Setting the Bar

I was really surprised to read the back of this book and learn that the author, Rachel Keener , was a law student. I think that law school, for me, was about learning how to think and write like a lawyer, which didn’t always mean exciting.

Anyways, The Killing Tree introduces us to Mercy Heron the summer after she has graduated from high school. She is 18, working at a diner, not going to college and living in her tiny, rural town in Appalachia.  She lives with her grandfather (Father Heron) and Mama Rutha, her grandmother and they are the mirror opposites of one another. Father Heron is domineering and seemingly cold, always worried about how the family will be viewed in the community and in the Church. Mama Rutha is a free spirit, what some in the town call crazy. They take care of Mercy, because her mother (their daughter), died giving birth to her under the apple tree in the backyard, after Father Heron refused to admit her to the home or get her help. She spends her days working and hanging out with Della and never considers leaving her home, until she meets Trout, a migrant worker, with whom she falls in love with. They end up keeping their relationship a secret, until she no longer can, and then she realizes that Father Heron will do everything in his power to make sure that she isn’t happy and that the family name is protected.

For a first book, this was amazing. It exposed me to “mining country.”  While I have lived in rural areas, I don’t think that they’re all the same in their character. I have never lived in Appalachia, so this opened my eyes up to some extent to the culture associated with that and with the migrant culture.  Keener did a masterful job in drawing her characters and developing, and didn’t indulge in stereotyping, which would have been easy to do (think Deliverance, the movie).  Keener also did a really good job in developing her themes, including the battle between socio-economic classes and the struggles that youth face in breaking away and becoming independent. I really enjoyed it and look forward for more from this author.

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