Kings of the Earth

Starred review from May 10, 2010
In Clinch’s multilayered, pastoral second novel (after Finn), a death among three elderly, illiterate brothers living together on an upstate New York farm raises suspicions and accusations in the surrounding community. After their beloved mother, Ruth, dies, Audie, considered mentally "fragile," is devastated, but goes on tending to the Carversville farm with his brothers Vernon and Creed. When Vernon, frail at 60 and not under a doctor’s care, dies in his bed with evidence of asphyxiation, Creed is interrogated by troopers, along with Audie, the brother closest to Vernon. Family histories and troubles are divulged in short chapters by a cacophony of characters speaking in first person. Secrets and hidden alliances are revealed: Vernon’s nephew, Tom, grew and sold marijuana, which the family used medicinally; the brothers endured painful, bloody haircuts administered by their father. Alongside the police troopers’ investigation, each player contributes his own personal perspectives and motivations, including allusions to homosexual behavior. Inspired by the Ward brothers (of the 1992 documentary My Brother’s Keeper), Clinch explores family dynamics in this quiet storm of a novel that will stun readers with its power.

November 1, 2010

The three Proctor brothers raise dairy cattle in upstate New York. For decades they have neither laundered nor bathed, and their stench is legendary. When one of them dies suspiciously in the bed they share, the law steps in, so it's just a matter of time before the marijuana operation their nephew runs gets discovered. Clinch's (www.jonclinch.com) Faulknerian second novel follows the American Library Association Notable Book Finn (2007), also available from Recorded Books, and features asynchronous storytelling, multiple points of view, a rural setting, and some degraded, nearly subhuman characters. Multiple narrators voice the different folk in sections sometimes as short as a single line. Either darkly comic or relentlessly depressing, depending on one's perspective; a good bet for literary fiction enthusiasts. [The Random hc received a starred review, LJ 4/15/10.--Ed.]--John Hiett, Iowa City P.L.

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