The Green Age of Asher Witherow

Here is a novel with the power and brilliance to enter into the heart of the reader. All the elements of great literary fiction are found in the pages of "The Green Age of Asher Witherow." The voice of the narrator looking back many decades to his boyhood could alone have carried this novel. But in addition to voice, the novel also offers a plot involving unforgettable characters who influence and change the boy forever. One such character is Josiah Lyte, a young would-be Christian minister with a deep and haunting understanding of how life and death can hold hands and dance around each person. His presence holds an ambiguity in the eyes of the people of the town, whose version of Christianity is more literal and monotheistic than Lyte's: Lyte becomes the object of suspicion, even as he draws the narrator, Asher Witherow, closer to him and to a vision of life that is radical and renegade. The interaction between the two is arresting; Asher reflects: "I didn't tell Mother or Father that Lyte and I had spoken again. The confidence flared inside me wit the irresistible thrill of sin. It was so alarmingly simple not to speak, to clutch the secret deeply and own it all myself. The clutching grew delicous." In this relationship the reader can see and feel how we are pulled toward another person for inner reasons we don't fully understand; we can also see, even from the early pages of the novel, that this relationship of Asher's green age has stayed with him and become a part of his soul. So to his relationships with his boyhood friend Thomas and his first young love, Anna, stay with him: these relationships are beautifully, poignantly drawn, as is his intense and watchful relationship with his parents. And if all this were not enough, the reader is also given a gripping plot involving harrowing experiences and pressing moral dilemmas. Throughout this novel is the sustained writing: the magnificent voice of Asher reflecting back on his childhood. His descriptions of the earth and its evolution, and the meaning of this evolution, are woven throughout the pages, such that earth becomes yet another character whose force he recognizes. That the novel is set in a mining town and that the characters, including his father and he himself, must descend deep into the earth, intensifies this already intense novel. "The Green Age of Asher Witherow" is a novel that truly shines out among literary fiction.

This is without a doubt the most atmospheric book I've ever read. It was a great story, but even if it wasn't I don't think it would matter. The chapter where Asher's friend 'expires' (I don't want to give too much away) was like reading a nightmare. This is the best first book I've ever read. I'm definitely looking forward to his next.

This book is definitely not for everyone, but the thoughtful reader will find much to savor. In chapters cycling from earth, blood, bone, ash, and back to earth Asher Witherow, winnowed out as special by the unconventional clergyman Josiah Lyte, experiences these elements in his first twenty years. There is a constant dichotomy and juxtaposition in this book. The spiritual and the earthly, the inner and the outer. Life inside the mines and outside the mines. Life and events inside and outside the self. The exposing of the earth's soul and the exposing of the human soul. The darkness of the mine and the darkness of night. Although a history of mining life in California in the 1860s-1870s is presented, this is not typical historical fiction. This book is way more unique and philosophical. My only caveat is that in the first half of the book I kept forgetting that the child narrator was just a child. Usually this irritates me, but because he is presented as highly intelligent the author manages to pull it off. All in all this is a stunning first novel published by a small press.

A beautifully written book. It seems impossible that this lush and melancholy novel was written by a 26 year old. A must read for both those who love contemporary fiction and those who complain that it is too vapid and fad-oriented.

The early buzz on this debut novel serves up terms like: "poetic intensity"; "strikingly beautiful prose style"; "unerring instinct for storytelling"; "a startling accomplishment"; and "lushly talented". I will state emphatically that Mr. Cunningham's first novel is all that and much more. This is a literary novel in the finest sense of the word, magnetic and seductive from first word to last. Asher Witherow's story is told in first person. Young Asher is the only child of Welsh immigrants. His mother, Abicca, is strong, matriarchal. Father David works in the Black Diamond Mines circa the 1860s. Life is harsh and sometimes cruel for folks living in the dreary confines of the Contra Costa County California mining country. Miners work long hours below ground and their children join them at a very young age. Young Asher is no exception. He's a bright boy, curious and irrepressible. Death is witnessed at every turn, and stoically accepted as a necessary part of life in hard times. Asher's outlook is influenced by a young ministerial apprentice, Josiah Lyte, who wishes for the boy a better life. Friends Thomas Motion and Anna Flood bring life-changing influences to Asher's world. Present throughout is a strong sense of time and place, beautifully expressed. The elderly Asher recounts his life in retrospect. His own words state best what life has been. "...I know the great black hole won't receive me till I've tied my guts into sailor's knots over regrets and dreams and other torments I'm helpless to alter." It's impossible to adequately review such excellence. I've given you the bare essence of The Green Age of Asher Witherow. Readers who appreciate fine literary fiction or the classics simply must read this book. Those who enjoy American history and well written tales will find it exemplary. This is a book to be savored, written by a gifted wordsmith. It has my highest recommendation.