Luck

by Eric B. Martin

With explosive energy, Luck chronicles the seething tensions that culminate in disaster during one sweltering summer in a small tobacco farming community in North Carolina. Mike Olive returns to his hometown with a group of fellow Duke students to investigate the overall decline of tobacco farming as well as the use, and abuse, of Mexican migrant workers. Determined to rid his town of corruption and bigotry, Mike makes the migrant workers his crusade, much to the consternation of his father and his neighbors. Conflicts mount as he accuses farmers of rumored crimes and falls in love with Hermalinda, the beautiful and remarkably self-possessed daughter of one of his father's workers. Mike's "townie" rival, the wickedly charming but fatefully doomed Harvey Dickerson, deftly challenges Mike's nave and nearly evangelical convictions. Long-standing family rivalries and loyalties erupt into brutal violence that forever changes the town. From Hermalinda's rich and turbulent life on the Texas-Mexico border and her conflicting feelings about her affair with the boss's son to Harvey's silver-tongued philosophizing and Mike's well-intentioned but woefully destructive actions, the complex community of this troubled southern town is vividly realized. Luck is a compelling, incisive, and stunningly written novel. Eric Martin is a unique and brilliant new voice in fiction.

276 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Leah Beecher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my beach read this year.
A very memorable story, set in current times in the deep south of North Carolina on a tobacco farm. A nineteen year old college kid who wants to be a force for social justice, starting in his own tight-knit home town. Things don't go well for Mike. It follows the lives of a Mexican family who have made their way to America as migrant workers. It examines both families. The good and bad. Centering on the beguiling Hermalinda. Then there is the strained rival relationship between Mike and Harvey; competing childhood friends turned hostile rivals. I loved Eric Martin's writing. His dialogue, his descriptive writing of one hot sticky summer with even hotter passions and tempers was poetic and near perfect; told in such a way it never felt like the author was ever trying. Basically, what every author tries like crazy to accomplish, but few seldom do. He used the writing trick of opening the book with what eventually becomes the climax of the story. Of course the reader has no idea what is going on, or who any of the characters are. But it bites down and reels you in. A bitter-sweet, boy becoming man, social and cultural observation, story.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This the story of two main characters. Michael Olive is a young man grown up in a North Carolina farming community. His father inherited a good piece of land from an eccentric local man. So his father is fairly wealthy and Michael is going to Duke University. Hermalinda is a Mexican girl. The story follows her and her family from her native village, to two border towns and finally to the same farming area as Olive. Her family are migrant workers on the Olive farm.Michael comes home for the summer to organize and provide services to the migrant workers. They live in a local Catholic retreat house. Michael and Hermalinda fall in love amid prejudice and violence. Many local people have trouble adjusting to the presence of the Mexican workers, who are incredibly necessary for farm labor in the hot Carolina sun.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good story about the plight of Mexican immigrants in southern America and one university student's attempt to improve their lifestyles. Eric Martin shows the prejudice just like it must really be in such a situation. I empathized with Hermelinda and Mike, and enjoyed the way the author made Harvey seem real by having him struggle with his conscience. It's a classic story of the loss of a friendship between two individuals due to the different classes they eventually belong to.

I also liked the Spanish phrases and Mexican culture woven into the book.