Review 605: Mine Work

Mine Work by Jim Davidson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite enjoyed this one. The main character, Markus Cottin is in search of his father's story, and his grandfather's. He knows nothing about their lives. The book becomes the story of Markus talking to people and finding out the Cottin’s story.

His father, Andrew Cottin left the family when Markus and Lucas were young. They almost never saw him. Lucas, not at all, but Markus found him. Andrew is living like a hermit, in the desert hills at a remote hard to get to location, where he works a small mining claim. Lucas had recently committed suicide which prompts Markus to seek out his father for the questions, who is he.

The father is mean and wants to be left alone. He hardly provides any details, but just enough for Markus to get started. The story involves a mining company, Cable Minerals, in a town called Madero. Andrew was convicted of blowing up two different mines owned by Cable Minerals.

Markus goes to the town of Madero to seek some of the answers. He ends up meeting his grandfather, Tom Cottin, which was a surprise as he grew up being told he died. Tom is hardly any help. He is an angry man as well, wants to be left alone, and can barely speaks in logical sentences. His mind seems to have gone. But the clues Markus gets helps. Another surprise is the death of Tom, suddenly and Markus had just seen him a day or two before, taken his picture even. Now he has to clear out the cabin, which provides a few more clues.

Markus returns to his dad. Andrew is not happy to see him. And when Markus tells of what he learns, he gets more grief. Told to leave it all alone.

This happens several times. Markus finds someone who tells more of the story and when he returns to his dad to reveal what he learns he is told to just give it up. But in not so nice of terms. The story is really about Tom Cottin, but Andrew is there, as a young boy growing up in Madero.

It’s an interesting way to tell the story. Although partway through the POV would switch from the person telling the story to the past, as if it was happening at the current moment. It was a bit jarring at first, as how would the characters know these actions. And that is part of a weakness here, that included in these sections are moments that the person telling this would not know some of it.