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The Well and the Mine

by Gin Phillips, Fannie Flagg (Introduction)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 1,980 ratings · 476 reviews

Barnes Noble Discover Great New Writers

"After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time.
But I kept hearing the splash."

So begins The Well and the Mine, a magnificent debut novel set in 1930s Alabama. The place is Carbon Hill, a small coal-mining community, in the midst of the Depression. The Moore family, a loving brood of five, is better off than mos...more

Paperback, 251 pages

Published January 21st 2008 by Hawthorne Books

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

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Apr 19, 2009 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: work-review-related-reading, 5-star

This book, Phillips' debut novel, came out last year on Hawthorne Books, which has now belongs to Penguin, who will be re-releasing it sometime in the not too distant future. And well they should--this is a marvelous novel. Set in 1931 in Carbon Hill, Alabama, this book is more of a snapshot of life in a southern coal town than anything else. There is a bit of a mystery--a nine year old girl sees an unfamiliar woman throw a baby in a well on night--but it's biggest asset is the wonderful, detail...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Mosborne01 rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's a stunning metaphor hidden in the title of this novel: the mine (being a void of ever-increasing scale) is juxtaposed with the well which renews itself constantly, despite daily depletion. It's a great image: the mine offers up smoky, pitch-black coal, the well gives cool, refreshing water. I say the metaphor is 'hidden' because Phillips does almost nothing with this contrast. It's there, and it's set up, but it doesn't go anywhere. A bit like the Depression that surrounds this tale.

If T...more There's a stunning metaphor hidden in the title of this novel: the mine (being a void of ever-increasing scale) is juxtaposed with the well which renews itself constantly, despite daily depletion. It's a great image: the mine offers up smoky, pitch-black coal, the well gives cool, refreshing water. I say the metaphor is 'hidden' because Phillips does almost nothing with this contrast. It's there, and it's set up, but it doesn't go anywhere. A bit like the Depression that surrounds this tale.

If To Kill a Mockingbird were set in a small mining town and the main characters had to more fully confront the grim reality of life during the depression, this would be that novel.

A baby is thrown into the Moore family's well. It's witnessed by 9 year old Tess and forms the central mystery that drives the story. Tess and her sister Virgie decide they are going to find out who could commit such a crime and begin their investigations. What they uncover is more about life itself in 1930s, Jim Crow deep south than it is about any one particular crime. A great tonal element is the ever-present threat posed by the savagely dangerous mines to which most of the characters owe their livelihoods. Collapses, explosions, rockfalls are always threatening as are foreclosures and unemployment.

The circling narrative, skipping constantly between all five members of the family is a nice touch. It's always surfacing different views of the same events but it also builds empathy for each character, narrator or not. Some of the race issues are handled a little clumsily, such as (father) Albert's awkward invitations to a black colleague to ride with him in the front seat of his car or to come for dinner. These are never resolved and they don't fully confront the even grimmer reality of being black in 1930s, Jim Crow deep south. Albert's half-hearted attempts at racial conciliation match the novel itself and Phillip's half-hearted attempts to grapple with such an issue.

There are some little touches of magic however, such as Leta's very understated but pivotal role in the novel, matching perfectly her role in the family as a whole. At the end, the novel is certainly more of a source of replenishment than depletion.(less)

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Apr 08, 2009 Lara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lara by: Alice Jackson

Gin Phillips won a Barnes & Noble "Discover New Writers" award of some sort for it, so I'm not the only one who loved it. Gin also went to Birmingham-Southern College with one of my three friends named Alice, and Alice was kind enough to send me the book in the hopes that I would agree with her about its awesomeness. Alice has fantastic taste, so I wasn't worried.

Anyway, the book is set in rural Alabama in the 1930's and it opens with 9-year-old Tess witnessing someone dumping what appears t...more

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Apr 11, 2009 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-picks, literature-fiction, 2009-reading-journal

Not a book I ordinarily would pick up on my own; this was my April book club selection. The Well and the Mine was a work of Southern literature, based around a family living in a coal mining town. The book opened with a little girl witnessing someone dropping her baby down their well. This act immediately hooked me and made me want to find out who this mystery woman was and why she did it.

