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Storming Heaven
Annadel, West Virginia, was a small town rich in coal, farms, and close-knit families, all destroyed when the coal company came in. It stole everything it hadn't bothered to buy -- land deeds, private homes, and ultimately, the souls of its men and women.
In 1921, an army of 10,000 unemployed pro-union coal miners took up arms and threatened to overthrow the governments of two West Virginia counties. They were greeted by U.S. Army airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. This book recounts the real story of what happened--and where it all went wrong.
Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C. J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rosa Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines. They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain--the first crucial battle of a war that has yet to be won.
In 1921, an army of 10,000 unemployed pro-union coal miners took up arms and threatened to overthrow the governments of two West Virginia counties. They were greeted by U.S. Army airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. This book recounts the real story of what happened--and where it all went wrong.
Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C. J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rosa Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines. They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain--the first crucial battle of a war that has yet to be won.
293 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 17, 1987
About the author
Denise Giardina
10 books109 followersOften labelled an Appalachian writer, or a historical novelist, Denise Giardina describes herself as a theological writer, exploring fundamental issues of faith and belief through literary characters.
Born and raised in the West Virginia coalfields, Giardina is an ordained Episcopal Church deacon, a community activist and a former candidate for the WV state governorship.
Her novels, fictionalizing historical characters and events, have been critically acclaimed and recognised with a number of literary prizes.
Born and raised in the West Virginia coalfields, Giardina is an ordained Episcopal Church deacon, a community activist and a former candidate for the WV state governorship.
Her novels, fictionalizing historical characters and events, have been critically acclaimed and recognised with a number of literary prizes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
October 5, 2020
3.5 stars
“Now there was no movement of air except the unnatural breath of the trap doors opening and closing in the tunnels. The smell was like the inside of our coal stove, but damp and decaying. Ahead of us, lamps bobbed like monstrous lightning bugs. Here and there an arm swung free from the darkness and disappeared again. I felt the mountain hunkered over us, pressing down, and it was hard to breathe.”
I simply can’t imagine what it would have been like to work in the coal mines or to watch a loved one, a father, a husband or a son, disappear into that gaping hole in the earth, wondering if he would return that evening or be lost forever. This book opened my eyes to a period of time and a series of events that I’ve not previously given much thought to – the struggle of the coal miners and the labor disputes of the early 1900s in West Virginia. I’d never even heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, when the exploited miners clashed with the ruthless and corrupt coal companies.
“American Coal Company owned our house. Richmond and Western Railroad owned our land.”
This story is told through the point of view of four different characters in alternating chapters - CJ Marcum, town mayor and activist; Rondal Lloyd, union organizer and part-time banjo picker; Carrie Bishop, nurse and lover of two men; and Rosa Angelelli, a Sicilian immigrant who loses most of her family to the mines. To be honest, I would have been happier with perhaps just two points of view, or even just one, to make the storytelling more fluid. Carrie Bishop won my heart – what a woman! We meet her as a young dreamer, a headstrong and passionate girl, wishing for a romance like the ones she reads about in her beloved novels.
“I see myself, waiting for Heathcliff, waiting for someone to come from outside, bearing with him both passion and menace. I knew he would come from the outside, because Daddy and Aunt Becka said I would never find a man on Scary Creek or Grapevine. I was too forward, they said, too stubborn.”
Well, she does eventually lose her heart, but to two different men, loving both at the same time… ahh… And it’s all so believable! But I digress; this is not a romance story! So don’t let me lead you astray. This book is full of the cruel mistreatment of the miners, starving families, child labor, tragic accidents, brutal violence, and gruesome death. The author does a superb job of highlighting the years of struggle to organize the miners into unions, which were a threat to the ultimate power of the coal companies. It was not safe to be spotted as a union man; your life and that of your family were in danger if you were discovered. Much of the organizing was done in secret.
The first section of the book was a bit slow-going, as the scene is set and characters are introduced. I almost lost interest, my mind being rather scattered this past month. Yet I was hopeful, mostly thanks to Carrie’s sections, that there was a good story to tell in there somewhere. And I was right. The middle section hooked me. I had to discover for myself the eventual outcome for these vibrant characters and oppressed mineworkers. The beauty of Kentucky, Carrie’s homeland, is beautifully described in contrast to the dreariness of the mines themselves. I was struck by the writing in many of her passages.
“You have seen old photographs, brown and sweet-looking, as though dipped in light molasses. My memories of the Homeplace in Kentucky are like that. Sweet, bittersweet.”
