Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance

Dunn (author of Radio Free Olympia) strikes a graceful balance between the mystical and the everyday in this meditative reflection on acceptance and belonging. The story’s unnamed narrator has recently retired to Wildcat, a small community in the Appalachian rust belt, 50 years after spending only a single year of high school there. That year was a disastrous one for Wildcat: a deadly explosion shut down the town’s mine, and soon after both its mill and its dam were destroyed. The narrator’s abrupt departure left behind a broken town and fractured relationships, but he returns with the hope of again becoming part of Wildcat’s unique community, and of reconnecting with Carolyn, his first love.

Wildcat offers the narrator the simple retirement he wants: a plain single room in the Wildcat Hotel where he can read and write, and the opportunity to go on walks by the river to sort through his memories. But his new home allows him to do these quotidian activities “in the Wildcat way,” which Dunn captures with a strong sense of milieu. His companions in the Wildcat Hotel are colorful locals with a host of trades and crafts, he writes with a wild turkey feather using ink and paper made from locally grown mushrooms, and on his walks he finds The Shadows, the enigmatic spirits of those who died in the Wildcat’s tragedies.

As the narrator gets to know Wildcat again, he is forced to face the traumas he left behind so many years ago, re-examining the past and forging new connections as he settles into his future. Wildcat and its community serve as powerful examples of growth and renewal. Dunn’s lyrical, imaginative language infuses the town’s people and places with an otherworldly quality, but readers will easily connect with the narrator’s warm narration style and the challenges he faces as he adapts to this new life in his new home.

Takeaway: A retiree’s move to the Appalachians inspires touching reflection on change.

Comparable Titles: Madeline Ffitch’s Stay and Fight, Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

(source)

Appearance: 5

The appearance of a book can make a significant impact on the experience of a reader, whose enjoyment is often enhanced by an enticing cover, an intriguing table of contents, interesting chapter headings, and when possible, eye-catching illustrations.

Plot: 5      

The characters of a book should be well defined with strengths and flaws, and while they do not have to be likable, the reader does have to be able to form a connection with them. The tone should be consistent, the theme should be clear, and the plot should be original or told from a unique perspective. For informative books -- those without plot and characters--this rating refers primarily to your concept and how well you presented it.

Development: 5

Development refers to how effectively you told your story or discussed your topic. The dialogue should be realistic, the descriptions should be vivid, and the material should be concise and coherent. Organization is also a key factor, especially for informative books -- those without plot and characters. The order in which you tell your story or explain your topic and how smoothly it flows can have a huge impact on the reader's understanding and enjoyment of the material.

 Formatting: 5    

Formatting is the single most overlooked area by authors. The way in which you describe scenes, display dialogue, and shift point of view can make or break your story. In addition, excessive grammatical errors and typos can give your book an amateurish feel and even put off readers completely.

Marketability: 4 

Marketability refers to how effectively you wrote your book for your target audience. Authors may include content that is above or below the understanding of their target reader, or include concepts, opinions or language that can accidentally confuse or alienate some readers. Although by its nature this rating is very subjective, a very low rating here and poor reviews may indicate an issue with your book in this area.

Overall Opinion: 5      

The overall starred rating takes into account all these elements and describes the overall reading experience of your reviewer. This is the official Readers' Favorite review rating for your book.

Reviewed by Maria Victoria Beltran for Readers' Favorite

Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance is a captivating story by Jeffrey Dunn about a man who returns to Wildcat in his sunset years. He settles at the Hotel Wildcat, intending to write his memoirs, and discovers the transformation of the place he once called home, even for just a short time. It brings back a lot of memories; the beauty of its landscapes, industrial disasters, friendship, love, and loss. A long time ago, his father used to work at the town’s mine, which exploded and changed the lives of the inhabitants. Today, a mushroom farm flourishes where the mine used to be. As his past catches up with him, he learns that Carolyn, his former girlfriend, has also returned to the place. What follows is a story of redemption as he rediscovers friendship, nature, love, and man’s capacity to redeem himself.

Jeffrey Dunn’s Wildcat is a profound story that gives readers an intimate glimpse of one man’s road to redemption. The author’s literary style is descriptive and engaging as he successfully weaves a tale that bridges the protagonist’s past and future, with the rugged beauty of the Appalachian as a backdrop. He paints vivid images of a world, both real and imagined. There is a palpable inner tension in the story that should keep readers’ curiosity burning. As such, it is difficult to put the book down. Medium-paced and entertaining, it is a deceptively easy read. In the end, it provokes one to take a long, hard look at one's own difficult road to redemption as well.

Wildcat Midwest Book Review by Diane Donovan

 Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance is a literary story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Rust Belt, where a retired teacher returns to his hometown with a vision of renovating the Hotel Wildcat. His journey home reveals transformations he'd never expected, calling into question the possibility of a mine-driven community entering the new age world, carrying its baggage of explosions, anguish, and company town pain with it.

Just as Wildcat harbors its own ghosts of the past, so the catastrophic changes that rocked the narrator's world in his senior year return to haunt him as he and the community try to escape the darkness of historical precedent to enter a new era against all odds and influences.

Jeffrey Dunn creates a compelling narrative as seen through the eyes of a character that discovers the pull of the past tugs on not just memories, but heartstrings.

Lured back by the town's magical changes and promise, the teacher also finds himself in a transformative romance that takes past experience and gives it a new twist while injecting some of the darkness of those experiences into his new life.

As he surveys choices and loves of the past, motivating factors for escape come into play to slowly reveal why he left in the first place—and why he returned:

"It was quiet, spooky quiet, so quiet, in fact, that after the moving truck drove away, it felt like a cemetery, and then I thought that all post–World War II housing plans must be cemeteries, too. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, this belief that I was born and still lived in a cemetery. I knew right then and there that I needed to find a way out."

Jeffrey Dunn builds the town's past and present carefully, piece by piece, as events swerve from mills and dams to failures in human endeavors that affect the protagonist and everyone around him. History is woven into these events with such an adept touch that readers absorb this atmosphere with a seamless interplay of people and perceptions. These lend nicely to character reactions to their world's pain and promises.

Dunn's novel will be perfect for readers seeking stories about community transformation processes, the seepage of past events into present-day attempts to change, and the Appalachian environment.

Libraries will want to recommend this novel to anyone seeking a story set in the Rust Belt where dreams and reality coalesce to bring new realizations about the past, present, and possible futures.