Charles Dodd White

Great characters, a wonderful sense of place (Appalachia) and prose that is original and elegant: A Shelter of Others has a lot going for it. It is a story of thoughtful – if laconic – people, mostly down on their luck, locked into a gritty landscape and attempting to make their way in a world complicated by dark currents seemingly beyond their control. There's a lot going on here, that in the hands of a lesser writer might have become muddied and/or contrived at the end, but White show more manages to make it all work, and the very end, the post-denouement, seemed just right. In A Shelter of Others White treads some of the same ground as Ron Rash, Rusty Barnes and Breece Pancake, to name a few of my favorites, but he does it with his own unique voice and sensibility. show less

''Searching for something wise exacts a debt. You can see this in the books of people who live toward their stories. In writing the hurt we take on is a part of the larger hurt about the good struggles of strong people. If this is not what we should strive to tell, then what? "

A Year Without Months comprises of 14 essays dealing with family and loss. Central to the story is the death of the author’s father, uncle and son. What is remarkable is that they all committed suicide. So you might show more expect the author to wallow in self pity. That doesn’t happen and these memoirs are an odyssey of sorts, as the author candidly tries to make sense of it all.
The family history is fascinating and messy. His father was never on the scene and his mother struggled to cope. White was largely raised by his grandparents and his uncle. The exploration of his fractured relationship with his mum is never far from the surface

"Something in her has never fully developed, caught in a version of the past that only she can recognize, and I have never been able to meet her where she is. I still wonder who has been more injured by this "


I’ve not read too many memoirs, but this is head and shoulders above the rest. The prose are stunning, I cannot recall ever reading a book and being so impressed by the writing. It's gone straight onto my favourite shelf.
‘The Cabin’ and ‘Bethlehem Bottoms' could both be read as Southern Gothic short stories, although my favourite essay was probably ‘Southern Man’.

It’s a profoundly moving read. The last page and a half left me breathless. Ron Rash summarises it perfectly:

‘’Many books linger forever in our minds. Only a few also linger forever in our hearts, and this is one of them’’ show less

This was my first encounter with the writing of Charles Dodd White, and it was an experience I hope to repeat soon. His pacing is perfect. He uses a staccato style that causes your heart to race as the tension builds, and you feel as caught in the whirlpool of events as the poor characters themselves.

Lavada Laws is a good woman, who has chained her life to a bad man, we immediately assume so, because Mason Laws is in prison and she has been left with the full care of his father, Sam, who is show more suffering from dementia. One of the sweetest scenes, and perhaps one of the scariest for me, was one in which Sam wanders out into the frigid night and is retrieved by Lavada. He calls her “daughter” and the relationship between them is poignant.

One of the things White gets right is Sam and his state of mind and Lavada’s reaction to it. There is nothing simple about a person succumbing to dementia, and there is nothing consistent about it either.

There were always bumps, but this seemed different somehow. As if he inhabited a twin of himself in some approximate place, not absent so much as simply attentive elsewhere, obedient to a duality unknown to her. She supposed it frightened her, though that might not have been the right word. Confused, maybe.

Without giving away any spoilers, Mason is released from prison and returns to Lavada’s world, and the repercussions are neither what Lavada expects nor what the reader expects. In fact, there is little predictable in this novel, but everything we read is frighteningly believable.

There is total unrest in each of White’s characters. No one here is settled, contented or happy. There is too much uncertainty in this environment, and the beauty of the mountains that surround them is tempered with the knowledge of the dangers they can hold. No one is leading an easy life in this place, for both nature and the people of the community are as hard as stone, and peace is something only wished for.

He wanted to be blessed with an animal brain. Oh, to be silent for a moment in the gaze of the blank sky.

Even Lavada's dreams of her grandmother are stark and sad and lack comfort. In fact, like a mirror of the daily life she leads, in her dreams she finds nothing substantial to hold onto.

It was a counterfeit of a face really, a strange wronging of features, the paralyzed remnants after the second stroke. Lavada wanted to take her hands and pass them across the tangled muscles, iron the sickness away. When she reached for her, the old woman slackened, her inner form giving way so that the skin left behind was as light and drawn as a wish.

If you enjoy Southern Gothic literature, Charles Dodd White’s voice is one you will not want to miss. He will transport you to Appalachia and show you the bones of a life that demands more strength than courage, more perseverance than hope, and he will make you wish justice were not such a fickle commodity. show less

From the book jacket - Following his release from prison, Mason Laws returns to the mountains of his youth where his estranged wife, Lavada, has been caring for his ailing father in Mason’s absence. As Mason and Lavada each set forth to recover themselves, they remain entrenched in the rural and rugged landscape that bore them and their own haunted histories.

My reactions
I had read blurbs that compared White’s writing to Ron Rash’s, and I’m a fan of the latter, so was looking forward show more to this novel. Talk about Southern Gothic! This is a dark story, where the characters are greatly affected by (and seemingly unable to avoid) forces greater than themselves.

None of them – Mason, Lavada, Sam (Mason’s Dad), Irving or Cody – seems able to overcome or even avoid their history. They are compelled to behave in ways that are counterproductive to success, and consequences of past actions (of their own or others) are inescapable.

White’s writing has some powerful images, but the book is light on dialogue and I found this frustrating in places. I wanted more interaction between the players, but I think I understand why the author chose to minimize this; the style forces the reader to acknowledge the kind of circumstances and confluence of “powers beyond our control” that can influence the characters.
However, I thought this approach resulted in less character development since much of their interaction was missing. I never understood Lavada’s actions or why she did not speak up to correct the assumptions made by others.

White also switches perspective frequently, telling the story from alternating character’s point of view. This serves to keep the reader slightly off balance, while also giving the reader more information than the individual characters might have. We see the train wreck coming before the characters even know there are railroad tracks near. show less