If you don’t know how the Battle of Blair Mountain ends, I won’t ruin the climax of the story for you. It is interesting to do a little research into the true events afterwards. It won’t be the first or the last time that underpaid, underprivileged workers will be taken advantage of by those with more money and power. Thanks to people like the ones in this story, however, there will be those with enough courage to fight for their rights and stand up for what they believe in. Without them, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I first began to understand what I have learned since, that there are forces in this world, principalities and powers, that wrench away the things that are loved, people and land, and return only exile.”
“Now there was no movement of air except the unnatural breath of the trap doors opening and closing in the tunnels. The smell was like the inside of our coal stove, but damp and decaying. Ahead of us, lamps bobbed like monstrous lightning bugs. Here and there an arm swung free from the darkness and disappeared again. I felt the mountain hunkered over us, pressing down, and it was hard to breathe.”
I simply can’t imagine what it would have been like to work in the coal mines or to watch a loved one, a father, a husband or a son, disappear into that gaping hole in the earth, wondering if he would return that evening or be lost forever. This book opened my eyes to a period of time and a series of events that I’ve not previously given much thought to – the struggle of the coal miners and the labor disputes of the early 1900s in West Virginia. I’d never even heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, when the exploited miners clashed with the ruthless and corrupt coal companies.
“American Coal Company owned our house. Richmond and Western Railroad owned our land.”
This story is told through the point of view of four different characters in alternating chapters - CJ Marcum, town mayor and activist; Rondal Lloyd, union organizer and part-time banjo picker; Carrie Bishop, nurse and lover of two men; and Rosa Angelelli, a Sicilian immigrant who loses most of her family to the mines. To be honest, I would have been happier with perhaps just two points of view, or even just one, to make the storytelling more fluid. Carrie Bishop won my heart – what a woman! We meet her as a young dreamer, a headstrong and passionate girl, wishing for a romance like the ones she reads about in her beloved novels.
“I see myself, waiting for Heathcliff, waiting for someone to come from outside, bearing with him both passion and menace. I knew he would come from the outside, because Daddy and Aunt Becka said I would never find a man on Scary Creek or Grapevine. I was too forward, they said, too stubborn.”
Well, she does eventually lose her heart, but to two different men, loving both at the same time… ahh… And it’s all so believable! But I digress; this is not a romance story! So don’t let me lead you astray. This book is full of the cruel mistreatment of the miners, starving families, child labor, tragic accidents, brutal violence, and gruesome death. The author does a superb job of highlighting the years of struggle to organize the miners into unions, which were a threat to the ultimate power of the coal companies. It was not safe to be spotted as a union man; your life and that of your family were in danger if you were discovered. Much of the organizing was done in secret.
The first section of the book was a bit slow-going, as the scene is set and characters are introduced. I almost lost interest, my mind being rather scattered this past month. Yet I was hopeful, mostly thanks to Carrie’s sections, that there was a good story to tell in there somewhere. And I was right. The middle section hooked me. I had to discover for myself the eventual outcome for these vibrant characters and oppressed mineworkers. The beauty of Kentucky, Carrie’s homeland, is beautifully described in contrast to the dreariness of the mines themselves. I was struck by the writing in many of her passages.
“You have seen old photographs, brown and sweet-looking, as though dipped in light molasses. My memories of the Homeplace in Kentucky are like that. Sweet, bittersweet.”
If you don’t know how the Battle of Blair Mountain ends, I won’t ruin the climax of the story for you. It is interesting to do a little research into the true events afterwards. It won’t be the first or the last time that underpaid, underprivileged workers will be taken advantage of by those with more money and power. Thanks to people like the ones in this story, however, there will be those with enough courage to fight for their rights and stand up for what they believe in. Without them, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I first began to understand what I have learned since, that there are forces in this world, principalities and powers, that wrench away the things that are loved, people and land, and return only exile.”
September 10, 2020
Storming Heaven is Denise Giardina’s depiction of the events surrounding the Blair Mountain uprising in Logan County, West Virginia, an attempt to unionize the coal industry in the early 1920s, and the largest labor uprising in American history.
I seem to have read an unusual number of books about this time period and the fights of the coal miners to have union representation. The Women of the Copper Country came to mind, as did River of Earth. Both of these books set a high bar, and in the end, Storming Heaven cleared it.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part is very slow and introduces each of the characters in chapters told from their individual points of view. I was seriously thinking this was going to be a 3-star read for me, then I hit Part Two and the story picked up. By Part Three, all the groundwork laid in the first section fell into place and the story began to gel, to move, to mean. I take the time to say all of this, because I encourage you not to judge this book until you have come through the first part--it’s the appetizer and you are going to get a full meal behind it.
