FICTION

Work Like Any Other

by Virginia Reeves
Scribner. Mar. 2016. 272p. ISBN 9781501112492. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781501112522. F
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[DEBUT] Roscoe T. Martin is not a happy man in 1920s Alabama. He leaves a job he loves working as an electrician for Alabama Power so he and his wife can take over her father's failing farm. His obsession with electricity refuses to abate, and he devises a plan to use it to help the farm. But then a man is killed, and Roscoe and the man he persuaded to help him with his illegal electricity project are sent to prison. Roscoe's painful story is made worse when his wife cuts off all contact with him. He finds forgiveness and redemption, but some lives go so wrong they can never be made right. Roscoe's is one of them.
VERDICT Reeves's debut is a historical novel full of rich details and powerful language. Even though the story line loses steam before it reaches part two, readers and book clubs that don't mind digging through tragedy after tragedy to get to moral questions ripe for discussion will likely see value in this debut. [See Prepub Alert, 9/28/15; five-city tour.]
Reviewed by Amy Stenftenagel, Washington Cty. Lib., Woodbury, MN , Feb 19, 2016
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