鈥淗ang the Moon鈥� by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
Jeannette Walls burst on the scene with her intensely personal memoir 鈥淭he Glass Castle鈥� in 2005. That book spent more than eight years on the hardcover and paperback bestseller lists and eventually became a 2017 movie starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.
This book, while fiction, borrows heavily from the histories of real people and events who lived during the Prohibition era in Virginia. The narrator, Sallie Kincaid, is the daughter of the most prosperous man in Claiborne County, who everyone calls 鈥淒uke.鈥� The heart of the story picks up with Sallie at almost age 18, when she moves back to the family estate after a decade in exile living with her poor aunt 鈥渋n the hollows鈥� of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her memories of the Duke are almost entirely positive, but the events of the novel quickly challenge that as the plot speeds along at a breakneck pace.
Before you know it the Duke is dead and Sallie stands to inherit the family business, which she鈥檚 long believed to be 鈥渄iversified holdings鈥� anchored by ownership of Caywood, Virginia鈥檚 general store. Turns out the real family money is in bootlegging, as Kincaid鈥檚 men buy illegal alcohol from family stills across the county and deliver it at a premium to desperate and thirsty customers as far away as Richmond and Roanoke. By novel鈥檚 end Sallie has a nickname, the Queen of the Kincaid Rumrunners, and her family relationships are almost entirely reconfigured.
In between, we spend a lot of time in Sallie鈥檚 head as she learns that almost nothing was what she thought it was when she was eight and the Duke affectionately called her 鈥渨hippersnapper.鈥� The plot twists and turns are a little abrupt at times, but it makes for a propulsive read. Characters come and go quicker than a swinging saloon door. There are old-school shootouts with Remington rifles, thrilling drives through the countryside, and of course, a love story.
Sallie鈥檚 voice is the best part of the book. 鈥淔or the love of God, the things this family keeps quiet about are the things that matter the most,鈥� thinks Sallie as the final pieces click into place about her true biography. Walls has created a character you root for, even as you question the morality of what she鈥檚 doing. Set in a time when American women had just earned the right to vote, 鈥淗ang the Moon鈥� goes down easy and just a little too fast, like the forbidden whiskey that defines the life of Sallie Kincaid.
Rob Merrill, The Associated Press