The plight of the miners, the greed and disregard of the men who stole their land and turned them into slave labor, the indifference of the government to the rights or welfare of these people, all ring true. The twenties were hard times in Appalachia. I stopped to wonder if there have ever been times that were not hard in Appalachia.
The hardships are offset by the portrayals of life on the farms, in nature, and with the family. The dynamics between the family members and the closeness and love of the people for one another succeed in lending a lighter tone to portions of the novel and help to emphasize how the coming of the coal industry and the company stores changed the lives they swallowed.
I ended this novel both impressed and emotionally involved with the characters. I particularly love the strength and resilience of Carrie Bishop. Aunt Jane would be proud.
I seem to have read an unusual number of books about this time period and the fights of the coal miners to have union representation. The Women of the Copper Country came to mind, as did River of Earth. Both of these books set a high bar, and in the end, Storming Heaven cleared it.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part is very slow and introduces each of the characters in chapters told from their individual points of view. I was seriously thinking this was going to be a 3-star read for me, then I hit Part Two and the story picked up. By Part Three, all the groundwork laid in the first section fell into place and the story began to gel, to move, to mean. I take the time to say all of this, because I encourage you not to judge this book until you have come through the first part--it’s the appetizer and you are going to get a full meal behind it.
The plight of the miners, the greed and disregard of the men who stole their land and turned them into slave labor, the indifference of the government to the rights or welfare of these people, all ring true. The twenties were hard times in Appalachia. I stopped to wonder if there have ever been times that were not hard in Appalachia.
The hardships are offset by the portrayals of life on the farms, in nature, and with the family. The dynamics between the family members and the closeness and love of the people for one another succeed in lending a lighter tone to portions of the novel and help to emphasize how the coming of the coal industry and the company stores changed the lives they swallowed.
I ended this novel both impressed and emotionally involved with the characters. I particularly love the strength and resilience of Carrie Bishop. Aunt Jane would be proud.
September 4, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up.
Good account of the struggles of coal miners in West Virginia who fought to get representation by the Unions to better their working conditions. Also a tale of the Appalachian people there and in Kentucky, especially the women who endured cold and hunger and sickness during the strikes. It was a hard life any way you looked at it. It was well written and I thought the dialect was especially well done. A few glitches here and there brought it down a star, but overall a good book that made me glad my Daddy wasn't a coal miner.
Good account of the struggles of coal miners in West Virginia who fought to get representation by the Unions to better their working conditions. Also a tale of the Appalachian people there and in Kentucky, especially the women who endured cold and hunger and sickness during the strikes. It was a hard life any way you looked at it. It was well written and I thought the dialect was especially well done. A few glitches here and there brought it down a star, but overall a good book that made me glad my Daddy wasn't a coal miner.
August 13, 2019
I enjoyed this book very, very much. It is a love story and it is a book of historical fiction that closely follows the growth of the union s at the coal mines in southwestern West Virginia. The events culminate in 1920 with the Battle of Blair Mountain when the United States Army fought 10,000 unemployed pro-union miners with airplanes, bombs and poison gas. Here is a link detailing this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o... I advise that you read it after reading the book. What is marvelous about the book is that the conflict is understood by following the characters’ experiences. You are there with them; this isn’t the same as reading a page at Wikipedia. And as I first said there is a wonderful love story. In fact two love stories, both of which are totally convincing and realistically portrayed. Aren’t you surprised? I never read love stories, but that is because they rarely deliver as this one does.
In addition the writing is tremendous. The dialog is written with a Southern dialect. You are there in the South. Occasionally I found this difficult to understand, but the feeling it created was worth any added effort needed to follow the conversations. The story is told by four: an activist, a union man, a nurse and a Sicilian immigrant. The Sicilian woman’s chapters were few and short. They demand attention; she cannot speak English properly. Again, the effect was perfect. Originally I thought her entries could have been skipped, but they were in fact absolutely necessary to include the immigrant miners’ experiences too. The flagrant brutality of the coal operators is shocking. The miners’ lives, with all its horrors, are movingly portrayed with depth and clarity.
This book will be highly appreciated by all those who love a love story and want to learn a bit of history at the same time. Excellent writing. You are there, down in the South in the 20s.
There is a sequel to this book: Unquiet Earth
Can a sequel be this good? I am hesitant to try it. This was just so very good; I don’t want anything to lessen its impact.
September 14, 2020
Historical fiction is my favorite genre, and this award winning book by oft course studied Appalachian author Denise Giardina did not disappoint.
She (herself a coal miners daughter) has created a terrifically readable reconstruction of the events in early 20th Century West Virginia as over 10,000 out of work miners tired of despicable working conditions and after years of attempts to form a union finally lead an uprising and are retaliated against by the US government in the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The story is told through four powerful narrators: an activist, a loveless union man, a brave nurse who loves him, and an immigrant woman who loses four sons to the deadly mines.
This was a chapter of American history new and interesting to me.
Read for On The Southern Literary Trail. 5 stars
She (herself a coal miners daughter) has created a terrifically readable reconstruction of the events in early 20th Century West Virginia as over 10,000 out of work miners tired of despicable working conditions and after years of attempts to form a union finally lead an uprising and are retaliated against by the US government in the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The story is told through four powerful narrators: an activist, a loveless union man, a brave nurse who loves him, and an immigrant woman who loses four sons to the deadly mines.
This was a chapter of American history new and interesting to me.
Read for On The Southern Literary Trail. 5 stars
September 14, 2020
This fictional account is one that peaks your interest to find out more about this factual, historical event. I think the pace picked up at part 3 and I really began to connect with the characters. I enjoyed the read overall.
September 12, 2020
Storming Heaven recounts events from 1920-1921 when coal mines in southern West Virginia became the setting for a very violent labor struggle between the miners and their families against the operators and owners of the mines. This has become known as the largest labor uprising in American history. First the railways came into the towns and took the land away and then the coal companies stole their homes and farms. These families had lived on their land for generations and now were left with having to work in the mines underground and live a harsh and cruel life.
They broke their backs and died of roof falls and rib rolls and gas, their children went to bed hungry, and died of the typhoid, their wives took the consumption, they themselves coughed and spit up. True enough. They stayed indebted to the company store, they had no say at the mine or freedom of any kind, they could be let go at a moment’s notice and put out in the road, or beaten, or shot. All true. But it had always been that way, and they never fought back.
The story is told through the eyes of four main characters each chapter told from a different perspective. CJ Marcum is the activist mayor and union leader in Annadel (fictionalized town) and becomes a sort of surrogate father to Rondal Lloyd. Rondal’s dad has become indebted to the coal company and brings each of his young sons (children) into the mines with him against their mother’s wishes. These boys are thrown into the fire, in a sense, and forced to grow up way too quickly. Rondal chooses his own path to stay near his home rather than head off for bigger opportunities.
Carrie Bishop is a Kentucky girl who falls in love with Rondal. She becomes a nurse who leaves her homestead to work in Annadel. Then there is Rosa Angelelli, an Italian immigrant who’s husband and children work and die in the mines. Her voice is really minimal and lacking in its completeness.
When the miners decide to unionize, the company brings in the gun thugs to take care of scaring and traumatizing the miners who have joined the union. Their form of justice is brutal and violent and many times deadly. The miners decide to come together from all the surrounding mines and arm themselves to take on the powers that be. This culminates in the Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County, W Va where 10,000 armed miners confronted the mining companies’ private army supported by the US Army. This term redneck is derived from this battle. Here is it’s original meaning:
Doc Booker pulled a red bandana from his back pocket, waved it back and forth, tied it around his neck. It was an old sign of poor people standing together, the red badge of the union, a death warrant if seen by the gun thugs.
My interest in this book is familial. Both grandfathers were coal miners in Ky in the 1940’s near the areas mentioned in the story. My mother’s father died in the mines when she was only 2 years old. I remember my dad’s dad, Willie Earl Blair. We visited his homestead many times in eastern KY which still stands but is not inhabited. My mom and dad always referred to their mothers as Mommy. They were close knit and loving and had large families to feed. Although they moved about 60 miles from home when they married, my parents always spoke lovingly of the family and their home. Denise Giardina, has captured this love of family and homeplace so well through the characters. I sang along with Rondal when he saw Carrie and began humming ‘My Old Kentucky Home’. The language of the mountain people is often times considered uneducated and needing to be “fixed”. But it was theirs and part of their community. They only wanted what they needed and never any more than that. They were just hard working folks trying to make a living and provide for their families. Many died fighting for better conditions and pay.
July 24, 2008
The Giardina novel I reviewed earlier, The Unquiet Earth, is actually a sequel to this one, which covers the years 1890-1922. Both books share the same problem of over-use of bad language (which cost this one a fifth star); but this book does not have several of the other objectionable elements of the second one, and the eye-opening indictment of social injustice here is even more powerful.