The narrative alternated between the perspectives of each of the five family members. The well incident spar...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Jane Odgers rated it 3 of 5 stars

After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time.
But I kept hearing the splash."

So begins The Well and the Mine, a magnificent debut novel set in 1930s Alabama. The place is Carbon Hill, a small coal-mining community, in the midst of the Depression. The Moore family, a loving brood of five, is better off than most, generous to their less fortunate neighbors. But darkness arrives at their doorstep when a mysterious woman throws a baby down the Moores' well, and the story slow...more

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Jun 25, 2011 McGuffy Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

By Gin Phillips

Reading this beautiful book takes you back in time to a special place and its people. We see and experience 1931 Alabama through the eyes and voices of a coal mining family. Each voice tells of their hardships, as they see and feel them. They speak of their own lives while reflecting on others. They are guided by deep morals and values. Through them we are given an impression of the coal mining industry. We see the effect on those who actually work the mines and their families.

On...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the early 1930's the country was still trying to claw its wayh out of the depression. This story takes place during that time in a small mining town in Alabama.

The story is about the Moore family and their attempt to survive in an area where jobs are few and the work is hard. The book begins with the youngest Moore girl, Tess, sitting on her back porch and seeing a young lady throw a child into their well.

An investigation determines that the child was dead before being put into the well.

Alber...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Heidi Pikula rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is Phillips' debut novel, and it is MARVELOUS!!!

Set in 1931 in Carbon Hill, Alabama, this book is more of a snapshot of life in a southern coal town than anything else.

She begins with a touch of mystery - nine year old Tess sees an unfamiliar woman throw a baby in the family well one night - and this mystery follows through the whole book, as the wonderful, detailed and delightful characters unfold; I was captivated from the very first page!

The Well and the Mine centers on a family:...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Jan rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was recommended by Wendy Kirkland. I liked how the author had
each character 'speak' about their experience. The language used was
nice, flowing and realistic. The book shed light on how racism and
racist thoughts can come about in young children through innocent enough
ways; adults don't neccessarily have to teach it to young ones. The premise was good; who threw the baby down the well? The rest of the
story occurred during the daily lives of some very poor people; depression era Alabama. I lea...more

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Sep 06, 2009 Tattered Cover Book Store added it

Shelves: jackie-recommends, book-club-recommends, staff-recommends

Jackie says:

This book, Phillips' debut novel, came out last year on Hawthorne Books, which has now belongs to Penguin, who will be re-releasing it sometime in the not too distant future. And well they should--this is a marvelous novel. Set in 1931 in Carbon Hill, Alabama, this book is more of a snapshot of life in a southern coal town than anything else. There is a bit of a mystery--a nine year old girl sees an unfamiliar woman throw a baby in a well on night--but it's biggest asset is the wonde...more

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Jun 18, 2009 L rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book gives you a strong feeling for life in a coal-mining town in the early '30s, with families getting by on a combination of mining and farming. Whether that feeling is accurate is a separate issue.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around the mystery of who threw a baby in the Moore's well and Tess and her older sister's efforts to figure out who did this.

The novel encompasses so much! It is about the mystery, of course. More than that, though, it's about mining, race relations, family...more This book gives you a strong feeling for life in a coal-mining town in the early '30s, with families getting by on a combination of mining and farming. Whether that feeling is accurate is a separate issue.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around the mystery of who threw a baby in the Moore's well and Tess and her older sister's efforts to figure out who did this.

The novel encompasses so much! It is about the mystery, of course. More than that, though, it's about mining, race relations, family life, community, and the like, all among people who work so very hard just to get by. In many ways the book is unflinching.

You come away from this book know that these people worked hard; some descriptions left me physically tired and achy. They had hard lives without much to spare. Yet they are gracious people in a way that's difficult to describe. (You'll just have to read the book.)

Albert, father, miner, and landowner lives in a body that is pretty beaten down by the mines. Despite owning his own place and being better off than many, he and his family are not exactly living the high life. They are, of course, good people, somewhat romanticized. But they are not painted as perfect. For instance, Albert has a number of internal dialogues about race relations. We see that he and his wife are not in agreement over the advisability of Albert inviting an African American co-worker for dinner. Neither is that co-worker in agreement with Albert. In fact, through discussion of the (rejected) dinner invitation, he is part of Albert coming to realize that being a "good man" and looking through color--sometimes--is not enough, that all the rest of "it" does, indeed, matter (it being the state of African American life in Alabama in the '30s). We see casual racism by Albert's friends and loved ones. We see how poorly the share-croppers on Albert's land get by and that Tess & her siblings do not have to pick cotton once the novelty gives way to aches, blood, and tiredness.

Life in the mines is not romanticized. And Albert has quite a bit to tell us about the mines and the value of the union. Details such as how a miner holds his lunch sandwich without moving his fingers at all, so he can throw the last bite, covered black with coal-dust, to the rats are not romantic. Nor are the dirt or the separate pay line (and pay scales) for Black and white.

Still, Albert is so self-conscious about race and even among his family and friends, the racism we see is not what we think of when we think of the south during that time. So the obvious question is: Where were all these sensitive white Southerners? Were they there? Probably. Some. Were they too few to matter? Were they afraid to speak out? Were they ineffectual? The thing is that in recent times we've seen more and more such Southern whites in popular media. Does this represent a part of the South that's been buried? Or is it a cultural re-writing of history? At the same time, I do remember that when interviewing in the South some 20 years ago, I was struck by what seemed to me to be signs of more overt racism among transplanted Northerners than among the born-and-raised Southerners I met. Perhaps, like many things, this is more complicated than we recognize.

And the budding feminism in Virgie, the older sister--it seems a bit, well, overdone, perhaps.

The book is organized using first-person narratives by all the family members. These are labeled with speakers' names, which is quite handy it keeping track of who's on first. That's actually great. The pieces of the novel also skip around in time, with no such clarity. That's not so great.

All in all, this is a touching novel. It is a bit sentimental, with a faint rose-color in the glasses, but all in all, well worth reading. (less)

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Apr 09, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, alabama

I loved this book.

I loved the tenderness between the characters themselves and the tenderness with which the author wrote about them.

I loved the five distinct voices of the members of the Moore family, whose alternating narrations unwind the story frontwards, backwards, and inwards.

I loved the "wisp of suspense," as one reviewer put it; but I also loved that the mystery was embedded in the character development, not the other way around.

I loved the reality of it. Even the best of folks trying to...more

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Nov 16, 2009 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very good book for a first time author. It is the story of the Moore family of Carbon Hill, Alabama. It is told from the viewpoints of its five members: Leta, the mother, Albert, the father, Virgie , the oldest daughter, Tess, the younger daughter and son, Jack.

Albert, a coal miner and part time farmer, his wife and family live on a farm. The farm is tended by his tentant farmers. Albert works in the coal mine, Leta takes care of his part of the farm.

Tess, the younger daughter, like to sit...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book that was reminiscent ofTo Kill a Mockingbird. It is set in Alabama in the 1930's, and it chronicles several months in the lives of the Moore family. Told from five different viewpoints, it is a quiet book, slow-paced, in which this family of five and their neighbors struggle to live dignified lives in often undignified circumstances.

The story begins when Tess Moore, aged nine, witnesses a woman cloaked in shadows tossing a baby down her family's well. At first, her f...more This was an interesting book that was reminiscent ofTo Kill a Mockingbird. It is set in Alabama in the 1930's, and it chronicles several months in the lives of the Moore family. Told from five different viewpoints, it is a quiet book, slow-paced, in which this family of five and their neighbors struggle to live dignified lives in often undignified circumstances.

