The Well and the Mine

Summary (from the publisher): "After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time. But I kept hearing the splash."

So begins The Well and the Mine, a magnificent debut novel set in 1930s Alabama. The place is Carbon Hill, a small coal-mining community, in the midst of the Depression. The Moore family, a loving brood of five, is better off than most, generous to their less fortunate neighbors. But darkness arrives at their doorstep when a mysterious woman throws a baby down the Moores' well, and the story slowly unfolds, through the alternating voices of nine-year-old Tess (who witnessed the crime); her older sister, Virgie; her brother, Jack; and her parents, Albert and Leta.

The mystery of the baby and why the Moores' well was the chosen location for its disposal is the catalyst of this intimate novel -- the splash whose ripples widen to reveal a community divided by race and class. The revelation of this shadowy side of life in Carbon Hill is leavened by the awakening conscience of a family that survives adversity with pluck and determination. In her first novel, Phillips has found beauty, depth, and the promise of salvation in one strong Southern clan.

 

Review: Set in 1930s Alabama, this story is told from the perspectives of the Moore family: father and coal miner Albert, mother Leta, daughters Virgie and Tess, and son Jack. In alternating voices, the family details their life during the Depression, and their experience after a baby was thrown into their well. In particular, nine-year-old Tess is bothered by the baby's death and her subsequent realizations of the darker side of life, one filled with hardship and death that her parents have largely shielded her from. "She kept kicking her feet against the bales like it was normal to have babies lying in the backyard. Normal to have death coming up with the grass, up with the sun, up with the water bucket" (193).

 

Overwhelmingly, the Moores display themselves, and are viewed by those in the community, as good people. They do what they can for others who are even worse off than they are. Leta constantly refuses food so her children have enough to eat. Albert is deeply troubled by the way black miners are treated. Tess is troubled by her growing realization that other children in her town lead lives full of too much work and too little play.

 

This novel demonstrates that good can triumph over terrible circumstances and that seemingly unforgivable acts can merely be desperate choices by good people. If anything, my only complaint with this novel is that the main family appears too good. They seem to be viewed by the community as wholly good: "That your sister's real pretty. That your mama and papa give away to anybody that comes askin', that they're big on goin' to church, good people. Your papa don't never talk down to us or act like he's better than us" (228).

 

Although I liked the Moores - I liked their story, their family, their time period, and the way they interacted with each other and others - yet I felt like the plot of this novel failed to arc or come to a fitting conclusion. Throughout, son Jack's perspective jumps forward in time to reveal the family's contemporary existence, but no explanation is given to why Jack is chosen to jump forward in time and the girls aren't, particularly since Tess seems more central to the plot than anyone else. Yet overall a good debut full of incredibly likeable and respect worthy characters.

 

Stars: 3