Those That Mattered

by Barbara Angle

Those That Mattered is a moving, deeply felt novel about a world that most people encounter only on the eleven o'clock news in the wake of a disaster, and about a woman fighting for respect and opportunity in one of the least hospitable places on earth. It is the story of Portia Crowe, granddaughter, daughter, and sister of coal miners, who returns from college to her West Virginia home, her emotional and physical touchstone. Trapped in a marriage as hopeless as much of the life around her, she takes advantage of federal government pressure and the advice of a drifter - "Where's the money at in these hills, hon? Mining. Then that's where to go." Portia, ostracized by her family and her community, becomes one of the first female members of the United Mine Workers. The years she spends in the mines are poisoned by coal dust, by danger, and by the merciless harassment of male miners, but are finally redeemed by the bonds that unite people who work together in constant danger. Those That Mattered is the story of the complex relationship between miners and the Earth, between the union and the company, and between men and women, written by one of the first women to go into the Appalachian coal mines.

Hardcover

First published October 18, 1994

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mining is a frequent theme in early frontier fiction, though few writers actually take us into the mines, where the work is done. One notable exception is Mary Hallock Foote’s The Led-Horse Claim (1883). Though miners were fiercely superstitious about women in mines and the bad luck their presence there foretold, Foote sends her female protagonist below ground, to experience a netherworld of darkness and isolation where men toil in the dangerous extraction of gold, silver, or copper.

More common are stories about mining communities and their social life centering on a favorite saloon or among the wives of the miners. However, for vicarious experience of blasting a way through a mountain, you have to turn to Frederick Ritchie Bechdolt’s The Hard Rock Man (1910), which gives a thrilling account of constructing a railway tunnel. It portrays not only the danger of collapsing rock and working with dynamite but the camaraderie and rivalries that grow among the men.

Blend all of these threads and mix in some of Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, and you have something close to Barbara Angle’s autobiographical coal mining novel, set in modern-day West Virginia...

More at my blog.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book. I read a lot of books and I read this one about 20 years ago and I remember it vividly. It's one of my all time favorites.