The story begins when Tess Moore, aged nine, witnesses a woman cloaked in shadows tossing a baby down her family's well. At first, her father, Albert, her mother, Leta, her older sister, Virgie, and younger brother, Jack, do not believe her. But soon they discover that are the ones who are mistaken. They also discover a whole different world outside the insular one that they have been living in, a world in which a woman can dispose of her baby in such a seemingly callous manner. Finding the baby at the bottom of their well is the beginning of an end to whatever innocence they have possessed, stirring up a number of suppressed feelings and anxieties within them.

Haunted by nightmares of the baby, Tess confides this to her sister who suggests they find the woman from the well so they can give the baby a name and lay its spirit to rest, hopefully ending Tess' nightmares in the process. But this book is not so much about their investigation as it is about their awakening to the world around them comprised of others even less fortunate than they are, some touched by racism.

This book is for the most part a well written story full of beautiful descriptions of the mundane made extraordinary. It is the story of a family and a community doing their best to survive in uncertain times and with uncertainty within themselves. I did have some issues with it, though. The five different viewpoints comprising the Moore family were very similar in tone despite the fact that they ranged in age from around forty to five. Sometimes, I had to check at the beginning of a section to see whose viewpoint I was reading about. Also, strangely enough, Jack's voice is coming to the reader from the future, revealing some key information that all but dissolves any tension in the story. For example, (view spoiler). I would rather have been on pins and needles instead. Still, I recommend this book for the slow revelations left open to the reader such as the one at the end of the book: "He figured...that the right answer could be more than one thing at the same time."

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Mar 05, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in 1930s rural Alabama, outside Birmingham. Feels like a piece of my ancestry knowing I had some relatives on my mother's side from there, around that time period.

The author explores social injustice from a family's perspective-- issues ranging from when and who a young girl should begin dating, how to determine need when sharing out your extras amid plenty of poverty, a father's dedication to back-breaking work in the mines, and the small beginnings of changing race relations for the better...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Kaylyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book about a family living in Alabahma. The father is a miner and the mother takes care of everything in the house. One night the middle child spots a women who throws a baby into their well. Tess the girl didnt see who throw the baby in. The book really goes on to tell about the family's life who the next year or so. The talk about how the oldest wants to go to school after high school, and how the son wont go into the mines like his father. It really just tells the story of a simple...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Dana Stabenow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

Not quite sure what I think about this book. There's some good characterization. I like the way the narrator switches from Albert to Leta to Tess to Virgie to Jack, all pretty distinct voices. The setting is well drawn (impossible to think Albert could ever scrub off all that coal dust), and the unending grind of everyday life is exhausting to read, let alone live through, but the racial discrimination only really comes to life when Albert and the deputy are negotiating Jonah's release.

The first...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Kat Hagedorn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed

http://tinyurl.com/345jfsp

This is an admirable first novel. I'm sure all first novellists quail at that kind of sentence as it is patronizing and implies room for improvement. Well, that's partly true here. I don't wish to be patronizing, but I do think there is room for improvement.

The book centers on an event at a family's water well and how life unfolds for each member after this event. Phillips' character development is very good (apart from the mother, Leta, who I feel is never done justice...more

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Jan 05, 2010 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most likely one of the best written books I have read in a while. Interesting perspective from the characters. The book takes place during the depression era. 1931 in a coal mining town in the South.

Has a little mystery in it but not much. So, if you are not a fan of mystery novels please don't igore this book because of that small feature.

Interesting to read about daily lifes, traumas, hard work, education and general life that took place during that era. It makes me wonder if 60 years from now...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Rosie rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was an interesting story told by each member of the Moore family. The Moores lived in Alabama where the father worked in a coal mine during the 1930's. The story tells of their struggles and those of others in their community. A mystery unfolds that impacts each member of the family.

1 like · like · see review

Aug 22, 2012 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction, historical

I first read Gin Phillips' second book, "Come In and Cover Me," and I wasn't thrilled. However, I suspected it was a lackluster second book--as is often the case--and I was right! Her debut novel, "The Well and the Mine," was a lovely read. What I enjoyed so much about this one was that it touches upon so many social ills and controversies--racism and segregation, industrialization, environmentalism, feminism and the evolution of the concept of working mom/homemaker, poverty, even workplace safe...more I first read Gin Phillips' second book, "Come In and Cover Me," and I wasn't thrilled. However, I suspected it was a lackluster second book--as is often the case--and I was right! Her debut novel, "The Well and the Mine," was a lovely read. What I enjoyed so much about this one was that it touches upon so many social ills and controversies--racism and segregation, industrialization, environmentalism, feminism and the evolution of the concept of working mom/homemaker, poverty, even workplace safety--without ever making a hardline stance or delving into the intricacies of the concepts. I appreciated Phillips' restraint, her way of treating the topics the way her characters really would if they were actual people: a bit of confusion mixed with a large dose of "I'd love to focus a whole lot on this, but I have to make a living and take care of my family first."

The prose was great, and I really love Phillips' voice. The only criticism I have is that -- well, I know it's popular to do the "this chapter is in this character's voice, the next is in another character's voice" thing. When authors employ that technique, though, I always want them to CHANGE voices. If Albert is speaking, I want to be able to know it's him, not Leta or Tess or Virgie, based solely on the language used and the rhythm of the words. To me, it seemed like minus a few phrases and the actual content of the paragraphs, all of the characters had the same voice. Sure, Tess might have had a fixation on the magical, and Virgie might have been a bit more humanitarian, but all of them spoke exactly the same. Even Jonah, the sole African American character who speaks, spoke exactly like the main characters, who were white. Maybe I was expecting too much, but in such a segregated society, in which Jonah certainly faced more obstacles and fewer educational opportunities, I'd expect his dialect to be markedly different from Albert's.

A really good book -- deceiving in its simplicity, and a great demonstration of an author who held back and let her characters' lives do the explaining. (less)

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Jul 02, 2012 Jennifer Westall rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-reading-challenge, challenge-impaired-group

Gin Philips does a beautiful job of painting a picture of Depression era Alabama. Through the viewpoints of one family in the coal mining town of Carbon Hill, she brings alive a time that many young people today can't imagine, much less relate to. The writing is superb; it often feels like you're sitting down with these people at their kitchen table while they tell you a fine story over a tall glass of sweet tea. I love that Philips shows an accurate picture of Southern life--the heat, the love...more

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Apr 01, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"AFTER SHE THREW THE BABY IN, NOBODY BELIEVED ME for the longest time. But I kept hearing that splash".

What a fabulous opening to this debut novel! Nine year old Tess Moore and her older sister Virgie strive to discover the identity of the strange woman who threw a baby into their well in 1931. However, the more important story which comes to the fore is how the community of Carbon Hill, Alabama cope with the hardships which accompany the Depression.

The story is told from multiple points of vi...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Tori rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very much "To Kill a Mocking Bird" feel to it, perhaps because the main character being a young tom boy. However, it was a different side of that similar story. Instead of an Atticus, there was Albert the main character's father who worked in the coal mines his whole life. A simple man with strong principles, my favorite character in the book. He doesn't see nor understand the fuss in what occurs around him, so he doesn't bother himself with it. He assumes that a good man, regardless of race,...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think the fact that I read this book on the plane to and from Brad's grandma's funeral made me like it even more. That might seem like a weird comment, but it is set in the early 1930s, which is when Grandma was a teenager, so I felt like I was in her world. Even though it takes place in Alabama and she lived in Kansas, there were many simliarities between how the characters lived and how Grandma lived.

