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THEY MAY NOT INHERIT THE 'EARTH'

July 11, 2010 12:36 am

WHEN I started Jon Clinch's "Kings of The Earth" I was unfamiliar with the author and also unfamiliar with the movie/documentary "Brother's Keeper." After finishing "Kings of The Earth" I vowed that I would read Clinch's first novel, "Finn," and at some point watch "Brother's Keeper."

"Kings of The Earth" is a fictional account based on actual events involving the Ward brothers that unspooled in upstate New York in the early 1990s (as documented in the award-winning "Brother's Keeper"). Clinch employs a device similar to the one that William Faulkner used in "As I Lay Dying" to convey the story of the "Proctor" brothers in "Kings of The Earth." Each chapter is headed with a character name and told from his point of view. Some of the chapters are little more than a few sentences, but they are very effective in presenting the tale of what is essentially a conflict between old versus new--rural versus modern.

The three Proctor brothers live together on a farm in New York, and when Vernon passes away in the bed he shares with his brothers, Audie and Creed, the two surviving brothers wake and carry on with tending to the farm. The police are called to transport the body, and during the ensuing investigation there is some question as to how exactly Vernon died. Vernon was terminally ill, so this is not the stuff of CSI, yet the authorities feel an obligation to investigate and then to prosecute as the evidence dictates.

None of the Proctor brothers is well-educated, and the signed murder confession from one of the brothers hinges mostly on the promise of McDonald's hamburgers. Clinch attempts to be an impartial judge but his juxtaposing of the simplicity of rural life versus the numbing modernity of McDonald's is pretty telling. Ultimately the surviving brothers just want to be left alone and continue with the only life they know, which is to tend to their cows and farm their land. But pressures from the outside world that they ignored start to seep in through the police investigation and also through extended family.

Much of the novel's tension comes from the desire to see a way of life preserved and good people be allowed to continue to lead their lives in the manner that suits them. Today that preservation effort may seem impossible, but Clinch holds up the Proctors as evidence for such an effort and an indictment of those who insist on imposing their own set of values on the rest of the world. "Kings of The Earth" should prove to be one of the best books of the summer season.

Drew Gallagher is a freelance reviewer in Spotsylvania.