Hell at the Breech - Hardcover

Franklin, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688167411 ISBN 13: 9780688167417

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 2003

Synopsis

In 1897, in the rural southwestern area of Alabama known as Mitcham Beat, an aspiring politician is mysteriously murdered. Seeking retribution, his outraged friends -- mostly poor cotton farmers -- form a secret society, Hell-at-the-Breech, to punish the townspeople they believe are responsible. The hooded members of this gang wage a bloody year-long campaign of terror that culminates in a massacre, where the innocent suffer alongside the guilty.

Caught in the maelstrom of the Mitcham War are four people: the county's aging sheriff, sympathetic to both sides; the widowed midwife who delivered nearly every member of Hell-at-the-Breech; a ruthless detective who wages his own private war against the gang; and a young store clerk harboring a terrible secret.

Based on incidents that occurred a few miles from the author's childhood home, Hell at the Breech chronicles the dark events of dark days, events that lead the people involved to discover their capacity for good, for evil, or for both. It is a mesmerizing and unforgettable display of talent by a writer of immeasurable gifts.

About this title

Review:

Hell at the Breech tells of an often overlooked part of America's history. When we think of the lawlessness in 19th-century America's Wild West, we often forget that other parts of the USA were also frontier territories that were ruled by the gun in the late-19th century. The rural South, suffering the effects of the Civil War, was also a place of small towns, far-flung rural communities and renegade outlaws. Tom Franklin tells a fictionalised version of the Mitcham War of Clarke County, Alabama in the 1890s. When a local politician was accidentally killed, a feud developed between rural outlaws and townspeople in which lawlessness and bloodshed reached shocking proportions.

Tom Franklin weaves a captivating tale based on these events. Franklin's spare, but vivid language is in the best tradition of Southern American writing. His observant eye picks up the detail of the ignorant and violent rural poor, as well as the hypocrisy and cruelty of the town dwellers. The frightening tale of redneck murderers and vengeful townsfolk reveals the darker side of human nature in a way that avoids both easy judgement and prurience. The violent story is told with simplicity and immense power rather than gratuitousness. Franklin hints at how the violent frontier past of the USA is part of her present inheritance, and so holds up a mirror to a society that is at once deeply religious and deeply violent. Franklin is a writer to watch. He explores powerful themes within a gripping story without apology. Like the hero of his story, he exercises restraint and dignity, but he shoots straight. --Dwight Longenecker

Review:

Praise for ‘Hell at the Breech’:

‘Beautifully written and potent.’ Daniel Woodrell, Washington Post

‘A literary knockout. Franklin has cleverly woven history and fiction. “Hell at the Breech” is an impressive novel that should catapult Franklin into the big leagues.’ USA Today

‘Such exquisite prose, such depth of character and depth of emotion that you feel swept up in a terrible beauty. “Hell at the Breech” bears comparison only with other great novels, and it ensures a place for Tom Franklin in the highest ranks of our country’s new writers.’ Dennis Lehane

‘The most extraordinary first novel to come out of the South since Charles Frazier’s “Cold Mountain”...hypnotically captivating.’ Orlando Sentinel

‘Franklin evokes time and place with language of eloquence and fire, and his journey through the evils men do leads down the old dark ways of the heart.’ William Gay

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0688167411
• ISBN 13: 9780688167417
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320