Tear Down the Mountain: An Appalachian Love Story

Poverty and pipe dreams mark the lives of Sid Lore and Janet Hollar, the outsider couple—he, from Tennessee, she, unable to speak in tongues (the mark of a true believer in her Pentecostal church)—at the heart of Skipper's promising debut. A teenager when he moves to West Virginia's Union County, Sid spends the next decade trying to fit in, but a back injury prevents him from finding work that's anything above menial. The balance of power shifts when Janet becomes the breadwinner, emasculating an insecure Sid (her well-meaning anniversary gift to him of a cooking apron doesn't help). After years of struggling, they leave and spend 14 years in an unnamed city, where things are reliably bleak. His marriage on the rocks, Sid returns to Union County (Janet follows later, separately), where SUV-driving yuppies have scooped up cheap land and built luxury homes. Things, of course, end badly. Skipper's earthy prose helps paint a vivid picture of rough-hewn Appalachia, though the dialect can wear thin. This rocky romance will appeal to those who take it dark. (Sept.)