LOST IN THE HOLLER

A young man returns home and gets much more than he bargained for in West’s Southern gothic novel.

After graduating from the University of Tennessee, RJ Burnette takes his business degree to New York City, leaving behind his small Appalachian hometown of Gizzard’s Holler. But he feels hollow working as an investment banker and quits to go back to Gizzard’s Holler, accompanied by his only companion, his dog, Winston. Because of the way he skipped town, RJ finds himself with a lot of fences to mend. As a late-in-life surprise baby, RJ never had much of a relationship with his already adult brothers James and Ralph, and his older sister, Sue Ann, died young. He moves back in with his mother, Nita, who proceeds to beguile him with family stories. Life is good for RJ until he discovers what the rest of the town already knows: Nita has terminal cancer. Just before Nita dies, she takes RJ into the woods and tells him, “This is where Sue Ann was murdered.” Learning more about his sister’s killing, despite the town’s resistance, becomes RJ’s obsession. West deftly limns both RJ and Gizzard’s Holler, the place that he never truly understood until after his return (RJ is like many young adults who leave the small towns they know, only to realize later what they’ve lost). In this engaging story, RJ is surprised when his hometown isn’t ready to welcome him back with open arms—the residents now doubt he can be trusted, so they withhold information about Sue Ann’s murder from him. The author sets up a compelling dynamic in which RJ must determine what he can live without knowing; the town isn’t going to change, so he must. Everything comes together in a shocking conclusion that readers won’t soon forget.

Community and justice go under a microscope in this thought-provoking novel.