Review of "Coal Run: A Novel" by Tawni O'Dell

 

The book's main protagonist, Ivan Zoschenko, has had a difficult life.



Ivan grew up in Coal Run, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania.



In 1967, when Ivan was six-years-old, a mine explosion killed 96 men, including the boy's father - an immigrant from Ukraine. Ivan's mother carried on alone, doing her best to raise Ivan and his younger sister Jolene. It's hard growing up without a dad, but Ivan did well in the circumstances.



Ivan grew up to be a high school football star.....



.....and his beautiful sister Jolene became a pageant winner - many many pageants.



Both Ivan and Jolene might have benefitted from more parental guidance, because the football celebrity prided himself on seducing as many girls as he could.....



.....and Jolene, who's still single, had three sons with three different men.



Ivan played football in college, and Just as he was about to join the Chicago Bears, the athlete's leg was damaged in a freak accident. Ivan then moved to Florida, where he lived for 16 years, drinking heavily and supporting himself as an exterminator.



Now thirtysomehting Ivan has returned to Coal Run, drawn back by the news that a fellow high school football player, a universally hated bully called Reese Raynor, is being released from prison.



Right around the time of Ivan's accident, Reese beat his young wife so badly she became a vegetable, and Ivan was, and still is, incensed about the incident. Ivan knows Reese will cause trouble when he gets out, and Ivan means to do something about it.

Though Ivan's football career was cut short, he's still a superstar in Coal Run, and the sheriff makes him a deputy. Ivan is lackadaisical about the job, drinks on duty, and usually wears only half his uniform - which isn't necessarily spotless.



Ivan's life experiences may have enhanced his empathy, however, because the deputy tries to help malefactors rather than locking them up, especially since Ivan knows most of them from childhood. Ivan's personal life is a mess though. He has no apartment, bunks on Jolene's couch, and often gets so drunk he sleeps in his truck.

Ivan's ties to Coal Run include Jolene and her three boys;



Ivan's mother, who works as a care facility administrator;



the town doctor, who provides free care to families, especially children, who have no medical insurance;



and Ivan's former neighbor Val Claypool, who lost a leg in Vietnam.



Ivan also happens to meet meet an attractive woman surgeon who works in Coal Run, and he's instantly infatuated. (I'll admit, my first and ongong thought was, what would this successful woman want with a drunk who has no prospects.)



As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that a dark secret has drawn Ivan back to Coal Run, and the truth is revealed little by little.

The family ties that bind the Zoschenko family are heart-warming, and Ivan's demons are convincing and sad. However, I didn't much like Ivan. His arrogance in high school was off-putting (to put it mildly), and his conviction that he should be with the doctor, just because he's sttracted to her, smacks of male entitlement at its worst.

That said, though, this is a compelling, well-written story. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars