John Fox (2)

I read a book once in which one character told another that his mother only read one book in her whole life. The other said he did not think he could do that, books being so important to him. The first said he was not clear. His mother only read one book but when she finished it, she loved it so, she started it over again. That book was The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox Jr.. I set my own goal to one day read the book that so enthralled the woman. Written at the turn of the century, show more 19th to 20th the book is about a civil engineer who pioneers coal mining and iron smelting in the Appalachian country that borders Virginia and Kentucky. He meets and is enchanted by a young mountain girl. Every time I expected the story to take off in one direction, it headed in another. One interesting thing the book touched on, although it seemed oblivious to it, was the devastation coal mining and smelting wreak on an unsullied virgin environment and the impact that has on local lives. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of the lives of the people of the Kentucky mountains and the way that their lives changed as 'furriners' bring their own notions of law and order and civilisation into the area in the hunt for coal and iron ore. The book was a top seller in 1908 and 1909 and it's easy to see why: Fox's writing is descriptive without being verbose and his tale of warring clans in the mountains is easy to believe. I was a little disappointed with the way Dave's part of the story show more turned out (I felt Fox had run out of energy at that point), but otherwise thought it was a good read. show less

Audiobook......A sweet love story and some interesting historical fiction....This novel is set in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, and chronicles the transition of mountain dwellers from a time of little to no contact with the world at large to a time when the search for coal, the expansion of the rail system, and the influx of speculators changed everything. Family feuds and a sweet love story make it enjoyable as a story, and the history is informative, if not surprising.

You will fall in love with the hero and his heroine, I promise you. A genuine story. Might be the best story I've read this year.