This is a fictionalized treatment of the hellish conditions in Appalachia's coal country, during the years when the big coal companies were literally stealing the land and establishing a system of de facto slavery in the mines, enforced by murder and the threat of murder, with the active complicity of a corrupt government. But it is not very fictionalized; many of the atrocities (and no, that isn't too strong a term) that Giardina depicts actually happened, although some of the names of people and places are changed here, and some license is taken with details. (The real names are used in the movie Matewan, depicting the 1920 murder of Matewan, West Virginia's mayor by coal company gun thugs in broad daylight on a public street, and the first acts of armed resistance by the citizenry --and though this site is devoted to books, not movies, I'd heartily recommend that movie as well!) And this is not simply dead history irrelevant to the present; as the sequel shows, the peonage and violence area residents have endured at the hands of the coal companies continues into the present. And we can see the same mentality of oppression and exploitation of the many for the enrichment of a few in so much of the warp and woof of economic life in our world today, with its "globalization" of sweatshops, expanding poverty and corporate greed.
To her credit, Giardina doesn't let her message overwhelm her story, or reduce her characters to cardboard caricatures; this is a novel of flesh-and-blood people, not a dreary ideological exercise in "socialist realism." (And of course many of her oppressed characters fighting back against the system are not "reds,' as their opponents depict them, nor in many cases particularly ideological at all.) Of all of her four viewpoint characters, only the Italian immigrant Rosa fails to come alive for the reader --at least, this reader-- her few sections of the book are much shorter than those of the others, and are much more exercises in rather jumbled stream-of-consciousness perceptions (ultimately distorted by madness) than coherent narratives. But the other sections don't have that problem. I also appreciate her basically sympathetic treatment of Christianity; the rebel preacher Albion Freeman is a particularly appealing character, though I disagree with some aspects of his theology (his pacifism, and his theory of ultimate universal salvation --views which probably reflect Episcopal lay preacher Giardina's own). All in all, this is one of the best modern historicals I've read.
This is a fictionalized treatment of the hellish conditions in Appalachia's coal country, during the years when the big coal companies were literally stealing the land and establishing a system of de facto slavery in the mines, enforced by murder and the threat of murder, with the active complicity of a corrupt government. But it is not very fictionalized; many of the atrocities (and no, that isn't too strong a term) that Giardina depicts actually happened, although some of the names of people and places are changed here, and some license is taken with details. (The real names are used in the movie Matewan, depicting the 1920 murder of Matewan, West Virginia's mayor by coal company gun thugs in broad daylight on a public street, and the first acts of armed resistance by the citizenry --and though this site is devoted to books, not movies, I'd heartily recommend that movie as well!) And this is not simply dead history irrelevant to the present; as the sequel shows, the peonage and violence area residents have endured at the hands of the coal companies continues into the present. And we can see the same mentality of oppression and exploitation of the many for the enrichment of a few in so much of the warp and woof of economic life in our world today, with its "globalization" of sweatshops, expanding poverty and corporate greed.
To her credit, Giardina doesn't let her message overwhelm her story, or reduce her characters to cardboard caricatures; this is a novel of flesh-and-blood people, not a dreary ideological exercise in "socialist realism." (And of course many of her oppressed characters fighting back against the system are not "reds,' as their opponents depict them, nor in many cases particularly ideological at all.) Of all of her four viewpoint characters, only the Italian immigrant Rosa fails to come alive for the reader --at least, this reader-- her few sections of the book are much shorter than those of the others, and are much more exercises in rather jumbled stream-of-consciousness perceptions (ultimately distorted by madness) than coherent narratives. But the other sections don't have that problem. I also appreciate her basically sympathetic treatment of Christianity; the rebel preacher Albion Freeman is a particularly appealing character, though I disagree with some aspects of his theology (his pacifism, and his theory of ultimate universal salvation --views which probably reflect Episcopal lay preacher Giardina's own). All in all, this is one of the best modern historicals I've read.
September 20, 2012
I expected to hate this book. But it shook me up. It was good.
I want to be Carrie Bishop
Page 119 -
"How come you aint married?" he asked.
"I just aint found the right man," I answered, shamed to tell him that I feared no one would want me, that in my three years of school no one had come courting.
"You look to me like you're too independent," he said. "You wouldnt take to a man bossing you around."
The way he said it did not sound like a reproach.
Page 161 -
"Why'd you leave that feller tonight?"
"He didn't need me there. I tried to tell him how much I love him. But he wont hear it. He cant let himself be loved."
"You're just like him," Albion said. He pulled my hand down, held the lantern closer. "You want to love your own way. You're scairt of something else."
Page 297 - "She never did beg me not to go. It was then I knew what I had in her. She'd throw out no snares to trip me and slow me, to keep me from giving everything up to what was coming. It takes a hell of a woman to be like that."
I want to be Carrie Bishop
Page 119 -
"How come you aint married?" he asked.
"I just aint found the right man," I answered, shamed to tell him that I feared no one would want me, that in my three years of school no one had come courting.
"You look to me like you're too independent," he said. "You wouldnt take to a man bossing you around."
