The Bent Page

One of my favorite authors is Tawni O’Dell. She’s written three books, Back Roads, Coal Run, and Sister Mine. She’s from the western part of Pennsylvania and her stories all take place there, an area I happen to be familiar with as well.

What impresses me most about O’Dell’s stories is her authenticity of voice. Her characters are real, not only in the context of the fictional world she creates, but also in the here and now reality in which we live and breathe. In Back Roads, her lead character is a young man (teenager really) named Harley, who is slowly going down the tubes as his disintegrating family continues to fall apart around him. He struggles with the cards he’s been dealt and does his best, never getting a break, never finding what he needs. And yet there is a sort of grace to the ending of the story. A reader who doesn’t feel for Harley and his family and the people of his community might want to check for a pulse.

Similarly, in Coal Run, O’Dell brings us a washed up college football hero whose father was killed in a coal mine explosion. This event haunts the community and the lead character, Ivan. He has his bitter moments, his lusts for women and a better life, but he is grounded in this community of miners. O’Dell puts the reader inside this world to the point where you can feel the coal grit under your finger nails. You understand Ivan, his longings and his ultimate redemption because O’Dell is capable of making you believe in these characters.

Sister Mine is a different book from the first two. It’s something of a cautionary tale with more humorous events and more hope. The lead character is an ex-cop from D.C. who returns to her hometown as a cab driver of all things. Through this device she romps among the townspeople. Her sister shows up, involved in a baby selling scam that goes haywire. It works out with some laughs, a few close calls, and plenty of joy, which is welcome variety.

All in all, O’Dell will surely have a long career writing novels. I anxiously await the next one and hope she stays with this familiar territory. A writer with less talent would have run out of words by now. Not O’Dell. She knows how to put them together in a satisfying and enlightening manner. I only wish some other writers would work this hard.