Witches on the Road Tonight

November 15, 2010
Holman (The Dress Lodger) investigates a dynasty of fear, mysticism, guilt, and love, beginning in Depression-era Appalachia through to contemporary Manhattan, in her uneven but heartbreaking latest. In 1940, Eddie Alley is a shy boy living in rural Virginia with his mother, Cora, who is dogged by rumors of witchcraft. A visit from a writer and photographer from the WPA opens Eddie's eyes to the possibilities outside his tiny town, starting him on the path to becoming Captain Casket, a cartoonish TV horror movie presenter. But beneath Captain Casket's makeup and kitsch lurk secrets and tortures waiting to burst out. Holman dodges back and forth over a 70-year period, checking in on Eddie, Cora, Eddie's daughter Wallis, and homeless teenager Jasper, whom Eddie takes in and acts as a reluctant lynchpin for a tortuous familial would-be love triangle. Though the story flags in the middle section, it does recover in time to map out the devastating consequences of sin and circumstance that were forged in the hills of Appalachia and tumbled down through the generations.

October 15, 2010

When a WPA author and photographer visit Eddie Alley's rural Virginia home, he takes the opportunity to escape not just poverty but insinuations that his mother practices sorcery. Years later, as a popular television horror-movie presenter in New York, he's intent on helping a homeless youth--and notices to his chagrin that his daughter has grandmamma's witchy ways. Holman has drawn attention with The Dress Lodger, which sold 300,000 copies, and The Mammoth Cheese, shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Here, she continues to offer carefully observed social detail while getting interestingly edgy; this should break her out further by grabbing the attention of those craving a touch of the supernatural. Good for book groups (and there's a guide); with an eight-city tour.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011

This new novel by Holman (Mammoth Cheese) centers on Eddie Alley, raised by his mother in the mountains of rural Virginia during the Depression while his father works away from home. Cora isn't like other mothers--there are rumors that she's a witch. Their isolated life is disrupted when a writer and a photographer working for the WPA arrive in town. They open Eddie's eyes to the wider world, and eventually he leaves Virginia for New York and begins a career in television. Becoming Captain Casket, horror-movie host, he marries and has a daughter, Wallis. When Wallis is 12, the family takes in a troubled teenage boy who unsettles the normalcy of the Alleys and deeply affects Eddie and Wallis. Wallis becomes curious about her mysterious grandmother, and she and Eddie must step back into his strange childhood before they cope with their present. VERDICT Fans of Appalachian fiction and/or novels with supernatural themes should enjoy this eerie, often tense read. [See Prepub Exploded, BookSmack! 9/16/10.]--Shaunna Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll., VA

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2011

Past and present, reality and dreams, harsh truths and dangerous delusions mingle intriguingly in this unusual fourth novel from the versatile author of vivid historical and contemporary fiction (The Mammoth Cheese, 2003, etc.).

In a fragmented set of narratives that move back and forth between Virginia's Appalachian Mountains at the tail end of the Depression and the present day, Holman explores the repercussions of a country boy's relocation to New York City, and the grasp that his past retains, shaping both his own life and those of his chosen and estranged loved ones. When 12-year-old Eddie Alley is accidentally struck by a car and injured, he's thrust into a relationship with visiting WPA writer Tucker Hayes and the latter's wife (and companion photographer) Sonia. An encounter with Eddie's mother Cora, a locally renowned semi-recluse rumored to be a witch, changes Tucker's life forever. And the power of Cora (an Eternal Feminine figure depicted with impressive intensity) follows the others back north. Eddie, whom Tucker had introduced to the bizarre pleasures of classic horror films, finds the big city a welcoming environment and achieves success as a comic TV horror-movie host ("Captain Casket"), marries (Ann) and fathers a daughter (Wallis). But when a homeless teenaged boy (Jasper) enters Eddie's home, and his confused affections, it seems Cora will not be forgotten. Eddie's feelings toward and about his mother remain unresolved. And the witch woman's lingering aura haunts the imaginations and experiences of emotionally unstable Wallis, the eventually abandoned Ann and the sexually baffled Eddie, who will be further burdened by a steadily growing cancer (which is, sadly, much more than a metaphor). Holman tells this eerie tale with considerable skill, but it's flawed by too-numerous time shifts and the discrepancy between the vivid, flinty scenes set in 1940 and later scenes that appear pallid and strained by comparison.

Flawed but intriguing work from an estimable novelist who keeps extending her range and never fails to surprise and engage.

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