Fiction Addict

Genre: Literary, Historical Fiction

Publisher: Hawthorne Books/Riverhead Books

Publication Date: 2007

Reviewed by Jaci Miller

The Moores are a coal-mining family in Depression-era Alabama. Tess, the middle of the family’s three children, witnesses a frightening event—a strange woman dropping an infant into the family’s well. When the police investigation reveals little, Tess and her older sister, Virgie, search for the mother of the infant among the women in their town.

The girls’ parents, Albert and Leta, both work desperately hard—Albert on the farm and in the mine, and Leta at home—to provide for their family. They grow very concerned when Tess begins having nightmares about the dead infant. Then Jack, the youngest child, is involved in a severe accident, straining the family even further. As the Moores struggle emotionally, financially and physically, friendships are tested and the truth about the infant in the well is revealed.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips is an understated account of family, struggle, race relations and growing up. What could easily become a story with a sensationalistic plot remains believable and honest. The tone is as down-to-earth as Phillips’s characters and readers find themselves feeling right at home in the mine, on the country roads and in the Moores’ small house. Told from the point-of-view of each family member in turn, readers view the full family dynamic at work: Albert’s work ethic, Leta’s self-sacrifice, Virgie’s tentative adolescence, Tess’s joyfulness and Jack’s memories of childhood all combine into a humble work of beautiful family life.