Jeannette Walls' memoir The Glass Castle (1994), is about her wildly dysfunctional childhood, her unfit parents, and her family's constant flight from bill collectors.
When I started Walls' novel 'Hang The Moon' I thought it would be the tale of a family like the author's, but it's not. The book, set in the Prohibition Era, revolves around the Kincaid family, whose patriarch, 'the Duke', is the big cheese in the town of Caywood, in Claiborne County, Virginia.
The Duke's father, who was called the Colonel, was a wily businessman who - after the Civil War - amassed a good amount of acreage in Claiborne County. This was the beginning of the Kincaid empire, which includes large swatches of real estate; many rental properties; a lumber mill; a huge store called the Emporium; and more.
Unfortunately, the Colonel's business shenanigans started a never-ending feud with a family called the Bonds, and the Kincaids and the Bonds' still hate each other.
As the story opens, it's the early 1900s and the Duke is running the family empire. He also heads the local Democratic Party, which allows the Duke to pick judges; appoint the sheriff; and generally control what goes on in his corner of Virginia.
The Duke has been married three times and has one child from each wife: 18-year-old Mary lives far away and isn't part of the household in Claiborne County;
8-year-old Sallie is a wild child who loves speed and adventure;
and 3-year-old Eddie is the son the Duke always wanted. Eddie is a quiet child however, and doesn't look like he'll be the 'man's man' the Duke hopes for.
When little Eddie gets injured during an adventure with Sallie, Eddie's mom Jane insists that Sallie has to go. So 8-year-old Sallie is sent off to live with her Aunt Faye. Sallie waits and waits for her daddy to bring her home, but Sallie isn't fetched until she's 17, when the Duke's wife Jane dies from the Spanish flu.
Sallie, who wants to remain in the family's 'Big House' in Caywood, is determined to make herself useful. Sallie's first job is to take care of 13-year-old Eddie, but she becomes surplus when the Duke marries a fourth wife.
So Sallie becomes the Duke's driver, which means she does errands and collects rent from tenants.
MANY tenants are bootleggers who pay their rent with booze, which is then sold in the Emporium.
In fact, booze forms the Emporium's largest and most lucrative inventory by far.
When the Duke perishes in an unfortunate accident, the estate passes to his oldest (and only) son, teenage Eddie. Since Eddie will be VERY RICH when he comes of age, various family members - especially the Duke's sister Mattie - try to take charge of the boy.
Due to various circumstances, control of the Kincaid empire passes from one family member to another. When the vast enterprise falls into the hands of the Duke's oldest daughter Mary, a devout Christian who supports Prohibition, Mary determines to clean up Claiborne County. Mary and her pastor husband organize a push to destroy all the booze in town; break up all the stills; arrest all the bootleggers; etc. To accomplish this, Mary brings in vicious revenuers who raid the town with impunity.
Sallie, who's now the driver for her sister Mary, doesn't agree with the push to clean-up Claiborne County. However Sallie feels obligated to follow her sister's instructions, and she refuses to take booze as payment for rent. This means many tenants have no way to pay!! All this results in chaos, gunfights, death, destruction, and even more feuding between the Kincaids and the bootlegging Bond brothers.
An underlying theme of the book is the entitled behavior of some of the men, who feel they can do whatever they want with no consequences:
Impregnate a woman? Pay someone to raise the child and forget about it.
Mistress causing embarassment? Send her away.
Want a new woman? Divorce your wife or abandon her.
Wife not living up to expectations....or not providing a son? Kill her.
In this story, though, some of the women - especially Sallie - step up. So yay for them!!
Another theme of the book is the uselessness of Prohibition, which didn't stop people from drinking and started a nationwide crime wave. One really has to wonder what made the politicians of the time think this would work.
Sallie is a breath of fresh air in this novel. She's determined to find her own way, make a success of herself, and do it on her own terms. Sallie can drive a car like an Indy-500 racer; shoot like a rodeo star; and scheme like a politican. One roots for her to succeed.
This is an engaging, well-written story that would appeal to fans of lively historical fiction.
Rating: 4 stars
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