it has been like to live under the dominance of the coal industry in the 20th century. The history of the 21st century is yet to be written. But I pray it includes the hasty demise of the coal industry.
What the critics said
"A flawless, fearless, great American story. It cuts a wide path through the worst and the best of what we are." —Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible
"This compelling saga starkly portrays the mining families' symbiotic, spiritual relationship with nature and their helplessness in dealing with the ruthless men who control their lives." —Publishers Weekly
"As big as it is brilliant." —Chicago Tribune
"Giardina continues to create believable characters and a vivid landscape of pain as the coal mining community disintegrates over time. Highly recommended." —Library Journal.
"Breathtaking ... A work of great narrative force, full of anger, wisdom and redemption, rendered with skill and authority." —The Washington Post Book World
The Unquiet Earth is the winner of the Lillian Smith Award for fiction (1992), Berea College's Weatherford Award (1992) and an American Book Award (1993).
Read an Excerpt
Click here: http://www.amazon.com/reader/0804111448/190-0847184-5003257?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_dp_ptu#reader-link
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