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A Shelter of Others
Following his release from prison, Mason Laws returns to the mountains of his youth where his estranged wife, Lavada, has been caring for his ailing father in Mason's absence. As Mason and Lavada each set forth to recover themselves, they remain entrenched in the rural and rugged landscape that bore them and their own haunted histories. This moving story tells of the families we're born into, the families we make for ourselves, and how tightly woven are the ties that bind.
146 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2014
5 people are currently reading
704 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dodd White
13 books231 followersCharles Dodd White is the author of six books. He has received the Appalachian Book of the Year Award and the Chaffin Award for his fiction. His next novel, THE WORLD ITSELF, is forthcoming in 2027 from Regal House. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he teaches English at Pellissippi State Community College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
August 23, 2021
This is Charles Dodd White's second novel, and the third one that I have read personally. They are all completely different, yet very much alike in the beauty of the phrasing and language, believable characters, descriptions of the natural world, and plots that are at times fast paced, and at other times meandering, but always bringing you back to where you need to be. Because of circumstances, I had to read this slower than I wished, but that didn't stop me from thinking about it between sessions. I loved every word. For a really complete and brilliant review, check out Josh Webber's thoughts. As Kirk said, I can't do better than that. Oh, and read this novel. Prepare to be blown away.
December 11, 2022
BEST. BOOK. EVER.
Way back in 2013, Charles Dodd White wrote a Goodreads review of his new novel, A Shelter of Others. It was brief – and to the point; with tongue planted firmly in cheek he wrote: BEST. BOOK. EVER.
I didn’t have a response then, not just because I hadn’t read the book, but also because I wasn’t a member of Goodreads, not having joined until a year later. The thread on the review came alive again this month because the book was selected by the Southern Literary Trail as one of its group reads. Since a number of my friends had been promoting White and praising his books for ages and I had them on my TBR list for almost as long, I read the BEST. BOOK. EVER.
In the comment section of White’s review I wrote that the experience of reading the book was like watching a slow motion train wreck that I could not look away from. Lo and behold, White responded: “That's my specialty!”
White has written four novels and a short story collection and his comment about his specialty sealed the deal for me on his other work. I greatly admire writers who can create authentic characters and formulate a slow-burning plot that takes on a life of its own as it rushes to a conclusion. A Shelter of Others is such a book and White was able to accomplish all this in just 216 pages, despite the fact that the story is told from the point of view of five characters, and that the writing is so lyrical that certain passages could be read as free verse poetry.
I put the book down only one time and that was to place an order for his short story collection, Sinners of Sanction County (2011).
Here are the five characters whose lives become intertwined and whose points of view are presented in the story:
LAVADA AND SAM
Lavada, the heart and soul of the story, is my favorite character. She is a nurturer who has no children of her own, her only pregnancy having ended in a miscarriage. Her husband has returned to the area, but not to her, after spending two years in prison as the result of a drug dealing conviction.
“So much of her time was spent in the basic struggle to survive, to make new what sustained her through the long days of self-debate and plain, fumbling hurt that she often failed her own tending, spited what had kept her safe, kept her able.”
She may have failed her own tending but not that of Sam, her father-in-law, who has descended into the hellish chasm of dementia, experiencing only brief stretches of awareness.
MASON
Mason is Lavada’s husband and Sam’s son. He has ambivalent feelings, a mixture of love and hate, regarding both his wife and father. It is easy at first to dislike him for his past treatment of Lavada and his present unwillingness to even contact her or his father.
But one learns there is more to Mason than what first impressions would imply. We learn that he is capable of empathy and that he could even feel compassion for an old mangy, flea-bitten mongrel.
White was quoted in an interview that he liked taking “someone who should not be sympathetic and to portray him with a sense of compassion. I feel like there is an act of gratitude and wisdom in doing that. You are telling a human story, not writing to formula.”
Mason is that someone.
“He could not allow himself to fall to pieces now that little more than mere pieces remained. He was a faulty but vital segment of architecture, a thin barrier against great suffering, both for himself and for those he loved.”
CODY
Cody is a deputy sheriff, who “wondered if he was normal, but knew in the end that he was not. There was a crucial difference in the way he was put together. He knew others didn’t find pleasure in the same way he did.”
Well, at least he was honest. And thank goodness others didn’t pursue the pleasures that he allowed himself.
He was dealt a bad hand as a child, much like Mason, but that experience marked him in such a manner that his bitterness is directed toward everyone with whom he comes into contact. He is cruel and sadistic and the only one of the five characters who is unable to feel any degree of human compassion.
DENNIS
Dennis is a good man with both feet planted firmly on the ground. He loves Lavada and he would like to take Mason’s place in her life, but he is afraid that will never be possible.
“His own life had been quiet, subdued. He was a foundation stone for others, a place to build up against. He did not desire the heartache of living too stringently. There was a kind of art, he knew, in living his life in support of those he cared for. He was content to let it remain so, regardless of what people might say."
THE LAND
In addition, it is important to note that the story is set in the southern Appalachians on the border between North and South Carolina. The mountains, valleys, and a river play an important role in the story, especially when all five characters take to the wilderness, each searching for something, but not for the same thing.
“This place held no guesses, no deceptions of promise, only the fate of knowing what others who had ridden these same roads and byways knew, that the world of bluff, creek and gorge was without parallel, that the grim and the beautiful were locked together and that the men and women were owned by it in equal measure, released by nothing so simple as God given will.”
*****
My thanks to Laura for introducing us to Charles Dodd White’s books and to all the other friends who read his books and wrote glowing reviews that finally inspired me to discover for myself that it was all deserved.
Way back in 2013, Charles Dodd White wrote a Goodreads review of his new novel, A Shelter of Others. It was brief – and to the point; with tongue planted firmly in cheek he wrote: BEST. BOOK. EVER.
I didn’t have a response then, not just because I hadn’t read the book, but also because I wasn’t a member of Goodreads, not having joined until a year later. The thread on the review came alive again this month because the book was selected by the Southern Literary Trail as one of its group reads. Since a number of my friends had been promoting White and praising his books for ages and I had them on my TBR list for almost as long, I read the BEST. BOOK. EVER.
In the comment section of White’s review I wrote that the experience of reading the book was like watching a slow motion train wreck that I could not look away from. Lo and behold, White responded: “That's my specialty!”
White has written four novels and a short story collection and his comment about his specialty sealed the deal for me on his other work. I greatly admire writers who can create authentic characters and formulate a slow-burning plot that takes on a life of its own as it rushes to a conclusion. A Shelter of Others is such a book and White was able to accomplish all this in just 216 pages, despite the fact that the story is told from the point of view of five characters, and that the writing is so lyrical that certain passages could be read as free verse poetry.
I put the book down only one time and that was to place an order for his short story collection, Sinners of Sanction County (2011).
Here are the five characters whose lives become intertwined and whose points of view are presented in the story:
LAVADA AND SAM
Lavada, the heart and soul of the story, is my favorite character. She is a nurturer who has no children of her own, her only pregnancy having ended in a miscarriage. Her husband has returned to the area, but not to her, after spending two years in prison as the result of a drug dealing conviction.
“So much of her time was spent in the basic struggle to survive, to make new what sustained her through the long days of self-debate and plain, fumbling hurt that she often failed her own tending, spited what had kept her safe, kept her able.”
She may have failed her own tending but not that of Sam, her father-in-law, who has descended into the hellish chasm of dementia, experiencing only brief stretches of awareness.
MASON
Mason is Lavada’s husband and Sam’s son. He has ambivalent feelings, a mixture of love and hate, regarding both his wife and father. It is easy at first to dislike him for his past treatment of Lavada and his present unwillingness to even contact her or his father.
But one learns there is more to Mason than what first impressions would imply. We learn that he is capable of empathy and that he could even feel compassion for an old mangy, flea-bitten mongrel.
White was quoted in an interview that he liked taking “someone who should not be sympathetic and to portray him with a sense of compassion. I feel like there is an act of gratitude and wisdom in doing that. You are telling a human story, not writing to formula.”
Mason is that someone.
“He could not allow himself to fall to pieces now that little more than mere pieces remained. He was a faulty but vital segment of architecture, a thin barrier against great suffering, both for himself and for those he loved.”
CODY
Cody is a deputy sheriff, who “wondered if he was normal, but knew in the end that he was not. There was a crucial difference in the way he was put together. He knew others didn’t find pleasure in the same way he did.”
Well, at least he was honest. And thank goodness others didn’t pursue the pleasures that he allowed himself.
He was dealt a bad hand as a child, much like Mason, but that experience marked him in such a manner that his bitterness is directed toward everyone with whom he comes into contact. He is cruel and sadistic and the only one of the five characters who is unable to feel any degree of human compassion.
DENNIS
Dennis is a good man with both feet planted firmly on the ground. He loves Lavada and he would like to take Mason’s place in her life, but he is afraid that will never be possible.
“His own life had been quiet, subdued. He was a foundation stone for others, a place to build up against. He did not desire the heartache of living too stringently. There was a kind of art, he knew, in living his life in support of those he cared for. He was content to let it remain so, regardless of what people might say."
THE LAND
In addition, it is important to note that the story is set in the southern Appalachians on the border between North and South Carolina. The mountains, valleys, and a river play an important role in the story, especially when all five characters take to the wilderness, each searching for something, but not for the same thing.
“This place held no guesses, no deceptions of promise, only the fate of knowing what others who had ridden these same roads and byways knew, that the world of bluff, creek and gorge was without parallel, that the grim and the beautiful were locked together and that the men and women were owned by it in equal measure, released by nothing so simple as God given will.”
*****
My thanks to Laura for introducing us to Charles Dodd White’s books and to all the other friends who read his books and wrote glowing reviews that finally inspired me to discover for myself that it was all deserved.
September 5, 2021
This was my first encounter with the writing of Charles Dodd White, and it was an experience I hope to repeat soon. His pacing is perfect. He uses a staccato style that causes your heart to race as the tension builds, and you feel as caught in the whirlpool of events as the poor characters themselves.
Lavada Laws is a good woman, who has chained her life to a bad man, we immediately assume so, because Mason Laws is in prison and she has been left with the full care of his father, Sam, who is suffering from dementia. One of the sweetest scenes, and perhaps one of the scariest for me, was one in which Sam wanders out into the frigid night and is retrieved by Lavada. He calls her “daughter” and the relationship between them is poignant.
One of the things White gets right is Sam and his state of mind and Lavada’s reaction to it. There is nothing simple about a person succumbing to dementia, and there is nothing consistent about it either.
There were always bumps, but this seemed different somehow. As if he inhabited a twin of himself in some approximate place, not absent so much as simply attentive elsewhere, obedient to a duality unknown to her. She supposed it frightened her, though that might not have been the right word. Confused, maybe.
Without giving away any spoilers, Mason is released from prison and returns to Lavada’s world, and the repercussions are neither what Lavada expects nor what the reader expects. In fact, there is little predictable in this novel, but everything we read is frighteningly believable.
There is total unrest in each of White’s characters. No one here is settled, contented or happy. There is too much uncertainty in this environment, and the beauty of the mountains that surround them is tempered with the knowledge of the dangers they can hold. No one is leading an easy life in this place, for both nature and the people of the community are as hard as stone, and peace is something only wished for.
He wanted to be blessed with an animal brain. Oh, to be silent for a moment in the gaze of the blank sky.
Even Lavada's dreams of her grandmother are stark and sad and lack comfort. In fact, like a mirror of the daily life she leads, in her dreams she finds nothing substantial to hold onto.
It was a counterfeit of a face really, a strange wronging of features, the paralyzed remnants after the second stroke. Lavada wanted to take her hands and pass them across the tangled muscles, iron the sickness away. When she reached for her, the old woman slackened, her inner form giving way so that the skin left behind was as light and drawn as a wish.
If you enjoy Southern Gothic literature, Charles Dodd White’s voice is one you will not want to miss. He will transport you to Appalachia and show you the bones of a life that demands more strength than courage, more perseverance than hope, and he will make you wish justice were not such a fickle commodity.
Lavada Laws is a good woman, who has chained her life to a bad man, we immediately assume so, because Mason Laws is in prison and she has been left with the full care of his father, Sam, who is suffering from dementia. One of the sweetest scenes, and perhaps one of the scariest for me, was one in which Sam wanders out into the frigid night and is retrieved by Lavada. He calls her “daughter” and the relationship between them is poignant.
One of the things White gets right is Sam and his state of mind and Lavada’s reaction to it. There is nothing simple about a person succumbing to dementia, and there is nothing consistent about it either.
There were always bumps, but this seemed different somehow. As if he inhabited a twin of himself in some approximate place, not absent so much as simply attentive elsewhere, obedient to a duality unknown to her. She supposed it frightened her, though that might not have been the right word. Confused, maybe.
Without giving away any spoilers, Mason is released from prison and returns to Lavada’s world, and the repercussions are neither what Lavada expects nor what the reader expects. In fact, there is little predictable in this novel, but everything we read is frighteningly believable.
There is total unrest in each of White’s characters. No one here is settled, contented or happy. There is too much uncertainty in this environment, and the beauty of the mountains that surround them is tempered with the knowledge of the dangers they can hold. No one is leading an easy life in this place, for both nature and the people of the community are as hard as stone, and peace is something only wished for.
He wanted to be blessed with an animal brain. Oh, to be silent for a moment in the gaze of the blank sky.
Even Lavada's dreams of her grandmother are stark and sad and lack comfort. In fact, like a mirror of the daily life she leads, in her dreams she finds nothing substantial to hold onto.
It was a counterfeit of a face really, a strange wronging of features, the paralyzed remnants after the second stroke. Lavada wanted to take her hands and pass them across the tangled muscles, iron the sickness away. When she reached for her, the old woman slackened, her inner form giving way so that the skin left behind was as light and drawn as a wish.
If you enjoy Southern Gothic literature, Charles Dodd White’s voice is one you will not want to miss. He will transport you to Appalachia and show you the bones of a life that demands more strength than courage, more perseverance than hope, and he will make you wish justice were not such a fickle commodity.
September 30, 2021
Excellent!!! Charles Dodd White should be considered an expert in developing characters. They were flawless. They hold true to their individual natures from beginning to end. This a heavy southern novel. Some might think it was all so tragic. Parts are tragic but this quote summed it up for me. "Something would have to be built out of all this wreckage, and only a survivor was fit to build a house shaped by truth." There is no way you can feel emotionally indifferent when reading this book. Highly recommend if you're a southern gothic fanatic but if not, this may turn you into one.
Second reading, no less impressive. Highly recommend. Author has many books to choose from and none disappoint.
Second reading, no less impressive. Highly recommend. Author has many books to choose from and none disappoint.
September 12, 2021
Charles Dodd White deserves to be included in the list of those notable authors who write about their knowledge and connection to Appalachia. He is the real deal and is impressive in his ability to tell a story and create characters. His novel, A Shelter of Others is my first but it won’t be my last. Six days after finishing, I am still thinking about the characters and the situations each found themselves in. To me, this is the sign of a well-written book, one that will keep me wondering and reflecting. I was engrossed from the beginning with how rich but succinct his prose is and how vastly vivid and lifelike he created characters that are so distinguished by this region of the United States. He has a noir style which doesn’t (in this novel) create anxiety or a stark violence as others who write this genre (William Gay, Larry Brown, Flannery O’Connor). However, he has an ability to grasp at the reader’s heart strings by making you fall for these people no matter how broken and damaged they are. He writes the realities of family bonds and the importance of finding a sense of home using the wilderness as his backdrop. The wilderness becomes, in a sense, a soothing presence as well as one that creates a sense of unease.
This isn’t a long novel, however, White says all he needs to say and completes his story in less than 250 pages. Lavada is a young woman trying to care for her husband’s father, Sam who is suffering from dementia. She is selflessly taking care of Sam as if it’s her duty while Mason has been incarcerated. Upon Mason’s release, he returns home to try to find a new sense of place and home needing a freedom from his past not realizing that his actions will affect his relationships with his wife and father. He’s not a bad man, just one that needs to rid himself of his past torments and be able to move on. Even the villainous character has his redeeming qualities.
White has certainly given his readers a view of hurting people who have lots of love, tenderness and kindness but adding to the mix of the damaged relationships is abandonment, cruelty and indifference. Stellar read and one that I won’t soon forget.
She took it in her hands and slipped her thin arms through the sleeves, wore the weight of her man for a moment before she drew on his blistered boots and stepped into another day that lacked him.
She was utter confusion, an ambush of feelings he could not ever defeat.
She saw the pain that set itself in Sam, made itself adjunctive to his good heart. She wondered if the curse strong people faced was in their ability to endure too much. Or perhaps it was not even that so much as the fact that eventually others must witness what the suffering makes of what they once were.
She possessed the advantage of inhibition. That was what made the difference. Something in Sam had loosened and sprung free, damaged his common acceptance of the laws of consequence, whereas she was trapped by her fear, secure in it. She was able to hold on.
This isn’t a long novel, however, White says all he needs to say and completes his story in less than 250 pages. Lavada is a young woman trying to care for her husband’s father, Sam who is suffering from dementia. She is selflessly taking care of Sam as if it’s her duty while Mason has been incarcerated. Upon Mason’s release, he returns home to try to find a new sense of place and home needing a freedom from his past not realizing that his actions will affect his relationships with his wife and father. He’s not a bad man, just one that needs to rid himself of his past torments and be able to move on. Even the villainous character has his redeeming qualities.
White has certainly given his readers a view of hurting people who have lots of love, tenderness and kindness but adding to the mix of the damaged relationships is abandonment, cruelty and indifference. Stellar read and one that I won’t soon forget.
She took it in her hands and slipped her thin arms through the sleeves, wore the weight of her man for a moment before she drew on his blistered boots and stepped into another day that lacked him.
She was utter confusion, an ambush of feelings he could not ever defeat.
She saw the pain that set itself in Sam, made itself adjunctive to his good heart. She wondered if the curse strong people faced was in their ability to endure too much. Or perhaps it was not even that so much as the fact that eventually others must witness what the suffering makes of what they once were.
She possessed the advantage of inhibition. That was what made the difference. Something in Sam had loosened and sprung free, damaged his common acceptance of the laws of consequence, whereas she was trapped by her fear, secure in it. She was able to hold on.
October 16, 2021
This is highly crafted writing of Appalachian characters that find themselves enmeshed in complicated circumstances. Murder, a bloodhound chase, dementia, and a wicked thunderstorm are tightly woven into the plot. The mountains, the river, and the weather are characters unto themselves. The reader comes to understand the human characters, likable or not.
The writing of the action, the characters, and the setting can’t be outdone. It is perfect. But, I couldn’t help visualizing the author agonizing over every adjective and metaphor until he found something unique, resulting in a somewhat affected style.
Still, a great Southern gothic read.
The writing of the action, the characters, and the setting can’t be outdone. It is perfect. But, I couldn’t help visualizing the author agonizing over every adjective and metaphor until he found something unique, resulting in a somewhat affected style.
Still, a great Southern gothic read.
September 22, 2021
"Lavada rose to the iron dark and stepped barefoot across the cabin floor, paused and placed her hand to the door to test the wind's new ache, to know it as her own. Touch told her she would need Mason's coat. It hung on a tail next to the mantel. She took it in her hands and slipped her thin arms through the sleeves, wore the wight of her man for a moment before she drew on his blistered boots and stepped into another day that lacked him."
I read this first paragraph of the book three times before moving on. Charles Dodd White tells us so much about Lavada Laws and her situation in one lyrical paragraph. The next 216 pages were written just as beautifully.
Mason Laws has been released from two years in prison for a drug conviction. His father, Sam, has been cared for by Lavada during Mason's time away from his North Carolina home. Sam is suffering from dementia, and thinks of Lavada as his daughter. Lavada feels close to Sam, although he is a challenge, escaping into the wilderness when his mind shows the greatest loss of mental acuity.
Mason needs to be on his own for a while after his prison term is finished. He camps out in the woods in a tiny cabin until he falls into a job at a run-down convenience store. Mason is a complicated character, emotionally hurt by a motherless childhood, but capable of showing tenderness to an old dog and compassion to a crippled elderly man.
A deputy in the sheriff's office, Cody Gibbs, served in the war in Iraq. He enjoys inflicting pain, and is more damaged than most of the criminals he pursues. His cruel actions have a domino effect, setting off a chain of actions by unstable or emotionally hurt people, and intensified by the treacherous conditions in the wilderness.
I love the title of this novel, "A Shelter of Others." The novel includes characters who missed the childhood feeling of home and developed haunting psychological issues. There are also instances where caring people created their own family with those who were not their blood relatives, sheltering them with their love.
One could find a quotable sentence on almost every page of this novel. Readers of literary fiction or Southern noir are sure to enjoy the poetic writing of Charles Dodd White.
I read this first paragraph of the book three times before moving on. Charles Dodd White tells us so much about Lavada Laws and her situation in one lyrical paragraph. The next 216 pages were written just as beautifully.
Mason Laws has been released from two years in prison for a drug conviction. His father, Sam, has been cared for by Lavada during Mason's time away from his North Carolina home. Sam is suffering from dementia, and thinks of Lavada as his daughter. Lavada feels close to Sam, although he is a challenge, escaping into the wilderness when his mind shows the greatest loss of mental acuity.
Mason needs to be on his own for a while after his prison term is finished. He camps out in the woods in a tiny cabin until he falls into a job at a run-down convenience store. Mason is a complicated character, emotionally hurt by a motherless childhood, but capable of showing tenderness to an old dog and compassion to a crippled elderly man.
A deputy in the sheriff's office, Cody Gibbs, served in the war in Iraq. He enjoys inflicting pain, and is more damaged than most of the criminals he pursues. His cruel actions have a domino effect, setting off a chain of actions by unstable or emotionally hurt people, and intensified by the treacherous conditions in the wilderness.
I love the title of this novel, "A Shelter of Others." The novel includes characters who missed the childhood feeling of home and developed haunting psychological issues. There are also instances where caring people created their own family with those who were not their blood relatives, sheltering them with their love.
One could find a quotable sentence on almost every page of this novel. Readers of literary fiction or Southern noir are sure to enjoy the poetic writing of Charles Dodd White.
September 15, 2021
Best. Review. Ever.
I share below the link to a masterful review of this short novel from my friend Howard because I cannot possibly write one any better. All fans of serious Appalachian/Southern literature should have Charles Dodd White on their ‘Read’ list - his literary intelligence and authentic voice are most impressive. Picking my favorite quote from this lean, complicated story to add to Howard’s already stellar selections was very difficult, so I’m including two. These lines speak volumes:
“Loneliness swung up from beneath his gut as he walked across the bare concrete floor. Awareness of empty space opened inside him like something decayed giving way to deeper waste. Just one depth breaking into another, a headlong descent that was endless and paralytic.” ~ Mason Laws
“She felt the house swallowing her, breaking down the foundation of her bones. Her legs gave way as she felt herself bend beneath ceaseless weight.” ~ Lavada Laws
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I share below the link to a masterful review of this short novel from my friend Howard because I cannot possibly write one any better. All fans of serious Appalachian/Southern literature should have Charles Dodd White on their ‘Read’ list - his literary intelligence and authentic voice are most impressive. Picking my favorite quote from this lean, complicated story to add to Howard’s already stellar selections was very difficult, so I’m including two. These lines speak volumes:
“Loneliness swung up from beneath his gut as he walked across the bare concrete floor. Awareness of empty space opened inside him like something decayed giving way to deeper waste. Just one depth breaking into another, a headlong descent that was endless and paralytic.” ~ Mason Laws
“She felt the house swallowing her, breaking down the foundation of her bones. Her legs gave way as she felt herself bend beneath ceaseless weight.” ~ Lavada Laws
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
April 8, 2014
I really can't gather the words needed to describe how good this book is. Perhaps one of the best I've ever read. The press kit that came with my ARC (book not due to be published until June 2014) described it as "A perfect read for the traveling thinker, White’s novel provides an unobtrusively sized read easily tuned for casual readers, intellectuals, academics, students and the Appalachian literary community." As great as that probably looked when the publisher wrote the description, it's grossly inadequate......it's so much better.
That marketing blurb paints a nice little story that should keep you moving without any real substance to get in the way. I'll admit I read it in basically 24 hours, but it gets in your blood to stay pretty quick. This one will not leak out, but it would be impossible to absorb even half of the almost perfectly written/edited poetic imagery and metaphors in this little gem.
I cannot imagine anyone not rating this one way up their scale. There is violence and grit as you would expect from the brief description. Tones of McCarthy, William Gay, Larry Brown, Woodrell, Rash (I'm a fanboy of all), but this one is uniquely a different voice than all of these. I'd bet the author would blush to even be in that consideration set; I'd go as far to say each the authors named above would have to consider the new kid on the block as a full patch member of their gang now.
I'd bet a BUNCH of edit work went into the exact phrasing and structure of this short little novel- but it has in no way been watered down or overdone as can often be the case. Casual only in the spirit that it rolls right along and doesn't require a bedside dictionary. Even though there will be words that run up on you, the context defines them in a way you just know what they mean.
So, if you're on my list of friends, it's safe to say I think you should read this once it comes out. If you stumble across this review, and agree that this book gets the top marks....add me, we likely would enjoy comparing books. If you read this review and hate the book.......consider that a clue to the opposite.
That marketing blurb paints a nice little story that should keep you moving without any real substance to get in the way. I'll admit I read it in basically 24 hours, but it gets in your blood to stay pretty quick. This one will not leak out, but it would be impossible to absorb even half of the almost perfectly written/edited poetic imagery and metaphors in this little gem.
I cannot imagine anyone not rating this one way up their scale. There is violence and grit as you would expect from the brief description. Tones of McCarthy, William Gay, Larry Brown, Woodrell, Rash (I'm a fanboy of all), but this one is uniquely a different voice than all of these. I'd bet the author would blush to even be in that consideration set; I'd go as far to say each the authors named above would have to consider the new kid on the block as a full patch member of their gang now.
I'd bet a BUNCH of edit work went into the exact phrasing and structure of this short little novel- but it has in no way been watered down or overdone as can often be the case. Casual only in the spirit that it rolls right along and doesn't require a bedside dictionary. Even though there will be words that run up on you, the context defines them in a way you just know what they mean.
So, if you're on my list of friends, it's safe to say I think you should read this once it comes out. If you stumble across this review, and agree that this book gets the top marks....add me, we likely would enjoy comparing books. If you read this review and hate the book.......consider that a clue to the opposite.
October 5, 2016
Best. Book. Ever.
November 27, 2014
I have mixed feeling about this book.
On one hand much of the writing is poetic, with a subtle sense of tragedy, something I usually enjoy.
In this particular book, however, I felt as if the writing bordered on indulgence, occasionally getting in the way, as if more time and care was spent on the words than on the story and the characters they are meant to convey. I kept thinking of the writer's adage, kill your darlings. This book could have benefited from some mercy "killings."
Along the same lines, I had a hard time visualizing and connecting to most of the characters with the exception of Cody Gibbs, who in my opinion was the most believable, and although a villain, the most relatable. At the very end Lavada also began to take shape, but at that point the story was over.
That said, reading this I kept seeing glimpses of some of my favorite writers, Larry Brown, Ron Rash, and William Gay.
In a nut shell, so close, but yet something was missing, those moments where I'm suddenly pulled into the story and feeling what the characters feel as if it were happening to me.
As this is classic Southern Gothic fiction, I would recommend to those who like that genre. It wasn't bad...and at times it was quite good.
On one hand much of the writing is poetic, with a subtle sense of tragedy, something I usually enjoy.
In this particular book, however, I felt as if the writing bordered on indulgence, occasionally getting in the way, as if more time and care was spent on the words than on the story and the characters they are meant to convey. I kept thinking of the writer's adage, kill your darlings. This book could have benefited from some mercy "killings."
Along the same lines, I had a hard time visualizing and connecting to most of the characters with the exception of Cody Gibbs, who in my opinion was the most believable, and although a villain, the most relatable. At the very end Lavada also began to take shape, but at that point the story was over.
That said, reading this I kept seeing glimpses of some of my favorite writers, Larry Brown, Ron Rash, and William Gay.
In a nut shell, so close, but yet something was missing, those moments where I'm suddenly pulled into the story and feeling what the characters feel as if it were happening to me.
As this is classic Southern Gothic fiction, I would recommend to those who like that genre. It wasn't bad...and at times it was quite good.
July 7, 2014
I am going to defer to my friend Josh's review on this one because his is not to be surpassed. He also said everything I had imagined saying, just not so well as he did. Please look for his.--I was interested in a reference made to Hawthorne and researched just enough to find out that Charles Dodd White does consider Hawthorne one of his strongest influences. I found an interview from 2010 to be good insight into his work.>>http://dogeatcrow.blogspot.com/2010/0... I also wanted to mention I got out of bed (after a little sleep),and read from 2:00 to 4:00 A.M., something very rare for me. Just a statement on how immersed I became in the story. Great book!
November 20, 2015
Read 3/16/15 - 3/26/15
4 Stars - Highly Recommended for the experience of the language alone
Pages: 216
Publisher: Fiddleblack
Released 2014
Can we talk about A Shelter of Others as a physical object first? And then get into the actual review? Is that cool? Because this thing is really gorgeous. The cover makes it look so old school, doesn't it? It's this grainy black and white photograph of a cemetery or burial ground, laid out against a solid black background, the only color a splash of green in the author's name. And the cover - I just can't stop touching it. It's incredibly soft, like smooth rubber. The book is short and squat, not your typical long and lanky paperback at all. Fitting perfectly in your hands, it all but begs to be held and read.
The cover design brilliantly compliments the story line. Within its pages, Charles Dodd White has penned a stark, gritty novel of love and longing, violence and protection, of things said but not spoken, of the ghosts from our past haunting our present. It's gothic in feel and raw in its language, every sentence like a sucker punch, felt in the stomach long after each page has been turned.
Set in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, our story begins with Lavada, a woman who has estranged herself from her husband Mason, during his two year stint in prison. Though she never visited him, Lavada has remained home caring for his ailing father, Sam, and working a job at the local diner to make ends meet. Mason, now released, knowing better than to return to the cabin, makes his way into the woods and takes up shelter in an abandoned old shack. He's become a drifter, unsettled by the lack of routine and predictability that he had grown accustomed to.
Lavada becomes entangled with her boss Dennis, Sam slowly becomes unhinged, and the local police are just biding their time, waiting for Mason to mess up. And though this is very much a character driven novel, White keeps our focus sharply tuned to the setting. As the emotional tension between our foursome grows, so does a pending storm outside. You can sense how it will all come to a head but White's unique voice pulls you in regardless, nearly suffocating us with its dark, heady prose.
A Shelter of Others was a refreshing break from my recent post-apocalyptic and experimental lit binge. It reminds you just how powerful literary fiction can be at its very core, at its most honest - stripped of gimmick and genre.
4 Stars - Highly Recommended for the experience of the language alone
Pages: 216
Publisher: Fiddleblack
Released 2014
Can we talk about A Shelter of Others as a physical object first? And then get into the actual review? Is that cool? Because this thing is really gorgeous. The cover makes it look so old school, doesn't it? It's this grainy black and white photograph of a cemetery or burial ground, laid out against a solid black background, the only color a splash of green in the author's name. And the cover - I just can't stop touching it. It's incredibly soft, like smooth rubber. The book is short and squat, not your typical long and lanky paperback at all. Fitting perfectly in your hands, it all but begs to be held and read.
The cover design brilliantly compliments the story line. Within its pages, Charles Dodd White has penned a stark, gritty novel of love and longing, violence and protection, of things said but not spoken, of the ghosts from our past haunting our present. It's gothic in feel and raw in its language, every sentence like a sucker punch, felt in the stomach long after each page has been turned.
Set in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, our story begins with Lavada, a woman who has estranged herself from her husband Mason, during his two year stint in prison. Though she never visited him, Lavada has remained home caring for his ailing father, Sam, and working a job at the local diner to make ends meet. Mason, now released, knowing better than to return to the cabin, makes his way into the woods and takes up shelter in an abandoned old shack. He's become a drifter, unsettled by the lack of routine and predictability that he had grown accustomed to.
Lavada becomes entangled with her boss Dennis, Sam slowly becomes unhinged, and the local police are just biding their time, waiting for Mason to mess up. And though this is very much a character driven novel, White keeps our focus sharply tuned to the setting. As the emotional tension between our foursome grows, so does a pending storm outside. You can sense how it will all come to a head but White's unique voice pulls you in regardless, nearly suffocating us with its dark, heady prose.
A Shelter of Others was a refreshing break from my recent post-apocalyptic and experimental lit binge. It reminds you just how powerful literary fiction can be at its very core, at its most honest - stripped of gimmick and genre.
January 4, 2026
This novel had so many reasons I should love it. It was set in North and South Carolina, where I grew up. It was about Appalachia, which I have always enjoyed. As an author, Charles Dodd White is described as Southern Gothic and in a group with Larry Brown, both of which are positive indicators for me. I have had my eye on this novel for a couple of years, so I was looking forward to using it to launch 2026.
The characters were everything I could have hoped for. I was on Lavada’s side from the beginning (how do you pronounce her name?), and I grew to admire and root for Mason. There were many questions for the story to unravel. The ending of the story was my favorite. It answered some questions but left some unanswered and created new questions. Here was an ending worthy of discussion, even begging for discussion. But there were turns in the plot that left me disturbed because they seemed to lack adequate foundation. It is one thing to be surprised and another to feel that a left turn was taken with weak support. Discombobulated—that is what I was, which I don’t necessarily mind depending on why I am feeling way. Also, I enjoyed some of the prose, but some of it I did not; it seemed to shift in style and rhythm and at times I felt I caught the rhythm and at other times it was just a jumble.
I came to this novel by way of the opinions of friends I respect, so I recognize that my reaction is unique. In these cases, I always wonder if it had something to do with where I was at in my head when I read the novel. While that may be, I cannot ignore my reaction.
The characters were everything I could have hoped for. I was on Lavada’s side from the beginning (how do you pronounce her name?), and I grew to admire and root for Mason. There were many questions for the story to unravel. The ending of the story was my favorite. It answered some questions but left some unanswered and created new questions. Here was an ending worthy of discussion, even begging for discussion. But there were turns in the plot that left me disturbed because they seemed to lack adequate foundation. It is one thing to be surprised and another to feel that a left turn was taken with weak support. Discombobulated—that is what I was, which I don’t necessarily mind depending on why I am feeling way. Also, I enjoyed some of the prose, but some of it I did not; it seemed to shift in style and rhythm and at times I felt I caught the rhythm and at other times it was just a jumble.
I came to this novel by way of the opinions of friends I respect, so I recognize that my reaction is unique. In these cases, I always wonder if it had something to do with where I was at in my head when I read the novel. While that may be, I cannot ignore my reaction.
February 10, 2015
One of the knocks on southern realist 'hick lit' is the by-the-numbers feel of much of the work. Genre characteristics give way to cliché. Authors worship at the altar of Faulkner or O'Connor. A dog-eared 1930's thesaurus inexorably sits alongside a modern permutation of an Underwood Portable. The writing is either brimming over with warmth in the oral storytelling tradition or is all but humorless, happy to follow the well-trod path of Great Stoic Writerly Men, the Melville's and McCarthys. Homeric in their majesty. Characters are more or less stock. A wayward soul is given a chance at redemption. Women are often strictly maidenly or motherly. The supporting casts' lives do not exist in grey areas. They're either kind or crooked.
A Shelter of Others--either unfortunately or happily--falls within this critique. Personally, I respond warmly to these otherwise faulty shortcomings. White's assembly of this novel, of these characters, rarely feels unique. The denouement unmistakably evokes If I Forget Thee Jerusalem but also more subtly Rash’s One Foot In Eden. Though Shelter is often predictable, I still enjoyed experiencing the story unfold itself. If White is too self-serious, it’s only because he’s following in the footsteps of the very Gods themselves. He’s tackling big game here; love, death, and the innumerable tumult of the human experience.
A Shelter of Others--either unfortunately or happily--falls within this critique. Personally, I respond warmly to these otherwise faulty shortcomings. White's assembly of this novel, of these characters, rarely feels unique. The denouement unmistakably evokes If I Forget Thee Jerusalem but also more subtly Rash’s One Foot In Eden. Though Shelter is often predictable, I still enjoyed experiencing the story unfold itself. If White is too self-serious, it’s only because he’s following in the footsteps of the very Gods themselves. He’s tackling big game here; love, death, and the innumerable tumult of the human experience.
May 8, 2014
Charles Dodd White
A Shelter of Others
In Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow explains to his companions that human company prevents us from falling into the prerogatives granted by our own worst impulses:
While Mason Laws has served his prison term for a drug offense, his wife, Lavada, has been primary caretaker of Laws’ father, now in the latter stages of dementia. While Lavada has not visited her husband in prison, she has shown the devotion of a daughter to the old man, at times a risky situation, given their remote home near a national forest. Laws has no hurry to return home, seeking some degree of freedom after the close restrictions of prison life and failing to check in with his parole officer as expected. While Mason picks up work and develops a small circle of friends, his skirting the law leads to complications that affect his family relationships. A Shelter of Others follows the consequences of this situation.
In White’s novel, we watch characters respond to drives and affinities in their bonds to each other; Mason’s desire for freedom leads to his resisting conventional domestication after prison release just as he neglects his parole obligations; Lavada’s love for him remains genuine though complicated, and her devotion to her father-in-law springs from a complex interweaving of affection and obligation—even her reluctant romantic relationship with her boss, Dennis, places him in a surrogate role for Mason. The least sympathetic of the characters, Cody Gibb, who exploits his position as deputy to sate his hunger for violence, behaves as a rogue creature in a society of human packs. White manages a remarkable balance, making acts of love and acts of violence both personal and feral, with voluntary ties to community serving as a more reliable guide to character development. Further, in a book primarily about men, in Lavada he has created a strong figure every bit as resilient and strong as the men surrounding her.
White writes a lean, spare, and precise prose that suits his theme. His characters think in terms of associations instead of abstractions. His characters express feelings through actions. He permits us as readers to make our judgments by witnessing the events. At the same time, White has a fine ear for language, writing convincing dialog and fully realized settings. I admire his ability to convey feeling as well—when he intends to suggest the menace one character threatens, it becomes real; when he reveals a feral capacity in others, it affects how the entire work ties together. As a whole, the work explores notions of kinship beyond the artificial affiliations defined by charters, contracts, and laws. Whatever good one finds in his characters stems from their sensed, direct sympathies for those around them.
A Shelter of Others deserves attention.
A Shelter of Others
In Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow explains to his companions that human company prevents us from falling into the prerogatives granted by our own worst impulses:
“with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbours ready to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums—how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man’s untrammelled feet may take him into by the way of solitude—utter solitude without a policeman—by the way of silence—utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbour can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the great difference.”In his new novel A Shelter of Others, Charles Dodd White explores this theme in contemporary North Carolina, writing a naturalistic text that explores need for companionship, the selflessness of affection and obligation, and the strength of character required for self-sufficiency.
While Mason Laws has served his prison term for a drug offense, his wife, Lavada, has been primary caretaker of Laws’ father, now in the latter stages of dementia. While Lavada has not visited her husband in prison, she has shown the devotion of a daughter to the old man, at times a risky situation, given their remote home near a national forest. Laws has no hurry to return home, seeking some degree of freedom after the close restrictions of prison life and failing to check in with his parole officer as expected. While Mason picks up work and develops a small circle of friends, his skirting the law leads to complications that affect his family relationships. A Shelter of Others follows the consequences of this situation.
In White’s novel, we watch characters respond to drives and affinities in their bonds to each other; Mason’s desire for freedom leads to his resisting conventional domestication after prison release just as he neglects his parole obligations; Lavada’s love for him remains genuine though complicated, and her devotion to her father-in-law springs from a complex interweaving of affection and obligation—even her reluctant romantic relationship with her boss, Dennis, places him in a surrogate role for Mason. The least sympathetic of the characters, Cody Gibb, who exploits his position as deputy to sate his hunger for violence, behaves as a rogue creature in a society of human packs. White manages a remarkable balance, making acts of love and acts of violence both personal and feral, with voluntary ties to community serving as a more reliable guide to character development. Further, in a book primarily about men, in Lavada he has created a strong figure every bit as resilient and strong as the men surrounding her.
White writes a lean, spare, and precise prose that suits his theme. His characters think in terms of associations instead of abstractions. His characters express feelings through actions. He permits us as readers to make our judgments by witnessing the events. At the same time, White has a fine ear for language, writing convincing dialog and fully realized settings. I admire his ability to convey feeling as well—when he intends to suggest the menace one character threatens, it becomes real; when he reveals a feral capacity in others, it affects how the entire work ties together. As a whole, the work explores notions of kinship beyond the artificial affiliations defined by charters, contracts, and laws. Whatever good one finds in his characters stems from their sensed, direct sympathies for those around them.
A Shelter of Others deserves attention.
June 23, 2014
I read A Shelter of Others in late spring. As a bibliophile, I appreciate the feel of a book. I read plenty of them electronically, but there are books I must own, and I knew Shelter would be one. Why? Read Lambs of Men, and you'll see how White writes in lyrical prose that makes me wish he'd publish (more) poetry. Fiddleback did a beauty of a book -- its size is perfect for holding in your hand, and the cover is smooth, not glossy. It simply feels good to touch.
I've had to let Shelter sit with me before writing about it, because it is the type of story that needs time to simmer. After reading it, I immediately thought of a question I'd ask Charles, if I were to see him (note: friend disclaimer). However, after mulling awhile, I've realized that my question is no longer a burning one, and may very well be moot.
As a poet, I read quite a fair amount of fiction and creative non-fiction, so I can speak to the fact that the voice Charles commandeers is one that is unique and eloquent. I've seen comparisons of his work to Ron Rash and Harry Crews, and while writers such as those have most likely influenced Charles, he has developed a voice that stands firmly beside such talents. Each sentence he writes paints a landscape -- both psychological (one of the more prominent landscapes in Shelter), and physical. It's as if the storm in the narrative becomes a metaphor for the internal tornadoes we all suffer through. How do we, flawed humans that we are, survive such? Through shelter. The shelter of others. The shelter of others whom we love(d), we've hurt, we've left, we've cared for. The story in this book is one of connectedness and disconnectedness. Characters come and go in one another’s lives, yet some connections remain even when the physicality is gone. Shelter is a study of the complexity of human nature and relationship, written in elegant prose.
So what was that question I thought of initially posing to Charles? Would there be another book, another one that gives more backstory to the characters in Shelter? Yet as I sat with the story, it is no longer important to me that I know more about Mason and Lavada or Dennis, or Sam, or any other character in the novel, because the narrative of this lyrical novel holds enough for me to know that I already do know their backstories, as they reside in me, too. All I want now from White are additional stories, and please, some poetry!
I've had to let Shelter sit with me before writing about it, because it is the type of story that needs time to simmer. After reading it, I immediately thought of a question I'd ask Charles, if I were to see him (note: friend disclaimer). However, after mulling awhile, I've realized that my question is no longer a burning one, and may very well be moot.
As a poet, I read quite a fair amount of fiction and creative non-fiction, so I can speak to the fact that the voice Charles commandeers is one that is unique and eloquent. I've seen comparisons of his work to Ron Rash and Harry Crews, and while writers such as those have most likely influenced Charles, he has developed a voice that stands firmly beside such talents. Each sentence he writes paints a landscape -- both psychological (one of the more prominent landscapes in Shelter), and physical. It's as if the storm in the narrative becomes a metaphor for the internal tornadoes we all suffer through. How do we, flawed humans that we are, survive such? Through shelter. The shelter of others. The shelter of others whom we love(d), we've hurt, we've left, we've cared for. The story in this book is one of connectedness and disconnectedness. Characters come and go in one another’s lives, yet some connections remain even when the physicality is gone. Shelter is a study of the complexity of human nature and relationship, written in elegant prose.
So what was that question I thought of initially posing to Charles? Would there be another book, another one that gives more backstory to the characters in Shelter? Yet as I sat with the story, it is no longer important to me that I know more about Mason and Lavada or Dennis, or Sam, or any other character in the novel, because the narrative of this lyrical novel holds enough for me to know that I already do know their backstories, as they reside in me, too. All I want now from White are additional stories, and please, some poetry!
March 18, 2014
Quiet, beautiful, haunting... I started marking pages with sentences that I loved but soon realized that I was marking nearly every other page. A classic.
August 9, 2014
CDW does it again. Lean and mean, every sentence honed like a blade. These pages fairly gleam with polish. When you're finished, you'll be surprised the book doesn't weigh more than it does.
October 21, 2015
From the book jacket - Following his release from prison, Mason Laws returns to the mountains of his youth where his estranged wife, Lavada, has been caring for his ailing father in Mason’s absence. As Mason and Lavada each set forth to recover themselves, they remain entrenched in the rural and rugged landscape that bore them and their own haunted histories.
My reactions
I had read blurbs that compared White’s writing to Ron Rash’s, and I’m a fan of the latter, so was looking forward to this novel. Talk about Southern Gothic! This is a dark story, where the characters are greatly affected by (and seemingly unable to avoid) forces greater than themselves.
None of them – Mason, Lavada, Sam (Mason’s Dad), Irving or Cody – seems able to overcome or even avoid their history. They are compelled to behave in ways that are counterproductive to success, and consequences of past actions (of their own or others) are inescapable.
White’s writing has some powerful images, but the book is light on dialogue and I found this frustrating in places. I wanted more interaction between the players, but I think I understand why the author chose to minimize this; the style forces the reader to acknowledge the kind of circumstances and confluence of “powers beyond our control” that can influence the characters.
However, I thought this approach resulted in less character development since much of their interaction was missing. I never understood Lavada’s actions or why she did not speak up to correct the assumptions made by others.
White also switches perspective frequently, telling the story from alternating character’s point of view. This serves to keep the reader slightly off balance, while also giving the reader more information than the individual characters might have. We see the train wreck coming before the characters even know there are railroad tracks near.
My reactions
I had read blurbs that compared White’s writing to Ron Rash’s, and I’m a fan of the latter, so was looking forward to this novel. Talk about Southern Gothic! This is a dark story, where the characters are greatly affected by (and seemingly unable to avoid) forces greater than themselves.
None of them – Mason, Lavada, Sam (Mason’s Dad), Irving or Cody – seems able to overcome or even avoid their history. They are compelled to behave in ways that are counterproductive to success, and consequences of past actions (of their own or others) are inescapable.
White’s writing has some powerful images, but the book is light on dialogue and I found this frustrating in places. I wanted more interaction between the players, but I think I understand why the author chose to minimize this; the style forces the reader to acknowledge the kind of circumstances and confluence of “powers beyond our control” that can influence the characters.
However, I thought this approach resulted in less character development since much of their interaction was missing. I never understood Lavada’s actions or why she did not speak up to correct the assumptions made by others.
White also switches perspective frequently, telling the story from alternating character’s point of view. This serves to keep the reader slightly off balance, while also giving the reader more information than the individual characters might have. We see the train wreck coming before the characters even know there are railroad tracks near.
March 26, 2014
A Shelter of Others is an astonishing novel. Charles Dodd White transfixes us with his sentences, intoxicating the reader with a unique Appalachian syntax that both haunts and, somehow, inspires. He doesn’t so much create characters as he does scatter their seeds, see where they land and how they grow in the mountainous landscape. White stays out of their way as Lavada and her estranged husband Mason make their mistakes, as Sam, Mason’s aging father, slips into terrifying darkness, as the other troubled characters roam the smoky, sodden landscape seeking fruitful purchase. While readers will find similarities between White and Daniel Woodrell and Larry Brown and Harry Crews, A Shelter of Others defies expectation. Surprises, constantly. Take for example the story of a chimpanzee who’d been trapped in a meth lab and escaped, “the furry addict…running the hills, howling for its accustomed fix.” The climactic scene, too, will grip you, the characters searching the mountains for each other in a torrent of rain and doom, as lost and tortured as that chimp. That’s not to mention the sentences that snake a course we can never predict: “She would strip her skin and muscle away if she could, let him eat like a goblin the whole heart she presented to him, make a meal of what terrified her.” There are so many such sentences, each a miraculous gift that continues to give at each revisiting. This is what marks Charles Dodd White’s writing: he is generous, giving his whole self over to his characters and setting and sentences.
May 29, 2014
need to know: Charles is a friend of mine, but I'm not puffing this book even as much as I want to.
Charles Dodd White is a master of contemporary rural life, and he shows us all that mastery and probably more that I missed on my first and second reads. Although there's the near-obligatory concentration on place (if you're Appalachian;and White does Appalachian as well as anyone alive.) where I might have wanted more character, it's really difficult to fault a novel with this seamless flow. The older men here are perfectly realized, and the effects of senility and other factors of aging dealt with in just enough detail, offsetting the more familiar story of the man coming back from being 'away.' Which is not to say that the main thrust of the story is faulty in any way. Find this book anyway you can. Jump on it. You won't be disappointed.`
Charles Dodd White is a master of contemporary rural life, and he shows us all that mastery and probably more that I missed on my first and second reads. Although there's the near-obligatory concentration on place (if you're Appalachian;and White does Appalachian as well as anyone alive.) where I might have wanted more character, it's really difficult to fault a novel with this seamless flow. The older men here are perfectly realized, and the effects of senility and other factors of aging dealt with in just enough detail, offsetting the more familiar story of the man coming back from being 'away.' Which is not to say that the main thrust of the story is faulty in any way. Find this book anyway you can. Jump on it. You won't be disappointed.`
November 19, 2020
Why is no one talking about this author? Country gothic, southern noir at its best. If you like Ron Rash, Frank Bill, Donald Ray Pollock, David Joy...this author will impress you. Writes very much along the southern path that they do, but has a way all his own with words that is brilliant. Cannot wait to read his other books. Both, I just bought. I will sing White's praises to everyone I know.
December 10, 2014
This dark and surprising novel is beautifully-written, all the way down to the sentence level. The feel of it reminded me of Winters Bone.
July 17, 2014
On a superficial level, this was a beautiful story about people helping each other in an uncertain world. Peel back a layer and we see how reliant we are on others. Peel back another layer and we see that bloodlines are not the only basis for "family" units. Keep peeling and we witness the tragic unravelling of these connections with deadly consequences. Many more messages are wrapped into this story but at the heart, I believe, is the writer's own personal conflict reflected in Sam's questioning of a life devoted to books at the expense of time spent with one's family. This struck me as a profound and personal mea culpa. I imagined the author was apologizing to his loved ones for all the time devoted to his craft and explaining that his life would be as empty as Cody's without their "shelter" and support. The fact that Sam's initial musings were written in first-person support my theory that the author was channeling his own poetic observations. When Sam sinks into dementia, he becomes just another POV character in the third person narration. Charles Dodd White is making the most of his immense gifts and is building a lasting legacy.
April 2, 2014
A Shelter of Others has characteristics of epic poetry, paragraph after paragraph worthy of re-reading, demanding readers soak in the fullness of each honed passage, to connect and stay in rhythm with the story’s cadence. Where Charles Dodd White’s novel takes us is a place thick with the worrisome promise of fragmented lives threatening re-intersection with one another as characters, attached stubbornly at the spirit, meander back to each other, fearing the inevitability of reunion. White’s characters ache with frustration and the self-knowledge of fragility. Their story is framed with mountain rawness, beautiful, yet nearly impossible to traverse alone, much like our own lives.
From the beginning there is a lacking completion, an aloneness pervading every character. Lavada without her husband, preparing to leave her husband’s father, Sam, alone for the day with his frail mind. Mason just released from a two year stint in prison, choosing the emptiness of obscurity rather than heading home to continued self-destruction. Sam hovers about, seemingly quiet and helpless in his ailing, but all-watching as our internal guide, omnisciently present. “Even me,” he offers, “lost in the gaze of this.”
White locks us firmly among the characters, “seeing” as Sam might, the mundane and commonality turned beautiful and arresting, the better to observe the “Broken pieces of the night finding their correct way back to other broken things on the earth.” And things are, indeed, broken, and while a brooding potential for violence is palpable as quickly as their lives begin connecting, White maintains an estranged sense of hope for everyone.
I timed completing the novel for a weekend in White’s own mental playground of Asheville, North Carolina, perhaps to make a connection with the author’s environment, to better understand what elements back-dropped this creative process. Such work requires pouring over every phrase in a meditative way that, given the story’s essential landscape of the mountains, could only have been birthed in the mountains, not as a memory, but as a physical fertile element of process. Being there, bustled in downtown one moment, then lulled to quiet along a mountain road just as quickly, I couldn’t help but wonder on the thousands of lives sliding past.
As all good stories should, White’s novel stays with me, making me wonder all the more on who of the faces we see every day are incomplete, working to some intersection with their past, trying to outrun their histories, or suffering to make good on tomorrow the best they can manage. Better yet, we’re forced to ponder who, like his characters, might manage some mysterious reconciliation with their true selves, even when outwardly things end tragically.
From the beginning there is a lacking completion, an aloneness pervading every character. Lavada without her husband, preparing to leave her husband’s father, Sam, alone for the day with his frail mind. Mason just released from a two year stint in prison, choosing the emptiness of obscurity rather than heading home to continued self-destruction. Sam hovers about, seemingly quiet and helpless in his ailing, but all-watching as our internal guide, omnisciently present. “Even me,” he offers, “lost in the gaze of this.”
White locks us firmly among the characters, “seeing” as Sam might, the mundane and commonality turned beautiful and arresting, the better to observe the “Broken pieces of the night finding their correct way back to other broken things on the earth.” And things are, indeed, broken, and while a brooding potential for violence is palpable as quickly as their lives begin connecting, White maintains an estranged sense of hope for everyone.
I timed completing the novel for a weekend in White’s own mental playground of Asheville, North Carolina, perhaps to make a connection with the author’s environment, to better understand what elements back-dropped this creative process. Such work requires pouring over every phrase in a meditative way that, given the story’s essential landscape of the mountains, could only have been birthed in the mountains, not as a memory, but as a physical fertile element of process. Being there, bustled in downtown one moment, then lulled to quiet along a mountain road just as quickly, I couldn’t help but wonder on the thousands of lives sliding past.
As all good stories should, White’s novel stays with me, making me wonder all the more on who of the faces we see every day are incomplete, working to some intersection with their past, trying to outrun their histories, or suffering to make good on tomorrow the best they can manage. Better yet, we’re forced to ponder who, like his characters, might manage some mysterious reconciliation with their true selves, even when outwardly things end tragically.
April 3, 2014
A stark portrait of love and dedication, passion and loss. White skillfully manipulates the language of every paragraph to give readers not only a well-wrought story that embodies the ghosts of the great Appalachian writers before him, but a tale that sets him apart from his contemporaries. If you are looking to define what it means to be an Appalachian novel, A SHELTER OF OTHERS is it. It is hard to go more than a page without being struck by the harsh beauty of Sanction County and it's environs that are so wonderfully realized in this novel.
October 1, 2014
There is not much of a plot in my opinion to this book, but it is rife with unusual and colorful metaphors and similes that can leave the mind reeling. Like I said you could sum the entire story in a fairly short paragraph, nor does there seem to be much suspense despite three murders. I constantly had to remind myself of what time period I was in: at one point it seemed rustic and backwoodsy, then someone picked up the telephone or turned on the television or was driving a Honda. Read it for the words which are strung together in a kind of poetic stream.
January 14, 2019
Excellent depiction of the region and people of Appalachia - their flaws, struggles, conflicts. Not a pleasant, light read - but White renders it fluently and with a poetic quality throughout the book. This is the life and land that they know - they are rooted in the area deeply and inevitably, and will remain so - whatever the outcome. Charles Dodd White is an author after my heart and soul - one that I will follow wherever he takes me.
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