Coal Run

Another great book by Tawni O'dell! She cuts through the BS and tells a story familiar to all of us living in a small town. I have read all her books and not once have I been disappointed with the characters or story lines. I will probably read through a couple of them twice! Witty, wise and wonderful!

I enjoyed this book immensely. This was my first read by Ms. O'Dell, but definitely not my last. The story is set in a western Pennsylvania mining town, Coal Run, and begins with a very young Ivan Zoschensky telling us about the day Gertie blew...the mine where his father and 96 other townsmen were working when it exploded. Fast forward to present day, the 'Great Ivan Z.' has returned to the small town after being away for many years. Once an exceptional football player, and the town's hero, he plays no more do to an accident that shattered his knee. But there's a reason Ivan has returned. His old teammate Reese Raynor will being getting out of prison soon. He was put there for beating his wife Crystal into a coma, and reducing her to a vegetative state. Ivan feels he has some unfinished business to take care of, but he's also got a very big secret that he's trying to come to terms with. This storyline alone is enough to keep the reader going, but there plenty of side stories that are just as interesting, and include some great characters. Jolene, Ivan's sister, who has three children from three different fathers, but never married, the Raynor clan, Dr. Ed, the town Doc who meddles in everyone's lives for their own well being, and even the town itself, which plays an important part. I thought it was really interesting what ended up being the fate of Coal Run. I definitely recommend this read, and am so glad I bought it. Ms. O'Dell's way of storytelling makes you feel like you're right there in the hills of western Pennsylvania. I'm absolutely going to pick up 'Back Roads'. I'm confident it'll be just as entertaining as Coal Run was.

Very well written, very thought-provoking. Interesting that it's written by a woman but the narrator character is a tough guy. Recommend this highly.

It may not be true that you can never go home again. Literature, as in life, is full of homecomings. What is always interesting is a person's motivation for returning home after a long absence, especially the motivation of a person who has deliberately distanced themselves from their hometown and past. What drove them away in the first place and what draws them back, and why now? What and where is home, really? These are questions explored in Tawni O'Dell's wonderful new novel, COAL RUN. COAL RUN is the story of a small mining town, its inhabitants, its pride and shame, its tragic past and its hope for the future, all exemplified by the narrator, Ivan Zoschenko. Ivan, the town's most famous export, has returned home many years after leaving to play college and professional football. After a career-ending injury he moved to Florida hoping to leave his home and memories behind him. Ivan was one of the many residents who lost loved ones in a mining accident in 1967. But it wasn't really the loss of his father and other relatives that drove him away. Ivan carries a great and dark secret, and his return is partially inspired by the release from prison of Reese Raynor, a former teammate. Ivan is not the only one coming home; his childhood hero, Val Claypool, has returned as well. As Ivan spends a week in the western Pennsylvanian town he thought he'd never live in again, he is confronted by all the hurt in his entire past and by the damage he feels he must inflict on another. Why does Ivan want to kill Reese? Why has Val returned? What is Ivan's connection to the woman lying in a coma in a local nursing home? And who else knows Ivan's secret? COAL RUN is not a mystery, but as Ivan's story unfolds, these questions are answered and O'Dell gives the reader a vivid portrait of a small and wounded town, and a man struggling with his past and his future. All of O'Dell's characters are interesting, intriguing and real. Ivan is a classic wounded hero, and the emotional journey he takes in the course of the novel is immensely readable. There are many sympathetic characters in COAL RUN, including Ivan's beautiful and independent sister, Jolene, her sons, his mother, the local doctor and the ghost of Ivan's father, who looms large throughout. The coming home story is a genre unto itself. And O'Dell is perfect in her telling of this tale of redemption, family, regret, hope and home. She never resorts to the simple quirkiness of many "small town" tales or the morose and sappy stories of miners, although this is a novel set in a small mining town. Instead, COAL RUN is original and filled with wonderful humanity. Ivan Zoschenko is a likeable, though flawed protagonist. O'Dell has created a world that is touchingly real and that challenges the characters to sort out life's complexities and to face heartbreak and pain without giving up hope. So many positive adjectives apply to COAL RUN: engaging, poignant, heroic. This is simply a great book. ---

Miss O'Dell's second novel, Coal Run, is an honest portrait of life in a small town in the now almost abandoned coal fields of Pennsylvania. The economic impact of a failed industry on the town members is played out in an engaging, well defined look at the lives of a small group of survivors, both those who stayed in the dying town, and those who left. Ivan Zoschenko, former star high school football athlete, represents both groups, having left the town after a career ending injury. His need for an a new life takes him to Florida where everyone is a newcomer and there are very few roots of friends and family. His longing for the remembered security of his youth in Coal Run never leaves him. His return to his home and his reinvolvement with people from his youth is full of conflicting emotions as he deals with a culture not willing or wanting change in any form. The long history of dealing with the disasters that are part of coal mining has resulted in a tired, cynical population just trying to survive as best they can.Ivan understands their world, but can never rejoin it.The release of a vicious prisoner and his impact on the town stirs up memories and secrets that affect them all.O'Dell masterfully lets the characters speak for themselves as they struggle once more to survive. Coal Run is honest, compelling and starkly realistic. It is headed for the best seller list, where it belongs.