Bull Mountain
Brian Panowich, 2015
Penguin Group
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780425282281
Summary
Clayton Burroughs comes from a long line of outlaws.
For generations, the Burroughs clan has made its home on Bull Mountain in North Georgia, running shine, pot, and meth over six state lines, virtually untouched by the rule of law. To distance himself from his family’s criminal empire, Clayton took the job of sheriff in a neighboring community to keep what peace he can.
But when a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms shows up at Clayton’s office with a plan to shut down the mountain, his hidden agenda will pit brother against brother, test loyalties, and could lead Clayton down a path to self-destruction.
In a sweeping narrative spanning decades and told from alternating points of view, the novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of the mountain and its inhabitants: forbidding, loyal, gritty, and ruthless. A story of family—the lengths men will go to protect it, honor it, or in some cases destroy it—Bull Mountain is an incredibly assured debut that heralds a major new talent in fiction. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1971-72
• Where—Fort Dix, New Jersey
• Raised—in Europe; East Georgia, USA
• Education— Georgia Southern University (no degree)
• Currently—lives in East Georgia
Brian is the author of Bull Mountain, a southern crime saga published in 2015. He has several stories available in print and online collections. Two of his stories, "If I Ever Get Off This Mountain" and "Coming Down The Mountain", were nominated for a Spinetingler award in 2013. He is currently a firefighter in East Georgia, living with his wife and four children. Bull Mountain is his first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[Brian Panowich] pulls off [a] daunting undertaking with astounding success.... The storytelling is mesmerizing, with virtually every chapter set in a different timeline and focused on a single character, but the sense of immediacy carries over into each era. And while the violence is shocking in its coldhearted brutality, it’s as aesthetically choreographed as any ballet.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
Panowich has crafted a satisfying and smartly constructed book whose time-shifting sequences build suspense even as they parcel out telling revelations. Once events are in full play, there’s no turning back.
Wall Street Journal
[Panowich storms] onto the scene with an epic southern tale that establishes him as a new voice for southern writers.... An unabashed literary page-turner, Bull Mountain, takes readers along for a ride full of well timed twists and turns, and the shocking family secret that causes the inevitable climax....one of the best multi-generational family sagas in years.
Huffington Post
You’d be hard pressed to believe Bull Mountain is the work of a debut author. What Panowich puts together is more than a history of family, but a chronology of the violence perpetrated for nearly a century in maintaining an empire built on bootleg hooch and drugs—not in the name of power, women, or money, but of home.... Panowich’s Southern grit is stubborn and gets into every crevice..... [H]e tears apart the hardened, Southern man so popular in rural noir. Even more, he does so while maintaining that those characters have a moral, human center.
Los Angeles Review of Books
A brilliant debut novel....extraordinary.
Atlanta Magazine
Prose as punchy as rapid-aged whiskey.
Esquire
Part Dashiell Hammett, part Hamlet.... The story of a familial criminal empire embedded in the mountains of North Georgia, [Bull Mountain] is a book that never lets a complicated plot and structure get in the way of what, I believe, is Panowich’s greatest gift—the ability to build layered, authentic characters and the world in which they live.... Graceful prose, compelling characters, and a true sense of place [make this] gripping reading.
Augusta Chronicle
The author delivers characters with depth, a lushly described setting, and an intergenerational battle between good and evil. After many twists and turns, the story ends with a welcome surprise.... His book...brings the landscape and culture of rural Appalachia to life.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Dazzling.... Panowich tells his story in lengthy, nicely worked chapters reminiscent of John Steinbeck.... Both write in a flowing, textured, understated style that is such a pleasure to read we don’t realize we’re being set up for a series of uppercuts. They come in revelations accompanied by gunfire.
Booklist
Hillbilly noir goes literary in Panowich's debut, which is part crime fiction and part family saga.... Panowich deftly delves into "something deeper than bone" between fathers and sons, between the land and its people.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins with the word "family," and the powerful scenes that follow signal the importance of familial bonds—and rifts—in this novel. Discuss the role of family in the story. To which characters is it most important? Is family defined by blood or by something else?
2. There are two key female protagonists in the novel: Kate and Marion. What did you think of these two women? What were their most distinctive characteristics? How does each disrupt the balance of the Burroughs family?
3. Consider the narrative structure of Bull Mountain, which is told in chapters that alternate between characters and time periods. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story in this way? Did the structure enhance any particular part of the story for you (e.g., the suspense, characterization)?
4. Clayton Burroughs and Simon Holly have more in common than initially meets the eye, but they’re also very different men who choose divergent paths. What drove each man? Why did each make the choices he made, for good or for ill?
5. Brian Panowich brings to the novel a strong sense of place, and Bull Mountain becomes a character in itself, a dynamic setting that means different things to different people. What role does it play? What does the mountain mean to Clayton? What about to Kate, Simon, or Halford?
6. Clayton and Kate have the most functional romantic relationship in the novel, and yet even they have big ups and downs. How would you describe their marriage? How has being with Kate changed Clayton, and vice versa? To what extent does Clayton’s family influence their relationship?
7. In addition to the main characters, the novel is peppered with a rich and colorful cast of people, such as Bracken, Val, Scabby Mike, Choctaw, Cricket, and others. Which secondary character was your favorite, and why? Did any stand out to you for the humor or depth they brought to the narrative?
8. Through the course of the novel, several characters pursue a course of vengeance. How is revenge depicted in the novel? Is it worth it? Is it ever just? How is it different for each character?
9. Bull Mountain contains elements of crime fiction, family saga, and Southern gothic. How would you categorize the novel? What fiction might it be compared to?
10. What did you think of the ending? Were you surprised?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)