Book Nook: Looking back at the secrets they kept and the people they loved

Jo Ann Kiser published her first book, the story collection “The Guitar Player and Other Songs of Exile,” in 2022. In 2023 she released her first novel, “A Young Woman from the Provinces.” When I employ the verb “release” it seems fitting since Kiser imagined those works for years.

Kiser is an Eastern Kentucky native, spending her early days there. That region left an imprint upon her. She waited until she retired to focus on her dream of creating books and has just published her third book in three years. “Sunday People” is another novel she mulled over for a long time.

It is the story of Orson Gaskill and the people close to him. The author mines her own experiences and memories to weave her tales. Her father worked in the coal mines and the author observed as that mining industry marred the beauty of the Kentucky landscape she loved.

She has divided the book into chapters narrated from the points of view of Orson and his people. It opens with Orson as he looks back at his life. He has finally gotten religion, so to speak, he’s at a family wedding: “I am dying. I look at my family, as I am doing right now in church, and I want them to know the truth about me, whatever that means.”

As he reflects on his life we meet the rest of his family and also his best friend, the ne’er do well, Fergus. There is one notable ghost hovering over the proceedings, Orson’s sister, Drusilla, who died tragically and was loved by Fergus although that’s mostly a secret. Fergus and Orson share many secrets.

Orson met Fergus when they were boys. Fergus had a rough start and it didn’t get smoother. He was a handsome devil. Also a drug dealer. And a killer. Orson’s family doesn’t understand how they are even friends. They loathe Fergus. Our next narrator is Darcy. She isn’t family but she comes close. She had a youthful fling with Orson before he settled down with the long suffering, saintly Sarah Beth.

One by one our narrators pass along Kiser’s story baton. She excavates enduring characters, embroidering their stories with delicacy and emotion. Their son Jeff brings up the rear but he doesn’t have the final word. These narrators were sharing their stories in 1992. The book closes with a postlude from their granddaughter Melissa in 2004.

Melissa and Darcy are close. They both left the Kentucky hills to pursue academic careers in Chicago. Darcy is Melissa’s mentor. She wrote a history of Orson’s family and titled it “Sunday People.” Although Kiser insists that she is not Darcy. Darcy has some explosive secrets of her own.

In our most recent radio conversation the author said when she was growing up, family was everything. This book honors deep family connections as well as the history of a Kentucky landscape scarred by coal mining. Another treasured memory for her was the silence of that once peaceful place.

Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.