The way he said it did not sound like a reproach.
Page 161 -
"Why'd you leave that feller tonight?"
"He didn't need me there. I tried to tell him how much I love him. But he wont hear it. He cant let himself be loved."
"You're just like him," Albion said. He pulled my hand down, held the lantern closer. "You want to love your own way. You're scairt of something else."
Page 297 - "She never did beg me not to go. It was then I knew what I had in her. She'd throw out no snares to trip me and slow me, to keep me from giving everything up to what was coming. It takes a hell of a woman to be like that."
December 2, 2009
Just finished reading this for the second time and teaching it to my freshman comp class. It is the common book this year at the college where I teach. I loved it when I read it 10 years ago for an Appalachian literature class, and loved it probably more this time. The story is told from four different points of view, all of which mesh into a lovely tapestry. The book's themes are just as important as ever - the bloody history of the coming of the coal industry into Appalachia is still as hushed-up as it ever was. Those events are eerily similar to the current controversy over mountaintop removal mining, which devastates people's land and heritage much like the Broad Form Deed did in the early 1900s. This book sheds a painfully bright light on the events that led to the degradation of the Appalachian people and mountains that still continues today.
Plus, it's an engrossing read - my 17 and 18 year old freshmen loved it!
Plus, it's an engrossing read - my 17 and 18 year old freshmen loved it!
December 7, 2020
This is the story of love, of family, of personal vocation set against historic union organizing among coal mine workers. 2.5 stars
February 16, 2024
asså bästa boken ja läst tror jag, def min nya favorit. började nästan böla redan på andra kapitlet.
man får följa fyra karaktärers liv i åren som leder upp till USAs största beväpnade konflikt the battle of Blair mountain då arbetare försökte organisera sig i kolgruvorna. usa svarade med att släppa bomber på strejkarna.
Asså den e så sinnes fint skriven och karaktärerna känns realistiska och flerdimensionella. många olika teman behandlas och det känns extremt naturligt då det vävs in i dessa kämpande arbetarnas liv.
den va ba 300 sidor vilket känns sjukt för den gör så mycket med de få sidorna.
vet inte om den är liksom "objektivt" så bra som jag känner att den är, men den resonerade med mig till 100%
får mig att vilja sänka betyget på allt som jag reggat på den här appen hittills.
man får följa fyra karaktärers liv i åren som leder upp till USAs största beväpnade konflikt the battle of Blair mountain då arbetare försökte organisera sig i kolgruvorna. usa svarade med att släppa bomber på strejkarna.
Asså den e så sinnes fint skriven och karaktärerna känns realistiska och flerdimensionella. många olika teman behandlas och det känns extremt naturligt då det vävs in i dessa kämpande arbetarnas liv.
den va ba 300 sidor vilket känns sjukt för den gör så mycket med de få sidorna.
vet inte om den är liksom "objektivt" så bra som jag känner att den är, men den resonerade med mig till 100%
får mig att vilja sänka betyget på allt som jag reggat på den här appen hittills.
March 25, 2011
This is a fictitious account of the 1921 WV coal strike and the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The coal operators had a system of extreme exploitation. They basically went in and stole all of the land from the citizens in the first place, claiming mineral rights and forcing them to sign their land over. The displaced landowners had few choices but to work in the mines. The coal companies provided substandard company housing. They cheated miners and forced them to make purchases in the company-owned stores. Miners actually went into debt working for the coal companies and could not break away from them. The companies hired “gun thugs” to patrol the areas. They censored miners’ mail and even limited the number of visitors they could have in their homes. When union organizers came onto the scene, the coal operators degenerated to outright tyranny, brutalizing women and children, evicting them at gunpoint, blackballing miners and even committing murder.
In 1921, over 10,000 striking miners, or “rednecks” as they were called because they wore red bandanas over their necks to signify union membership, threatened to overthrow the county government. The US Army intervened, even using gas and bombs on the miners.
I am not crazy about the historical fiction genre, but this novel is very well-researched and seems to chronicle events pretty accurately (from my extra reading). Sadly, union membership plummeted for many years after this rebellion and the exploitation of miners continued. They truly were “pilgrims of sorrow.”
Note, I loved “Emily’s Ghost,” by this author, as I am a Bronte freak.
The coal operators had a system of extreme exploitation. They basically went in and stole all of the land from the citizens in the first place, claiming mineral rights and forcing them to sign their land over. The displaced landowners had few choices but to work in the mines. The coal companies provided substandard company housing. They cheated miners and forced them to make purchases in the company-owned stores. Miners actually went into debt working for the coal companies and could not break away from them. The companies hired “gun thugs” to patrol the areas. They censored miners’ mail and even limited the number of visitors they could have in their homes. When union organizers came onto the scene, the coal operators degenerated to outright tyranny, brutalizing women and children, evicting them at gunpoint, blackballing miners and even committing murder.
In 1921, over 10,000 striking miners, or “rednecks” as they were called because they wore red bandanas over their necks to signify union membership, threatened to overthrow the county government. The US Army intervened, even using gas and bombs on the miners.
I am not crazy about the historical fiction genre, but this novel is very well-researched and seems to chronicle events pretty accurately (from my extra reading). Sadly, union membership plummeted for many years after this rebellion and the exploitation of miners continued. They truly were “pilgrims of sorrow.”
Note, I loved “Emily’s Ghost,” by this author, as I am a Bronte freak.
March 11, 2014
My grandmother told me that the coal company stole our family's land, but she wasn't sure how it was done. I found out how in the first few pages of Storming Heaven. This book speaks to me through my DNA. My family lived through this shameful time in American History. Like the characters in Ms. Giardina's Storming Heaven, my folks became slaves to the company - living in company houses, working in hellish conditions, always owing the company store, unable to feed the children a healthy diet, and living in the filth of the coal fields. Before the companies invaded, the mountain people were poor but free. This book tells the story of the loss of rights and dignity of the mountain people and immigrants who became in essence less than slaves to the coal company. I say less than slaves because slaves of the old South were expensive and valuable. The mountain people and immigrants were easily replaced by others willing to go into the black holes. They were all expendable and Ms. Giardina draws us into their hopelessness with her dynamic characters. This (conveniently) forgotten part of American history should be included in every high school and college American History course. Storming Heaven should be required reading in those classes. We owe it to those who lived through these horrors and gave their lives to give us the workers' rights we have today. Without exception - Storming Heaven is my favorite book.
December 15, 2022
This is a powerful book by an author who knows in her bones about the suffering and conflicts that have been such a deep part of the history of West Virginia. But it is much more than a regional story - especially now, as struggles over carbon, fossil fuels, and extremes of wealth and poverty play out on a global scale with the stakes increasingly high.
I started thinking more about coal after hearing miners testifying on behalf of polluting power plants at an EPA hearing late last year. My own great-grandfather was a coal miner in Western Pennsylvania, recruited from Eastern Europe a hundred years ago, and I began to wonder whether those of us living in cities and pressing for action on climate change really have more in common with miners than we might think. This book - and the latest spate of stories about coal ash spills and polluted creeks - are vivid reminders that most of us are really on the same side.
Postscript: In 2022, we listened to an audio version of the book on a long car trip. Highly recommended. https://www.audible.com/pd/Storming-H...
I started thinking more about coal after hearing miners testifying on behalf of polluting power plants at an EPA hearing late last year. My own great-grandfather was a coal miner in Western Pennsylvania, recruited from Eastern Europe a hundred years ago, and I began to wonder whether those of us living in cities and pressing for action on climate change really have more in common with miners than we might think. This book - and the latest spate of stories about coal ash spills and polluted creeks - are vivid reminders that most of us are really on the same side.
Postscript: In 2022, we listened to an audio version of the book on a long car trip. Highly recommended. https://www.audible.com/pd/Storming-H...
July 5, 2023
I would give this book 10 stars if I could, it’s become my new favorite historical fiction. I’m in my coal girl era now *I say this in the most environmentally friendly, liberal leaning, purely historical purpose kind of way*
May 5, 2024
Läste ut denna på bara ett par dagar. Karaktärerna är riktigt lätta att älska och blir förvånansvärt komplexa under bokens gång. Älskade beskrivningarna av mat, kärlek och vänner. Det som betyder mest. Det ljusa blev så vackert mot det mörka som hela tiden ligger i förgrunden.
Efter att ha blivit riktigt berörd av beskrivningarna av jobbet i kolgruvorna i början tyckte jag huvudploten blev platt andra halvan av boken. Man förstår vad som kommer hända och det händer, men blev av någon anledning inte lika upprörande som det borde varit. Kanske för att klimaxet står på baksidan, eller kanske för att man blivit helt desillusionerad om världen och hur den styrs senaste åren.
Hoppas denna får en filmatisering någon gång, vissa scener som typ baseball-matchen och när de går ner i gruvan första gången skulle kunna bli riktigt spännande!!
Efter att ha blivit riktigt berörd av beskrivningarna av jobbet i kolgruvorna i början tyckte jag huvudploten blev platt andra halvan av boken. Man förstår vad som kommer hända och det händer, men blev av någon anledning inte lika upprörande som det borde varit. Kanske för att klimaxet står på baksidan, eller kanske för att man blivit helt desillusionerad om världen och hur den styrs senaste åren.
