The ties that bind

A disclaimer: I am prejudiced in favor of this book—because it’s written by my brother, Mike Cavender.

Nonetheless, it’s a good book and worth your attention.

Some back story. Mike began writing this book some eight years ago. After the finishing the first draft, he submitted it to numerous agents. The usual form rejection letters followed. But he is a determined guy and a smart one. So, he started revising. And learning more about the craft of fiction at workshops, most notably those taught by Ron Rash, Western North Carolina poet and novelist. Mike showed various revised drafts to friends, relatives, and professional editors. He was open to reasonable critiques and worked hard to polish and strengthen his story.

This year, after finishing the fifth draft, he was about ready to start submitting to agents again. Then, he started thinking about how old he was (68) and decided he didn’t want to waste any more time waiting to hear from agents. So, he resolved to self-publish, and decided to use the Amazon platform, Create Space.Yesterday, Mike held in his hands the hard copy of his novel, Revenge on the Fly. Such a sweet moment.

The book traces  a decades-long arc of family greed and betrayal. At the story’s heart is a profound conflict about the value of pristine land and old-growth forest in the Appalachians and the hunger of developers for new land. (For many years, Mike and his wife Paulette lived in the Western North Carolina where Mike was executive director of the Highland-Cashiers Land Trust—so he knows these issues well.) Some of the novel’s best writing evokes the beauty and mystery of the mountains, and the fly-fishing themes are described with wit and authenticity (Mike was a fly-fishing guide for s few years, too.)

So, years of toil and commitment to improving the book—now, it’s here. It’s just been listed on Amazon, and the Kindle version should be up in a couple of weeks.

http://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Fly-Michael-Cavender/dp/1484915100/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384701121&sr=8-3&keywords=michael+cavender

As Ron Rash says on the cover blurb, “Revenge on the Fly is a beautiful meditation on the ties that bind us to family and place.”  

Unraveling a little boy's identity

(I found this one of the more compelling stories I've read in recent years, and it was a pleasure to review. It is reprinted with permission from Our State magazine.)

A Case for Solomon

By Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright. Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, 2012. 436 pages, hardback, $26.99.

          It seemed a simple and redemptive story—at first.

In 1912, a 4-year-old child wandered away from a family gathering and vanished in the Louisiana swampland. At first, the little boy, Bobby Dunbar, was feared drowned or eaten by alligators, but his parents soon came to believe that he was abducted. Fueled more by hope than any evidence of kidnapping, the family conducted an aggressive campaign to find Bobby, and, in the process, galvanized public sympathy. After 8 months, Bobby was found, dirty but safe, in the company of an itinerant tinker. He and his parents, Lessie and Percy Dunbar, were reunited and the public rejoiced.

            But wait: the story is not so simple. Another woman surfaced, and Julia Anderson claimed that the child was her son Bruce, taken from her North Carolina home months earlier by an acquaintance.

            A protracted battle ensued, fought in the courts and—more insidiously—in the court of public opinion.  Newspapers battling for circulation capitalized on the story’s conflict and emotion. Aggressive reporters invaded the Dunbar’s home, insisting on interviewing the parents and even little Bobby, and they converged on and bullied Julia when she traveled to Louisiana to see the child she believed was hers. Like our present-day paparazzi, the yellow journalists harassed and intimidated the families, the children, and witnesses. Increasingly, the real truth became mired in competing versions of reality.

            This historically accurate account reads like both a thriller and a tragedy. The meticulous research anchors the story and brings alive the century-old events through vivid description. Margaret Dunbar Cutright, a North Carolinian and granddaughter of Bobby Dunbar, conducted the early research into family documents. Co-author Tal McThenia initially produced the story as a segment for the NPR radio show, This American Life; subsequently, the two teamed up to write this book.

            The central question—who is the child—Bobby Dunbar or Bruce Anderson?—is not resolved until almost a century after the original disappearance. In the intervening years, the parents and the child grapple with pain, loss, and haunting questions of identity. But ultimately, there is redemption and healing. Not a simple story, but a wondrous one.

(You can download the NPR story, The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar, from the archives of This American Life:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbar)