Coal Run

Synopsis: a former football hero returns to his small coal mining town in PA, thinking to mete out justice to a wife-beater who is just getting out on parole. A wide variety of local characters are portrayed compassionately, helping us see them as worthy humans despite the hard times they are going thru.O'Dell has packed much wisdom into her tale. Yes, the protagonist drinks too much, which generally makes me dislike them, but you can feel the burden of guilt he is under and his struggle to do right. This book brings you in at the time of the resolution of years of avoidance, and Ivan's confrontation with his past is informed by a recognition of the simple human acts of goodness that create a community. One thing that is missing is more scenes where we see Ivan performing those same acts himself. We read about other people admiring him, and having a good opinion of him, but since we mostly read about his own self doubts and escapes into drinking, we just have to take it on faith that he is the kind of person others like to be around.hmmm...I'm not sure my review has made this seem like an enticing book to read, but it truly is. I've marked passages to return to --one of my criteria for a good book.

A New York Times Bestselling Author. A Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate Selection. Coal Run is a community of ghosts and memories, where a mining explosion that caused the deaths of so many men and the transformation of their families still reverberates a generation later. Driven by the same raw energy, humor, suspense, and compassion for a place and way of life so evident in O'Dell's. New York Times bestseller Back Roads. Coal Run is a story about lett of the goals of greatness for the ordinary grace of good work, family love, and acceptance of where you come from.

O'Dell certainly knows her subject matter. As a member of a family historically connected with the Pennsylvania coal mines and as one who still visits family members in the remains of a town that once ran on coal, I can attest to the fact that the feeling of this novel is right. Hate them or love them, the characters are true. The devistation of being forgotten by the world is subtly present in each, and in each manifests itself differently. Drinking, running away, having sex, fighting, and reaching out to others are a few of the many ways in which they cope. Many of these elements make them outcasts to a more morally judgemental world, but their tragedies are, in the end, what tie them to each other, and in a strange way, create the community that keeps them going. The audiobook was excellent. Highly recommended.

This novel deeply moved me & I'm not sure I can put into words why that was the case, but I found myself drawn in from nearly the beginning and it kept getting better after that. O'Dell used just the right combination of history, flashback, foreshadowing, & character development to really suck me in. Beautifully written. I have two other O'Dell novels on my bookshelf that I greatly look forward to delving into after immensely enjoying this one.

Depressing story about the aftermath of a coal mine collapse.

I felt this book was a big step forward from her promising first novel Backroads. As with Backroads, the strength of Coal Run is the deep understanding and compassion O'Dell has for the struggles of her characters and the hard-scrabble communities in Western Pennsylvania coal country that they come from. But in this book, O'Dell develops much deeper, and to me at least, more appealing themes of collective memory, courage and redemption. Although the ending felt to me just a bit abrupt and tidy, this book rewards with much beauty and wisdom.