The plot is very internal and character driven rather than action driven. I thought the cha...more

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Jun 13, 2013 Amalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-from-n-america, historical-fiction, bildungsroman

For a debut novel this is wonderful! Better than I expected. Really, I'm not much familiar with American literature from this era, so this was another new experience (other than Mockingbird|2657] and The Sound and the Fury.

She writes about poverty, racism, prejudice, and family life in the 1930s , I liked the reality of it better than Harper Lee's which seems near to perfection. Phillips understands and shows just like the well and mining; people/characters too will continue to discover and not...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Cassidy Lowe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having lived in Alabama for a couple of years now and so many of the people I meet having connection with the coal mines near Birmingham I decided to give this book a go. It took me a little bit to warm up to the story being told from an entire family's perspective in small snippets but eventually I decided this is what was so enndearing to the book. Now that I've finished I'm missing their perspectives and sad it's over. This book paints a good picture of what life might have been like here bac...more

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Nov 12, 2010 Jodie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lovely novel set in a mining town in the 1930's. It starts out as a mystery about a baby being dropped down a well, which Tess witnesses, but that is really just the entry used to learn about the Moore family. Each member of the family Leta (mum), Albert (dad), Virgie (oldest daughter), Tess (youngest daughter) and little Jack (son) have a voice in this book and the author pulls it off convincingly giving each character a tone and resonance of their own. The writing is really lovely, I liked t...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Monique rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-reading-list

The Well and the Mine was a surprising read. The synopsis of the story doesn't do it justice. This is more than the story of Tess and Virgie trying to solve the mystery of the dead baby. It is about the town that they live in, the people that lived there (both black and white), the era they lived in, and the way they survived.

One of the best things about The Well and the Mine is that it is from the first person perspective of all the members of the Moore family. In each story the reader gets an...more The Well and the Mine was a surprising read. The synopsis of the story doesn't do it justice. This is more than the story of Tess and Virgie trying to solve the mystery of the dead baby. It is about the town that they live in, the people that lived there (both black and white), the era they lived in, and the way they survived.

One of the best things about The Well and the Mine is that it is from the first person perspective of all the members of the Moore family. In each story the reader gets an view into all five members point of view. Normally this style of writing can be pretty tricky to do but Phillips made it easy to adjust to the shifting character perspectives by labeling the change. Also, when switching from perspective to perspective the themes and timeline stayed the same. The youngest member of the family, Jack, set up the beginning of each chapter by reflecting on his childhood. By presenting each members view point readers got to see not only how the events at the mine affected them at the time but also how they changed their future.

The characters were very well developed. They were all likeable and relateable. Some of the characters were reminiscent of characters in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Tess comes of as a lot like Scout, a tomboy that is just enjoying her life until something happens that shakes her would. Albert is a little like Atticus but less scholarly. All of Albert's veiw point were based more of experince. His views on race and how his children were suppose to be raised were passed on personal experience and his beliefs about good or bad. It was interesting how the incident at the well and made him question his own actions and short comings.

One of the most interesting things about the story (personally) was the treatment of race issues in 1931. The children (Tess, Virgie, and Jack) never really deal with race, there is one incident with Jack. Albert is the one that deals with race the most and it is this experince that makes his sections so compelling to read.
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May 25, 2012 Alisonb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

ahhhhhh... I really liked this book! It was not a quick read... mostly because I wanted to read EVERY SINGLE WORD and then I wanted to read them again. It was so beautifully written.

A favorite quote:

"We could be lookin' her in the face every day."

"But you can tell crazy," I said.

"If it's so plain, why doesn't she stick out? Crazy or evil must look different than we thought."

The story is set in the early 1930s, in a small town in Alabama. Nine-year-old Tess watches from the shadows as a woman tos...more

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About Gin Phillips

Gin Phillips is a freelance writer whose features have appeared in American Profile, American Spirit, Platinum, and Womans World. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama; The Well and the Mine is her first novel. The book has been featured or will be featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, the LA Times, Poets & Writers, and Publshers Weekly. For more information about the book, please visit www.hawthorneb ...more

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