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Published Jul 2010
416 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The edge of civilization is closer than we think.
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.
Vernon, the oldest of the Proctors, is reduced by work and illness to a shambling shadow of himself. Feeble-minded Audie lingers by his side, needy and unknowable. And Creed, the youngest of the three and the only one to have seen anything of the world (courtesy of the U.S. Army), struggles with impulses and accusations beyond his understanding. We also meet Del Graham, a state trooper torn between his urge to understand the brothers and his desire for justice; Preston Hatch, a kindhearted and resourceful neighbor who’s spent his life protecting the three men from themselves; the brothers’ only sister, Donna, who managed to cut herself loose from the family but is then drawn back; and a host of other living, breathing characters whose voices emerge to shape this deeply intimate saga of the human condition at its limits.
"Starred Review. Clinch addresses one of Faulkner's favorite themes ...our ability to endure - and explores it in ways that are inspiring and poignant. Enthusiastically recommended for readers of literary fiction." - Library Journal
"A journey into the dark that's more titillating then illuminating." - Kirkus Reviews
"Starred Review. Clinch explores family dynamics in this quiet storm of a novel that will stun readers with its power." - Publishers Weekly
"It’s an odd but intriguing story, made both odder and more intriguing by the fact that it is based on real people and real events." - Booklist
"To read a book by Jon Clinch is to enter an emotional mineshaft, a place where the darkness is profound and menacing yet lures you on with the promise of untold treasure. Like Finn, Clinch's stunning debut, Kings of the Earth is blunt and brutal yet beautifully told, a classic tale of family kinship twisted askew. It is a fine fable as well, leaving in its wake the resonance of a modern ballad—more Waits than Springsteen—about the fate of America's rural outback." - Julia Glass, author of Three Junes and winner of the National Book Award
"Kings of the Earth is the product of a truly inspired pairing. By applying Faulkner's pointillism and stream-of-consciousness to the Brother's Keeper boys, Jon Clinch delivers a rich Upstate Gothic. As one character says: 'Out here there is no such thing as a main road ... Everything winds.'" - Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Christine Glade
Born and raised in the remote heart of upstate New York, Jon Clinch has been an English teacher, a metalworker, a folksinger, an illustrator, a typeface designer, a housepainter, a copywriter, and an advertising executive.
Clinch has lectured and taught widely, in settings as varied as the National Council of Teachers of English, Williams College, the Mark Twain House and Museum, and Pennsylvania State University. In 2008 he organized a benefit reading for the financially-ailing Twain House—enlisting such authors as Tom Perrotta and Stewart O'Nan—an event that saved the house from bankruptcy.
He lives with his wife, Wendy—founder of TheSkiDiva.com, the site for women who ski—in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
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Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
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