One of the gifts of being based in the Tri-State is being more acutely aware of the kaleidoscope of contemporary writers working in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
One of my favorites from the Commonwealth of Kentucky in recent years is the Southeastern Kentucky treasure that is Silas House. The former rural mailman and gifted wordsmith released his first novel “Clay’s Quilt,” in 2001 and turned everybody’s head including mine. In these years since, House has crafted an incredibly diverse amount of work as the nationally best-selling author of six novels (“Clay’s Quilt,” 2001; “A Parchment of Leaves,” 2003; “The Coal Tattoo,“ 2005; “Eli the Good,” 2009; and “Same Sun Here” (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, and “Southernmost” (June 2018) as well as a book of creative nonfiction, “Something’s Rising,” co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays: “The Hurting Part” (2005), “This Is My Heart for You” (2012), and “In These Fields,” with Sam Gleaves, 2016.
Here in the maw of this daily changing fallout from the spread of Coronavirus, a dive into the socially-charged, roadtrip page-burner that is “Southernmost,” could be the perfect distraction. With Spring Break dreams deferred and everyone stuck inside, who doesn’t want to take a suspense-filled literary trip to Key West with the cops on our trail.
In short, “Southernmost” is all about an epic, life-changing and, uh, impromptu road-trip to Key West that rural Tennessee evangelical preacher Asher Sharp takes with his young son Justin.
As we all know too well here in Appalachia, most wild stories start with a flood. And this devastating Tennessee flood comes – Lord Have Mercy – with a main course of fireworks at home and church. When pastor Sharp offers shelter in this time of storm to two gay men, whose home has been destroyed in the flood, his wife stands firm in her prejudices and a chasm grows. Sharp, whose experience is shaped by his gay younger brother Luke who was banished from their home as a teen when he came out, suddenly has a new found conviction for acceptance and loving people no matter who they love.
As he wrestles with his social awakening, Sharp delivers a from-the-heart message of love and acceptance to his congregation. As you can imagine and as the old saying goes, that open mind “goes over like a fart in church.” Sharp gets punted out as pastor. He and his wife split and Sharp already on a journey shifting the tectonic plates of his existence finds himself literally on the road, escaping the choking confines of his small Tennessee town, snatching his son Justin and heading to Key West, to reconcile with his brother.
Complications arise as unbeknownst to Sharp, his sermon has gone viral and has become an Internet torch for both sides of the gay marriage debate. Given the fact that many of the U.S. mainline denominations are having heated, church-splitting discussions as to where they land in acceptance of gay marriage there could not be a more relevant time for this book. The United Methodist Church just announced its split in the first part of 2020, and many other church folks are wrestling with how to call their angels – bitter or better – to this issue.
It is proven that House can capture all of the complicated shades and nuances of Appalachia, practically left handed and blind-folded. He is one of the very best. From a travel writing standpoint, he is equally as deft in getting the feels of Key West. House richly captures the beauty, wonders, and characters of The Conch Republic – Key West. It truly is one of America’s most unique cities and – The Keys – one of America’s most treasured ecosystems. And as Asher Sharp finds trying to survive there in this “Southernmost” point, the end of the line, and end of your rope, is as good a place as any, to try and find God.
“He keeps his eyes on the people down the beach and he knows there is something living in each of them,” House writes of Asher Sharp at the beach. “Some people might call it God. Some might not have a name for it. What he knows is that they all have the good and the bad in them. He does, too. But that’s where the God of his understanding lives – not just in the goodness and not in the badness, but in the shimmering knot of the two.”
Silas House serves on the fiction faculty at the Spalding MFA in Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the recipient of three honorary doctorates, and is the winner of the Nautilus Award, an EB White Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Jesse Stuart Award, the Lee Smith Award, and many other honors.
House will be doing a Facebook Live discussion of “Southernmost” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 2 on his web site at Facebook.com/silashouseofficial
“Southernmost” was a longest finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and appeared on several the Best of 2018 lists of The Advocate, Booklist, Paste, Southern Living, Garden and Gun, and others. The book was also awarded the Weatherford Award as well as the Judy Gaines Young Award.
