Canty to Read His New Book "The Underworld"

Kevin Canty will be presenting his new book, "The Underworld" Saturday, May 20 at 7 p.m. at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company The event is sponsored by Alpine Artisans Open Book Club.

Professor Canty is in the English Department at the University of Montana and is the author of five previous novels and three short story collections.

In "The Underworld," Canty tells a story inspired by the 1973 Sunshine Silver Mine disaster near Kellogg, Idaho, that killed 91 miners. Rather than a detailed recreation of the disaster itself, he focuses on the views of three residents as they grieve and attempt to cope with an outsized tragedy in a small community where almost everyone lost someone near and dear to them.

The town is a tough, hard drinking assemblage of whores and priests and bar fights but nobody is tough enough to get through this disaster undamaged. His three point-of-view characters represent a cross-section of the town's small populace and the grip that the mine has on their existence.

Canty has a keen eye for detail and engaging prose. He does an excellent job of showing how disaster can lacerate a place and its people without destroying hope. Perhaps his real genius lies in his subtly drawn depiction of the emotional and psychological landscape of the "big incomprehensible thing."

Canty is one of Montana's favorite authors and we look forward to his presence at our Open Book Club. Please join us at the Grizzly Claw this Saturday.

 

Reader Comments(0)