Also problematic: the backstory, the dialogue. Re-reading The Long Home at the same time did not help matters.
I read this staying in a little cabin in Mars Hill, though. In fact, I bought this at the little used bookshop in Weaverville. If there was ever a place to read it, that was it.
“I’ve always heard it’s a different world up here, and sometimes I wonder if it just might be. When I first came over from Henderson, I’d drive through this county and see signs and markers for towns like Mars Hill and places like Jupiter and all kinds of things like that, and I’d think, Jesus, Clem, how’d you end up here? But I’ll be damned if it’s not beautiful: these green fields where farms line the ridges and the spaces in between hide dark hollers and deep coves where the sunlight might not ever reach.”