24. Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch

Category: 50 Books

I was excited when I found out that Jon Clinch had a new book out. I read his first one, Finn, when it came out in 2007, and while I liked the idea behind Finn, I found the actual writing to be difficult to follow. I was really interested to see how the author’s second novel would go.

This is the best novel I’ve read all year.

From the jacket cover:

It’s as close as a primitive farm on the margins of an upstate New York town, where the three Proctor brothers live together in a kind of crumbling stasis. They linger like creatures from an older, wilder, and far less forgiving world—until one of them dies in his sleep and the other two are suspected of murder.

Told in a chorus of voices that span a generation, Kings of the Earth examines the bonds of family and blood, faith and suspicion, that link not just the brothers but their entire community.

The writing is wonderful and very much an homage to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, only it’s easier to read. The story is told from many points of view, and it’s so well done that all the characters have their own very recognizable voice. It was a joy to read even though the story itself seems so bleak. 

It reads like a memoir told by several people, and all of the characters seem very authentic.

This is another story where I’ve noticed that the landscape itself seems like a character.

The book is nearly 400 pages but they way it’s laid out in these short, bite-sized pieces you just fly right through it and it’s over before you want it to end.

I’d recommend this novel to anyone. This will probably be my “go to” novel for the rest of the year when people at the library ask me if I’ve read anything good lately.

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