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Fate Moreland's Widow: A Novel
On a placid Blue Ridge mountain lake on Labor Day Weekend in 1935, three locals sightseeing in an overloaded boat drown, and the cotton mill scion who owns the lake is indicted for their murders. Decades later Ben Crocker--witness to and reluctant participant in the aftermath of this long-forgotten tragedy--is drawn once more into the morally ambiguous world of mill fortunes and foothills justice.
The son of mill workers in Carlton, South Carolina, Crocker is caught between competing loyalties to his family and future. Crocker wanted more than a rough-hewn life on a factory floor, so he studied accounting at the local textile institute and was hired as bookkeeper to the owner, George McCane, a man as burdened by his familial ties as Crocker and even less prepared for the authority of his mantel.
McCane's decision to renovate the Carlton Mill and lay off families connected to the Uprising of '34, one of the largest labor strikes in U.S. history, puts Crocker in the ill-fitting position as his boss's enforcer. Days after the evictions, the surprise indictment lands McCane in a North Carolina mountain jail and sinks Crocker even deeper into the escalating tensions between mill workers and the owners.
While traversing mountain communities in McCane's defense, Crocker must also manage the forced renovation of the Carlton Mill, negotiate with labor organizers led by local hero Olin Campbell, collaborate with McCane's besotted brother, Angus, and fend off his father's and wife's skepticism of his own social aspirations. Hanging distractingly over Crocker's upended life is his burgeoning infatuation with Novie Moreland--the young widow of one of those McCane is accused of killing. Though unrequited, Croker's relationship with Novie proves to be a beacon of hope amid the shadows of political and social machinations in the darkest chapter in his long life.
As the union retaliates and the McCane murder trial is settled, it is uncertain who the winners and losers have been in this generational clash of workers and owners, labor and capital, those tied to the land and its people and those who exploit both. When Crocker looks back from 1988 at these two crucial years in his life in the mid-1930s, he is left to wonder if he did right by himself and those closest to him. Against all better judgment, Crocker knows he must seek out Novie Moreland once more if he is ever to find closure with the past.
The son of mill workers in Carlton, South Carolina, Crocker is caught between competing loyalties to his family and future. Crocker wanted more than a rough-hewn life on a factory floor, so he studied accounting at the local textile institute and was hired as bookkeeper to the owner, George McCane, a man as burdened by his familial ties as Crocker and even less prepared for the authority of his mantel.
McCane's decision to renovate the Carlton Mill and lay off families connected to the Uprising of '34, one of the largest labor strikes in U.S. history, puts Crocker in the ill-fitting position as his boss's enforcer. Days after the evictions, the surprise indictment lands McCane in a North Carolina mountain jail and sinks Crocker even deeper into the escalating tensions between mill workers and the owners.
While traversing mountain communities in McCane's defense, Crocker must also manage the forced renovation of the Carlton Mill, negotiate with labor organizers led by local hero Olin Campbell, collaborate with McCane's besotted brother, Angus, and fend off his father's and wife's skepticism of his own social aspirations. Hanging distractingly over Crocker's upended life is his burgeoning infatuation with Novie Moreland--the young widow of one of those McCane is accused of killing. Though unrequited, Croker's relationship with Novie proves to be a beacon of hope amid the shadows of political and social machinations in the darkest chapter in his long life.
As the union retaliates and the McCane murder trial is settled, it is uncertain who the winners and losers have been in this generational clash of workers and owners, labor and capital, those tied to the land and its people and those who exploit both. When Crocker looks back from 1988 at these two crucial years in his life in the mid-1930s, he is left to wonder if he did right by himself and those closest to him. Against all better judgment, Crocker knows he must seek out Novie Moreland once more if he is ever to find closure with the past.
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 10, 2015
6 people are currently reading
621 people want to read
About the author
John Lane
35 books9 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
John Lane (1954–) is emeritus professor at Wofford College, where he taught creative writing, environmental studies, and directed the Goodall Environmental Studies Center. There, he helped imagine and direct the Thinking Like a River Initiative. Lane was named one of seven regional Culture Pioneers by Blue Ridge Outdoors. He has been honored with the Water Conservationist Award from the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, the Clean Water Champion by South Carolina's Upstate Forever, and inducted, in 2014, into the South Carolina Academy of Authors.
