by Julia Blakeney
I picked up Mesha Maren’s debut novel Sugar Run just as I was finishing a semester-long study of Cormac McCarthy’s work. McCarthy’s Appalachian novels are some of the most wonderfully written books I have read in a long time. Once the class was over, though, I really felt like I wasn’t done with this niche genre of fiction. So, I started looking for similar novels, set in Appalachia, to read to fill the gap. Luckily, Sugar Run jumped out at me from a stack of advance readers.
This novel certainly gave me what I was looking for. With a fantastically driven plot, compelling prose, and beautiful descriptions of that unique, rural, mountainous region of West Virginia, this novel was really hard to put down. I found myself carving time to read this novel into every moment of my day, something I haven’t done with a novel (one not for school) in a long time.
One of the most compelling things about this book was the charged atmosphere in which the protagonist Jodi McCarty finds herself once she returns to her hometown after 18 years in prison. One of her brothers has resorted to selling drugs to make ends meet. He asks Jodi to hide drugs for him–first bribing her with money, then using blackmail to force her to do so. Jodi herself has trouble finding work, since no one wants to hire a convicted felon. She has no money to buy back her grandmother’s land that was sold out from under her while she was in prison. An oil company is also fracking on the mountain, which pollutes the water and drives people away. All of this is a recipe for disaster for Jodi as she struggles to acclimate to life outside of prison.
As Maren alternates between Jodi’s life before and after prison, I became engrossed in her story. I looked forward to reading each new chapter and uncovering each new discovery in Jodi’s and other characters’ pasts that Maren has to share with me. I loved this book from beginning to end: from Jodi’s determination to make a life for herself and save her family land from fracking, to the secrets Maren reveals at a slow pace, this novel is raw and compelling, as well as an interesting representation of how the working class struggles to make a living in the early 2000s in West Virginia.
Mesha Maren will be at Lemuria on Tuesday, January 15, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and read from Sugar Run.
Comments are closed.