Crapalachia: A Biography of Place Paperback – Deckle Edge, March 19, 2013

"Even though I was only 14 years old, there was no telling when the angel of death might come to get my ass."This is a book about suicide, dead miners, and children being left to scream and writhe in pain because their parents can't afford doctors.And yet, I couldn't stop laughing."She told us the story about how he was trying to get his pension from the mines. But before he got it, he had to fight for a couple of months. He finally got a letter that went..."Dear Mr. McClanahan, we regret to inform you that we're unable to approve you at this time. Please send your response within seven days and we'll schedule another hearing."Elgie didn't say anything.He just took it down to the outhouse and wiped his ass with it. Then he put it back into the envelope, sealed it up, and sent it back."McClanahan creates wonderful, embellished portraits of family members and friends, at their best and at their worst, doing the things they need to do to endure life.Here is one tale of young Scott and his Uncle Nathan, who had cerebral palsy:"The next night was radio preacher night. That only meant one thing. My Uncle Nathan was going to drink beer. He just kept groaning and pointing at the beer and then pointing at his feeding tube. What was the use of drinking beer when you could immediately pour a six-pack in your stomach tube and have it shoot into your bloodstream that much quicker? I poured the beer in and then I poured another. I cracked another and another. Then I did the rest. He smiled and then burped. It smelled like a beer burp."Though I did not grow up in rural West Virginia, this reminded me so much of my mother's side of the family. They were farmers, beauticians and business people. I was the first to graduate from college. This was a family obsessed with death, funerals and graveyards. God was there to be worshipped and feared. He didn't do favors.The stories are told using simple language, no four dollar words here, and yet they cut right to the heart of the matter.I love this part SO MUCH:"Both of them just reached out and shook my hand. They shook my hand like they didn't know what to do. Their mother had just died and they were different now. They were free?"Oh, that question mark at the end! That really says it all. That is exactly what it's like.

This was my introduction to Scott McClanahan's work and I bought it for the title alone. Being from mountain descent myself, I knew I was going to identify with any book that had the courage to call itself Crapalachia. My hunch was justified. Not only did I identify, this book hits close to home. There were several characters who could have been members of my own family.McClanahan uses a stream-of-consciousness narrative to tell stories or mini stories about people he grew up with as a boy in West Virginia. This narrative tool is brilliant in that it wonderfully captures the inner-thinking of a young teen; i.e. inability to stay on one subject, casually tosses out a profundity then changes the subject, mistakes nonsense for profundity and elaborates with more nonsense, etc. The narrator is quite believable and very entertaining.Within a few pages, I was strongly reminded of Truman Capote's stories about his childhood in New Orleans. Like Capote, McClanahan has the gift of finding humor and fascination amongst people that many of us would dismiss. I do not possess that gift and am humbled by people who do. It would never have occurred to me to write about a 52 year old man who had cerebral palsy, who watches Benny Hinn, and lived with his mother. I would have found such a person pitiful. But, in McClanahan's hands, his Uncle Nathan comes across as a funny devil-may-care personality who might be more aware of what's going on than most.In writing down these stories of, if I may use the term, forgotten people, McClanahan makes the plea that even though these people may not have been great or noble, they deserve to be remembered.Don't we all?Scott McClanahan has every reason to be proud of this book.

For me, the title "Crapalachia" was off-putting but the cover art invited me in. Was the bird on the front a raven with a head like Edgar Allen Poe's? Why were there quotes about mine disasters sprinkled along the cover?You can decide what is implied by the cover but the work is not at all crappy, nor is its view of Appalachia. It's a warm and fuzzy looking back with love at a time and place that is no more. Most of us have such a place.In this work of fiction blended with nonfiction (a "coming-of-age memoir with privileges" is how I think of it) McClanahan looks back with humor and understanding at an important phase of his life; time he spent visiting his Grandma in Danese, a hamlet in Fayette County, West Virginia.Danese,population 38 people per square mile, was the ancesteral home of many McClanahans,including McClanahan's widowed Gradmother Ruby and her twelve progeny. It is just just down the road from the author's childhood home,Rainelle.Back then, Grandma Ruby was the caregiver for an adult son, Nathan. Nearly bedridden with cerebral palsy, Nathan is full of life and dreams. He endures the stares and comments of strangers but is full of hope for a miracle cure and a big fat wife. The young Scott aids and abets him in his attempts to write to the radio preacher, place matrimonial ads in the newspaper, wear more appropriate clothes...not sweat shirts with teddy bears on the front...and get some beer. There are some embarrasing public moments with Nathan and his various tubes, but Scott has Nathan's "back".Scott shows an understanding of his various kin, especially some of the wacky ways of Grandma Ruby. Ruby likes to photograph the dead in their caskets and decorate and photograph her own tombstone. Her grandchildren roll their, eyes but comply.The book reminds us the clock is ticking and we should relish the moment. I could feel the love, the loss, and the regrets.I'd read "Crapalachia" again and I'd use it in a highschool or college course. Good stuff and a unique voice. More, please.

Such a funny. moving, true love story of a place and its people.