His selected poems, Abandoned Quarry, won the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance Poetry Book Award, his nonfiction book, Coyote Settles in the South, was named a finalist and a Nature Book of Uncommon Merit by the John Burroughs Society, and his novel, Fate Moreland's Widow, was named Independent Publisher Silver Medalist.
One of the founders of the Hub City Writers Project, Lane lives near the banks of Lawson's Fork outside of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
John Lane (1954–) is emeritus professor at Wofford College, where he taught creative writing, environmental studies, and directed the Goodall Environmental Studies Center. There, he helped imagine and direct the Thinking Like a River Initiative. Lane was named one of seven regional Culture Pioneers by Blue Ridge Outdoors. He has been honored with the Water Conservationist Award from the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, the Clean Water Champion by South Carolina's Upstate Forever, and inducted, in 2014, into the South Carolina Academy of Authors.
His selected poems, Abandoned Quarry, won the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance Poetry Book Award, his nonfiction book, Coyote Settles in the South, was named a finalist and a Nature Book of Uncommon Merit by the John Burroughs Society, and his novel, Fate Moreland's Widow, was named Independent Publisher Silver Medalist.
One of the founders of the Hub City Writers Project, Lane lives near the banks of Lawson's Fork outside of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 19, 2015
I've always known that companies like South Carolina because they don't have to worry about unions, but I never realized that unions actually did hold sway at one time. The conflict between a textile mill owner and the union members he employs and subsequently fires lies at the heart of this novel. But it's also a bit of a mystery. Just how did the wealthy and despised mill owner get away with killing three mountain people with his boat? Tension accrues, and the last pages fly by. This novel has definite cinematic potential, and Lane's descriptions of the natural world are especially beautiful - no surprise there, since he is the author of several non-fiction books about the rivers and forests of South Carolina. I would have liked a bit more insight into the eponymous widow, but I really enjoyed this book all the same.
June 21, 2024
This was a pallid book. With pallid characters. The tone was oblique and emotionally restrained, such that the protagonist's motivations were impenetrable. His actions were both immoral and, frankly stupid - but there were no external pressures exerted upon him. (His boss's brother hinted...) Internal pressures, if any, were implied, and not believable.
The title character turned out not to be a character. She was a Symbol. Of something. Maybe? Her motivations, too, were not so much mysterious as absent.
And then there were the foreshadowings and the flash-backs. They jerked the reader around, distancing him or her from the action, what little there was.
I was eager to read an Appalachian book, one about mills and unions and 1930s and class structures. The story of out-migration from farms to factories in these hills is interesting. But this novel was not.
The title character turned out not to be a character. She was a Symbol. Of something. Maybe? Her motivations, too, were not so much mysterious as absent.
And then there were the foreshadowings and the flash-backs. They jerked the reader around, distancing him or her from the action, what little there was.
I was eager to read an Appalachian book, one about mills and unions and 1930s and class structures. The story of out-migration from farms to factories in these hills is interesting. But this novel was not.
February 26, 2019
Living in Spartanburg and a textile employee’s wife, this book felt very familiar with the descriptions of people and places quite accurate. The story moved along well and kept my attention so I was able to read it quite quickly. But I guess I expected more- not sure what, but when I finished it, I really felt like it was a trite book. Sure, Mr. Lane has captured the feel of this area and knows the dialect and details, but the story just didn’t mean much to me. I really would have liked more background of each person, more interaction between the main characters, more story.
July 14, 2018
I seem to be on a textile mill/labor movement kick recently. This novel, written by a Spartanburg author, is set in familiar territory to me, both upstate SC and Western NC. Although the names and places are in part fictitious, there's enough reality to be able to identify some locations.
July 25, 2019
It took me way longer than I like to get into this book. It was a relatively short book that took me days and days to read. There was so much back story to the back story. In the end, It was a nice read and I’m glad I read it.
December 28, 2016
I heard the story of this accident when I was young spending summers on the lake. So I enjoyed John's take on the accident and subsequent events.
June 22, 2017
Well written
Interesting story, one that I've always enjoyed reading about, the textile mills in South Carolina.
