The Marrowbone Marble Company
Taylor’s haunting second novel is, like The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, set in hardscrabble West Virginia, where history and characters are at times inseparable from folklore. Loyal Ledford works at the Mann Glass factory, where he works at the furnace until midnight and afterwards eats dinner in the cafeteria with Rachel, the company nurse and daughter of the manager. Pearl Harbor interrupts his courtship plans and he joins the Marines, to try to make a difference, only to find out at Guadalcanal how difficult it is to tell the good guys from the bad.
Tormented by wartime memories, Loyal returns home to the comforts of Rachel and whisky. He rebels at the new owners of the glass factory, and has a dream about building a better life for Rachel, his children, and his friends, both black and white. Thus begins the Marrowbone Marble Company, and the trials of building and living in an integrated community in the 1950s and 60s below the Mason-Dixon line. There are corrupt politicians and lawmen, families with decades-old grudges, burned crosses on lawns, and the requisite preachers and gamblers.
In spite of the familiar images, however, the story never succumbs to caricature: the people and the tale are very real, very human, and impossible to ignore. Taylor brings to life not just the sights and sounds of West Virginia during the turbulent civil rights and Vietnam era, but the raw emotions of fear, anger, hope, and sadness as well. Historical events are interspersed throughout the story, providing context for Ledford’s utopian dream, and his setbacks. Although there is plenty of pain and strife in Ledford’s world, the glimmers of hope, like marbles glinting in the sun, make for a valuable perspective and an unforgettable read.
