Clark gets it just right. You just have to read it right through to the end to find out how the denizens of 'Jubilee', a tiny coal patch in the Pennsylvania Anthracite Fields survive the storm of newfound riches dropped in their laps, and the efforts of the greedy Spring Brook Coal Company to relieve them of it ... to say nothing of the always bewildered but perpetually opportunistic town fathers of the nearby villages and townships.

This is how it always was in these parts and the writer has a perfect ear for the odd, rough-and-ready vernacular of the area. We hear that hardly a pronoun begins with a 't' and 'this that these and those' are really 'dis dat dese and doze'. He gives full attention to 'jeepners pelts!', 'mizewell' (might as well) and the ubiquitous 'heyna'. He even includes a glossary at the end of this short novel.

As a former resident of this area, I can say that the book is authentic. I grew up in his "Kipling" and walked the one street of "Jubilee". By the time I finished reading, I myself was reverting to the old 'Coalcracracker' dialect, just as did the book's proper British lass who was sent to that rough area to investigate her company's part in the land transfer mixup.

The Jubilee conspirators are reminiscent of Steinbeck's 'Danny and the boys' of Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat. The saloon and wedding scenes and daily repartee are funny, but Clark leavens the mix with enough accounting of the hardscrabble life and dangerous nature of the region's once thriving work to make it real.

A good, too short read!

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(sfp)

See other reviews at the publisher's site, COALHOLE.COM.