Would like to read more like this one.
Interesting story, one that I've always enjoyed reading about, the textile mills in South Carolina.
Would like to read more like this one.
October 10, 2017
Learned a lot about unions. Read the book in one sitting.
December 23, 2025
Another Spartanburg area book
Read
March 19, 2017Great book to read - read in one 24 hour period!
"A crackerjack page-turner that brings the whole violent and complicated struggle of the southern textile mills to brilliant, blazing life." ~Lee Smith
I highly recommend!
"A crackerjack page-turner that brings the whole violent and complicated struggle of the southern textile mills to brilliant, blazing life." ~Lee Smith
I highly recommend!
April 6, 2015
Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake.
— Robert Penn Warren
The victors write history. This often cited cultural meme (misattributed to Churchill) has been around for a couple of thousand years and like most grand statements both is and isn’t true.
Mr. Penn Warren’s words help to gather together some of what I want to say about John Lane and his new novel. My history with John goes back three decades. (We were at the same writing program at Virginia). Since then, John has gone on to write many books, collect many accolades for his poems and essays and now for his first published novel.
When I began to read Fate Moreland’s Widow, out last month from USC Press, I was not sure what to expect. I knew John had the ability to write beautiful poems and moving essays on a huge range of topics. What I found in this novel is yet another wonderful voice that is both poetic and historical.
Ben Crocker, the main character, is a product of a time and place in which there was a chance for the South to unionize its textile industry. As John mentions below in his interview, this movement has largely passed from consciousness and from the history books too. His book gives us a close up of the families whose lives were altered, for a time, by this movement. Ben is a bridge between the two sides—the workers and the owners. His is an uncomfortable position because while he’s born into the working class side his education permits him to become what some might now call a white collar worker. He does wear a tie and this in itself separates him from virtually everyone he has known. But he is not anywhere close to the heights and wealth of the owners. He is, to quote Wiley Cash in his introduction to the novel says, in a “liminal position”.
We as readers the get to learn about both worlds from this inside outsider. He can talk to almost anyone but the words he gets are often guarded and hostile. He must try to navigate a path that tries to placate both sides, and as is often this case, this does not work well. John has not cast Ben as a hero in any traditional way except perhaps to himself. His efforts to help Fate Moreland’s widow seem based in part of Romantic myths that characterize the Southern gentleman’s code of conduct. He projects himself as a man trying to save a woman who has lost her husband, or at least did when he was young.
This photo inspired John in his description of Ben's workplace
By keeping the focus on a small set of characters and one particular set of events, we see lives in close up and for me this is crucial to the success of the book. Through poetic prose, there are many instances of what Ezra Pound called “luminous details”, those images and sentences that shine brightly enough to light our way to insight about a time, place and the infinitely complex space inside our heads. The most enigmatic character is Novie Moreland, the beautiful widow of Fate. Of course Fate is a word chosen for all its connotations and it is telling that Novie is not given her name in the title of the novel. She is, to me at least, a figure that Faulkner would have loved to have written. She is the person who through her beauty and mystery draws in Ben and many others to her orbit. In this she is a bit like Caddie in The Sound and the Fury in that the males around her apply their preconceived notions about who she is while we as readers are still left to wonder about what goes on inside her mind. We are left to choose and to create our own Fate Moreland’s Widow. We participate in the human condition of projecting our own desires and interpretations and this is what great literature should do-- leave us room to explore instead of providing easy answers to questions of character or history.
The book is prefaced with an epigraph from Mr. Penn Warren that says what I have just attempted to in much more eloquent and poetic way:
Before all had happened that has happened since
And is now arranged on the shelf
Of memory in a sequence that I call myself.
Those reading John’s book will also arrange the events and characters in this book that will lead them to learn more about others, but more importantly, more about themselves.
In the interview on this link I am lucky enough to be able to share John’s words— about teaching, writing and about his wonderful and important new novel:http://onlyconnectparke.blogspot.com/...
— Robert Penn Warren
The victors write history. This often cited cultural meme (misattributed to Churchill) has been around for a couple of thousand years and like most grand statements both is and isn’t true.
Mr. Penn Warren’s words help to gather together some of what I want to say about John Lane and his new novel. My history with John goes back three decades. (We were at the same writing program at Virginia). Since then, John has gone on to write many books, collect many accolades for his poems and essays and now for his first published novel.
When I began to read Fate Moreland’s Widow, out last month from USC Press, I was not sure what to expect. I knew John had the ability to write beautiful poems and moving essays on a huge range of topics. What I found in this novel is yet another wonderful voice that is both poetic and historical.
Ben Crocker, the main character, is a product of a time and place in which there was a chance for the South to unionize its textile industry. As John mentions below in his interview, this movement has largely passed from consciousness and from the history books too. His book gives us a close up of the families whose lives were altered, for a time, by this movement. Ben is a bridge between the two sides—the workers and the owners. His is an uncomfortable position because while he’s born into the working class side his education permits him to become what some might now call a white collar worker. He does wear a tie and this in itself separates him from virtually everyone he has known. But he is not anywhere close to the heights and wealth of the owners. He is, to quote Wiley Cash in his introduction to the novel says, in a “liminal position”.
We as readers the get to learn about both worlds from this inside outsider. He can talk to almost anyone but the words he gets are often guarded and hostile. He must try to navigate a path that tries to placate both sides, and as is often this case, this does not work well. John has not cast Ben as a hero in any traditional way except perhaps to himself. His efforts to help Fate Moreland’s widow seem based in part of Romantic myths that characterize the Southern gentleman’s code of conduct. He projects himself as a man trying to save a woman who has lost her husband, or at least did when he was young.
This photo inspired John in his description of Ben's workplace
By keeping the focus on a small set of characters and one particular set of events, we see lives in close up and for me this is crucial to the success of the book. Through poetic prose, there are many instances of what Ezra Pound called “luminous details”, those images and sentences that shine brightly enough to light our way to insight about a time, place and the infinitely complex space inside our heads. The most enigmatic character is Novie Moreland, the beautiful widow of Fate. Of course Fate is a word chosen for all its connotations and it is telling that Novie is not given her name in the title of the novel. She is, to me at least, a figure that Faulkner would have loved to have written. She is the person who through her beauty and mystery draws in Ben and many others to her orbit. In this she is a bit like Caddie in The Sound and the Fury in that the males around her apply their preconceived notions about who she is while we as readers are still left to wonder about what goes on inside her mind. We are left to choose and to create our own Fate Moreland’s Widow. We participate in the human condition of projecting our own desires and interpretations and this is what great literature should do-- leave us room to explore instead of providing easy answers to questions of character or history.
The book is prefaced with an epigraph from Mr. Penn Warren that says what I have just attempted to in much more eloquent and poetic way:
Before all had happened that has happened since
And is now arranged on the shelf
Of memory in a sequence that I call myself.
Those reading John’s book will also arrange the events and characters in this book that will lead them to learn more about others, but more importantly, more about themselves.
In the interview on this link I am lucky enough to be able to share John’s words— about teaching, writing and about his wonderful and important new novel:http://onlyconnectparke.blogspot.com/...
May 7, 2016
I requested this book from my local library after hearing Mr. Lane do a reading from it at a workshop. The short selection he read pulled me in and I had to read the book. It's a short novel, a quick read, and a good one. John Lane's narrator seems like someone I might sit and talk with - a thoughtful human being sometimes cloudy motives and conflicting desires. Set in a Southern mill town during the labor disputes of the thirties, the descriptions of the two towns involved, of the mill work and workers, of the hard-scrabble, beautiful landscapes put you inside the story as it moves and twists like a mountain stream. I strongly recommend it to not only readers of historical fiction and those with a penchant for Southern tales but to any lover of the well-crafted written word. I loved it!
September 9, 2015
I love regional fiction, and this book had the added bonus of depicting regional historical events that are rarely discussed -- labor strife during the 1930s. To boot I read it over Labor Day weekend! The characters and setting were interesting, but the plot seemed under-developed.
August 28, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed John Lane's debut novel. I look forward to his next. Highly recommended!
October 24, 2015
Given that Pat Conroy was Editor at Large and Wiley Cash wrote the forward, I was expecting more. But it's an interesting story that may grow on me in retrospect.
January 28, 2016
Very informing tale of the mill culture in NC.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews