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Kevin Canty is the author of four novels and three short story collections and has been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, and the New York Times Magazine. He currently teaches at the University of Montana in Missoula.
The Underworld
by Kevin Canty
eBook
$20.98
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ISBN-13:
9780393293067
- Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
- Publication date: 03/07/2017
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 256
- File size: 386 KB
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For readers of Russell Banks and Richard Ford, a novel about loss, love, and redemption following a catastrophe in a small mining town.
In The Underworld, Kevin Canty tells a story inspired by the facts of a disastrous fire that took place in an isolated silver mining town in Idaho in the 1970s, in which almost everyone in town lost a friend, a lover, a brother, or a husband. The Underworld imagines the fates of a handful of fictional survivors and their loved ones—Jordan, a young widow with twin children; David, a college student trying to make a life for himself in another town; Lionel, a lifelong hard-rock miner—as they struggle to come to terms with the loss. It’s a tough, hard-working, hard-drinking town, a town of whores and priests and bar fights, but nobody’s tough enough to get through this undamaged. A powerful and unforgettable tale about small-town lives and the healing power of love in the midst of suffering.Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
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The New York Times Book Review - Marc Bojanowski
…an excellent and terse account of a devastating mine fire in Idaho in 1972…Canty keeps his descriptions to a minimum, depending instead on taut stretches of introspection and screenplay-ready dialogue to reveal characters acting against their own best interests…Whether in his portrait of the young woman stacking cans of pumpkin pie filling when news of the accident comes, or the divorced miner scrubbing himself clean of arsenic and creosote grime in a hot shower the morning after a long night shift, Canty honors labor and thoughtfully challenges the commitment the townspeople make to the thing that is so clearly ruining them.New York Times Book Review
An excellent and terse account of a devastating mine fire in Idaho in 1972. . . . taut stretches of introspection and screenplay-ready dialogue [reveal] characters acting against their own best interests. . . . Canty honors labor and thoughtfully challenges the commitment the townspeople make to the thing that is so clearly ruining them.BookPage
Canty’s care with prose recalls Raymond Carver, and his empathy for the common man extends a bloodline that reaches back to the likes of John Steinbeck and William Saroyan. . . . Canty has a gift for turning the commonplace into the extraordinary by asking the right questions and allowing the truth to unfold. Seattle Times
Canty’s real genius lies in his subtly drawn depiction of the emotional and psychological landscape of this 'big incomprehensible thing.'Booklist
[P]olished, deeply empathetic. . . . Canty’s controlled, spare prose provides an ideal vehicle for excavating these emotional depths. . . His sculpted, lapidarian cadence deftly navigates the terrain separating numbness and pain . . . to illuminate the fragility and preciousness of life.San Francisco Chronicle
If you haven't spent an evening or two in the grand company of Kevin Cant;y's work, now is your time to start. . . . Canty's chosen genre is fiction, but he peddles truth.David Gates
Any writer will admire and envy his deft management of a range of characters and storylines… Any reader will empathize with his sometimes flawed, sometimes valiant people, as they wrestle with the perplexities of social class, family, and love.Brad Watson
Canty writes with uncanny insight into the unspeakable beauty of life itself.Antonya Nelson
A timely reminder of the tremendously complicated questions communities in the American West face. And faced. And will face. These are superbly drawn people in an impeccably told tale, a perfect storm and novel.Deborah Reed
The Underworld pierces with busted hearts, broken families, and the gristly days of work and drink that bind them. A lovely, melodic, and unsparing look at small-town life in the West.”Dean Bakopoulos
Epic and intimate, this exquisitely sculpted novel is haunted by collective grief—not only the soul-damage it inflicts on a place but also the way it can lead us to unexpected redemption and new kinds of love.Dan Chaon
[Canty] is one of my favorite contemporary writers because of his amazing gift for character and image. . . .The Underworld is among his best work. Brutal and delicate, hilarious and totally heartbreaking. Like Charon, Canty makes a great ferryman into uncharted territory.”School Library Journal
10/01/2017Loosely inspired by a real-life tragedy in 1972 Idaho, the novel follows several characters who dream of escaping life in a small town where men are expected to work in the mine and women to marry miners and have children. When a fire devastates the town, the characters grapple with change and loss. David, a young man obtaining a degree in a nearby city, is drawn back home even as he attempts to break free, and must find a way to support his parents while also realizing his dreams. Canty adroitly conveys the various perspectives and mental anguish of the richly drawn cast of characters. Teens will identify with David's longing to carve out his own path. VERDICT Fans of emotional, character-driven stories will appreciate this powerful read.—April Sanders, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL