Sister Mine [Paperback]

Readers of Back Roads (an Oprah pick) and Coal Run well know that Tawni O'Dell is an author who grabs you from the get-go and doesn't let go until the final word. She does it again with Sister Mine. Who could stop listening after hearing: "I drive a cab in a town where no one needs a cab but plenty of people need rides. I've been paid with casseroles, lip gloss, plumbing advice, beer, prayers for my immortal soul, and promises to mow my yard, but this is the first time I've ever been offered something living."

Those words are spoken by Shae-Lynn Penrose, a former Washington, D.C. police woman who has returned to the town where she grew up - not easily, we might add. She was a young single mother who had to care for an infant, protect herself from an abusive father, and tend to an arbitrary sister, Shannon. Now, she's 40 and back in Jolly Mount, a dot on the map in Pennsylvania coal country.

When Shae-Lynn left Jolly Mount for Washington she had all she could do to look after her son. There was no choice but to leave Shannon with their father. Two years later the girl disappeared. At this point in time, so many years later, Shae-Lynn believes her sister is dead - that is until she reappears. Shannon is 18 years older, quite pregnant, and being pursued by a motley group including a Russian thug, a lawyer, and an eastern housewife.

Without the reappearance of her younger sister and the retinue she brings, Shae-Lynn already has a lot on her plate. Some two years earlier five of her miner friends had been trapped below ground for four days. Although time has past the effects of this near tragedy have not. Then, of course, there's a love interest - or is there?

Tawni O'Dell tells a great story with a cast headed by a spunky pink Stetson wearing heroine. Don't miss it!

- Gail Cooke

Shae-Lynn, the sassy protagonist of Tawni O'Dell's new novel Sister Mine is a victim of child abuse and she seems to carry the remnants of this with her, her childhood and also her adulthood defined by the life she spent with a mean, drunken and abusive coal miner father, were she felt obligated to endure his endless beatings and who seemed determined to strip away her value as a human.

While Shae-Lynn considered it "part of our hereditary lot in life, " her younger sister, Shannon flew the coop years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Shannon, who was full of a sort of generalized contempt in her ability to not care about anything, has ended up becoming the bane of Shae-Lynn's life; after all, it never occurred to her that her sister would run away with the intention of never seeing any of them again.

Now a cab driver, after working for years as a cop, we first meet Shae-Lynn as she's beginning a new phase of her life, fresh from the jolt of realizing her grown son Clay is no longer dependent on her. True to her nature, Shae-Lynne doesn't eschew the traditional role of a woman, and for the first time in her life she's somewhat relieved she has no financial obligations other than funding her own existence, the major worries of motherhood now well and truly behind her.

Through Shae-Lynn's tough, worldly perspective, author Tawni O'Dell explores what it means to grow up and survive in a town like Jolly Mount, Pennsylvania as she weaves Shae-Lynn's story into the experiences of the Jolly Mount Five, a group of men who have survived a terrible coal mining disaster a few years ago and then went on to bask in fleeting fame.

Shae-Lynn's heart indeed goes out to all the men and they're constantly on her mind; there's Dusty, desperate for money since his restaurant went belly-up, and Ray who has a family and needs money too, and then there's Lib who is determined to go through with a class action law suit to get hold of the some of the millions of dollars that the evil mine owner, Cam jack has invested.

But Shae-Lynn is mostly drawn to the hunky laborer E.J., friends since childhood, she views E.J in a slightly different light and she's been attracted to this young man for years and wants to help him conquer his panic attacks, a result of the four days trapped down the mine.

Suddenly, a rich woman from Connecticut turns up looking for Shannon, accusing her of stealing her baby, and then a lawyer from New York appears intent on a similar agenda. When Shannon herself appears, reduced to a desperate sentimental wreck and pregnant, straight away she falls into the arms of her big sister.

Although Shae-Lynn is overjoyed to see her, she doesn't for a minute buy her sob story, certain that she's done a good job of dressing the part of the poor, out-of-work unwed mother only for appearances sake. Shae-Lynn's suspicions are confirmed when she spies Shannon's expensive handbag containing a Sony cell phone and a costly I pod. Shannon would never have been able to afford these on her own.

In reality, Shannon is a narcissist writ large, a manipulative diva who has discovered the business if selling babies for cash. She's also desperate and in her hour of need hopes that Shae-Lynn will let bygones by bygones and take her in. Whilst, O'Dell keeps her outlandish plot moving along at a brisk enough pace, she once again, proves that she has an amazing grasp of the lives, loves, hopes and disappointments of her beloved Pennsylvanian coal mining community.

All of her characters are always fully fleshed and believable, existing in a world where life is constantly tough, harsh and expensive. She especially excels at describing this hardscrabble existence of the J&P miners as some of the toughest and most self-possessed men on the planet who can handle any physical discomfort and endure any abuse.

But in the end, this is definitely the sexy Shae-Lynn's story and even though her "childhood might have survived into adulthood," she's still a rare breed who realizes that life is probably just a "bunch of confusing, and painful stuff that fills up the time between your favorite TV shows." She readily admits that although once in Washington she'd been exposed to the finer things in life; her home is definitely where her working class roots are.

Sister Mine is very much a sardonic look at all of Shae-Lynn's disappointments and rewards and the author beautifully captures the spirit of Shae-Lynn's compulsive rush into (...) and family, and in her efforts to protect and to serve, "it's what she's continued to do throughout her life." O'Dell never shies away from disclosing Shae-Lynn's secrets and uncertainties, as she learns how to survive living in blue collar Jolly Mount, a town somewhat entrenched in life's old hard habits. (...).

Tawni O'Dell's first novel, 'Backroads', was so good that I was afraid whatever else she wrote could never reach such heights. 'Sister Mine' is a little more quirky - it's main character a wise-cracking female taxi driver living the American Dream in some backwoods mining town. Some of the plot works - some (the Russian gangsters) doesn't. Not as life-affirming as 'Backroads' but still filled with characters you'd like to meet again. More please.