Swallow Savannah

Swallow Savannah by Ken Burger is one of those rare books where you find yourself reading passages out loud to friends and family because they are so skillfully written. The prose and story are simple. Burger's style, on the other hand, is a literary revelation. I have been caught completely off guard by a few of the passages, and I like to think that I can see a plot unfolding a couple of chapters ahead. I can't tell you how many times I have actually uttered the word "whoa" to myself while reading this book. The story is a southern tale of a northern sociopath, Frank Finklea, who pitches his crooked tent in Bluff County, South Carolina and rises through the state legislative ranks by wielding a platform of charming greed and slime. In his quest for power, Finklea beguiles and brutalizes everyone in his life. You can see the deceit, sweat, and humidity deeply embedded on every page of this book. If Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy had a son, his name would be Ken Burger. The one thing that upsets me about this book is that more people aren't talking about it. In my humble opinion, this is National Book Award and Pulitzer material. Burger is an award winning journalist and columnist, so the notion that he and this book deserves greater recognition is not too farfetched. Help undo this injustice. Buy this book and recommend it to your friends.

I live in South Carolina and work at the "Bomb Plant". This was a great story and I think that the author has a good future. Keep up the good work, Ken. I am looking forward to your next novel. There was one technical error concerning Plutonium but it did not detract in any way from the story line.

Pat Conroy calls it "a humdinger of a novel," but if Pat had written it, the book would be 2,000 pages long. This one accomplishes the same reader effect with fewer than 300. Burger, a newspaperman, employs the same magical imagery to allow his reader to "smell" the marshlands of his South Carolina, era 1950s and 60s. It was the time of the Cold War and Civil Rights, and each weighed heavily on the happenings of a small town near the Savannah River Site. Warning: you won't put this book down once you start reading.

Very rarely, I will pick up a book and from the very first sentence on the opening page, I know that I have come across a novel that is truly extraordinary. Swallow Savannah by Ken Burger is just such a gem. While this is Burger's debut novel, he is not new to writing, serving as a writer and columnist for The Post and Courier of Charleston, SC. But it is rare for a newspaperman to write a book that ranks up there with the best of them on his very first effort. Swallow Savannah takes place in fictional Groton, SC from the years 1948-1968. This town is home to the Savannah River Plant, a government facility that manufactures nuclear weapons. Frank Finklea is a survivor. After a hideous childhood and some hardscrabble jobs, Finklea ends up in Groton. Soon, he is making a name for himself and marries Martha Adger, the daughter of the local newspaper owner and editor. Finklea lands a job as a state congressman, and with the right backing, he's soon immersed in scandals, corruption, bribery, college football, and just plain evil. And nothing can be more evil than the medical experiments taking place at the Savannah River Plant with unsuspecting black men being exposed to radiation. Finklea's son, Tom (a rookie newspaper reporter) and Nick Nolan (an ace reporter from the Charleston Courier) have the power to stop the madness--if only they can figure out how. Burger is a very accomplished writer, and when I first started Swallow Savannah, his prose reminded me of Pat Conroy. You can tell from his descriptions that he truly loves South Carolina, warts and all. I lost count of how many times I went back and reread sentences--they were that beautiful or emotive or descriptive. One character, William, likes to walk through the swamps, trying to feel close to his slave ancestors. "Even now, walking dirt roads from farm to farm, he listened for their voices, their soulful songs sung low and slow and mournful among the fallen cypress, blackgum and willow oaks that formed the forbidding swamp which was his home. In his mind, this soggy half-land belonged only to those whose blood had pulsed through a million years of mosquito larvae. It was a soupy, sucking realm." Or in describing the Adgers, Burger writes "Like most old South Carolina families, the Adgers had deep roots but shallow pockets, a common social condition in the South, most often revealed by peeling paint and rotting wood." But halfway through, Swallow Savannah morphs into a story that could have been written by Carl Hiaasen--that is if Hiaasen lived in South Carolina. Despite the serious nature of the plot, there was also lots of fun to be had here. Having been raised in South Carolina, Burger can point out her flaws in a self-deprecating way that those "from off" can not. Swallow Savannah includes a whole list of sins including political corruption, segregation, and discrimination. But where I think Burger really excels is in his characters. I was charmed by Nick Nolan,

Since my dad, as well as the dad of a friend, worked in construction at the Savannah River Site, formerly known as the bomb plant, we found the book not only of interest from this stand point but also enjoyed the story. My friend lived in Charleston for a number of years and was familiar with the author who worked for the newspaper there.