Write trash in Appalachia/ West Virginia coming-of-age novel 'Crum'

Just when it looks like the family name will outlive "The Beans of Egypt, Maine," here comes "Crum" to trash the family home.

Trashed like a West Virginia riverbank on July 5. Trash, the family over in the next holler. "Crum, A Novel" was published in the late '80s, and, in its reincarnation by West Virginia University's Vandalia Press, is drawing praise and outrage.

Critics are impressed. "An Appalachian 'Catcher in the Rye,'" says Terry McMillan on the book's jacket.

But "Crum" exposes such a running sore that it and its author are unwelcome in some parts of the state. The book has been banned at, of all places, Tamaranc, West Virginia's grand new cultural center in Beckeley.

"That's one of the best things that could happen to a writer," said author Lee Maynard. "No one's neutral about 'Crum.' People either love it or hate it."

It's a tale of growing up in and moving away from Crum, a jumble of shacks on the Tug River in the state's God-forsaken southern coal fields. As tales about coming of age in rural America go, "Crum" isn't that much out of place on a shelf with Mark Twain and Harper Lee. It's kind of like Stephen King's "Stand By Me," if the kids had been too hungry or ignorant to outrun the train.

"I'm basically a storyteller," Maynard said. "When I write, I don't consider the effect it will have on anyone. I didn't write the book to make anyone mad or happy."

He's done both. It's the kind of book you laugh through before realizing it's not funny. Maynard's characters are what you'd expect from this foul place - mean, stupid boys; whores in the making; and Benny, a disgusting, unloved little bastard whose mother and grandfather probably got way too close.

Maynard hopes the attention "Crum" is generating shines a light on other Appalachian writers. He lists Jayne Ann Phillips and Pinckney Benedict as favorites but saves his highest praise for Breece Pancake, who published a collection of short stories in 1977 and pretty much celebrated by killing himself. The Kurt Cobain of hillbilly writers.

"They'd be building altars to him now," Maynard said.

Maynard also said he's convinced the ridges and valleys of Appalachia hold more and even better writers. "Can you imagine all the young writers out there," he said.

In her introduction to "Crum," Meredith Sue Willis says for all its cruel stereotypes and blasphemies, Maynard's book is a love story. If that were true, he might not be having such a hard time getting the already-completed sequel off somebody's press.

"The publishing business is just like the movie business these days," Maynard said. "If it's not commercial, you're going to have a hard time."

But lives as ghastly as the lives Maynard writes about in "Crum" make such great stories, they're bound to be told. And, brother, this movie will have a great soundtrack.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Lee Maynard will discuss and sign "Crum: The Novel"

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: The Chinook Bookshop, 210 N. Tejon St.

APPALACHIAN FICTION

Jayne Anne Phillips. Maybe the best known and most prolific writer from the region. Best works are her early novel "Machine Dreams" and the short stories in "Black Tickets." More recent is the novel "Motherkind."

Breece Pancake. One collection of short stories, published in 1977. Worth trying to find.

Lee Smith. "Fair and Tender Ladies" and "Black Mountain Breakdown" among her best. Stories set in southwestern Virginia. Great sense of regional dialect and patterns of life.

Denise Giardina. "Storming Heaven" and "The Unquiet Earth." Powerful books set in the West Virginia and Kentucky coal fields.

Pinckney Benedict. "Town Smokes," a collection of short stories. Elegant sentences, indelicate subject matter.

Cormac McCarthy. The early stuff: "The Orchard Keeper" and "Suttree." Before he moved his setting to Texas and Mexico, he wrote about his native east Tennessee.

Copyright 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.