Hoppas denna får en filmatisering någon gång, vissa scener som typ baseball-matchen och när de går ner i gruvan första gången skulle kunna bli riktigt spännande!!
August 27, 2015
Storming Heaven is a work of historical fiction depicting the formation of the coal miner's union in early 20th century West Virginia. Giardina presents each chapter with the perspective of various characters, including a coal miner, a union activist, a nurse and an immigrant. Because of the style of narrative, the language of these people really comes across and it does take a while to read the Appalachian dialect comfortably.
That said, it was a very moving novel. It's a hard look back at a time when workers were treated as little more than slaves, held captive by the powerful companies they worked for. Local law enforcement, rather than helping these poor men and their families, were recruited by the coal companies to serve their crooked interests.
Hope comes in the form of union organizers, but the coal companies are determined to fight back, using guerrilla tactics. Giardina portrays the culmination of her story in the Battle of Blair Mountain, a true story of the 1921 West Virginia coal strike, and it's bloody outcome. Excellent book!
That said, it was a very moving novel. It's a hard look back at a time when workers were treated as little more than slaves, held captive by the powerful companies they worked for. Local law enforcement, rather than helping these poor men and their families, were recruited by the coal companies to serve their crooked interests.
Hope comes in the form of union organizers, but the coal companies are determined to fight back, using guerrilla tactics. Giardina portrays the culmination of her story in the Battle of Blair Mountain, a true story of the 1921 West Virginia coal strike, and it's bloody outcome. Excellent book!
June 26, 2014
I read a review once in which the reviewer talked about the fact that her bookseller knows what she likes to read: novels about labor issues. She had read this book, Storming Heaven, years ago and loved it so much that she had continued to search out novels on the same subject. So that prompted me to get it and read it. Well. It was OK, but it had, in my eyes, a number of problems. It is set in the coal mines of West Virginia in the early 1900's and a major part of the plot is the effort to unionize the mines. The author didn't incorporate enough background information into the story to make me feel as though I really knew what was going on in the main battle between mine owners and strikers. The characters were also not very well developed and the way narrator changed constantly--a different character for each chapter--didn't help me feel connected to any one of them. I am very interested in the early history of unions in this country; I would have been far happier if I had just read a non-fiction book on the subject.
January 17, 2014
3.5 stars. Good topic and I liked the four character narration, but one of the characters barely is involved and you get little from her point of view. I also had a very hard time keeping all of the characters straight in the book.
January 7, 2023
It's been 30 years since I've read Storming Heaven. It's time for a re-read.
January 29, 2017
One of my all-time favorites.
June 21, 2024
I enjoy reading novels in which the story takes place in the Appalachian mountains, so I was looking forward to reading this one. Especially after I found out it was based on a historical event and even thought it was made into a movie. (It wasn’t.) After reading the book I hate to say I was disappointed.
This was a dialogue rich story, so much so, that I thought that there wasn’t enough description throughout it to really make me feel like I was experiencing life in one of the hollers or coal camps in the Appalachian mountains in the early 1900s. If some of the characters within the story hadn’t mentioned the “Great War” (a/k/a WWI) in their conversations, the reader wouldn’t even be aware of the period of time in which the story takes place. The story is supposed to be based on true events surrounding what was the largest ever labor rights uprising in the United States - the coal miners vs. the coal mine owners and operators in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and extreme western Virginia. Yet, reading through the story the author really doesn’t seem to focus much on the extreme hardships experienced by the miners nor of the atrocities committed by the owners of the mines that would cause the incitement and even justify the uprising of the miners against their employers. Instead the author seems to direct more of the attention to the advantages the coal mine owners provided to the miners and their families: the opportunity to reside in small towns - coal camps - built by the coal mine owners that offered a variety of amenities, some not available to those non-residents, like better schools for the children, a company store, churches, medical services, etc. The author even included an entire chapter devoted to the practically play-by-play of a baseball game promoted and endorsed by the coal mine owners for the benefit of the workers and their families, with the mine workers comprising the teams playing the game. Any of the strife or other hardships experienced by the miners seemed to be barely mentioned throughout the story and that conflicts between the miners and the coal operators seemed more like personal vendettas of a disgruntled worker or two, or three. To me, I thought the author just did not describe enough or place enough emphasis on the extent of the conditions experienced by the miners and their families, collectively, that would justify the impending major labor uprising. Instead, the author almost made it seem like it was just a few bad apples or rabble rousers trying to stir up trouble among their coworkers and cause problems for their employers. And I’m sure that is NOT the message the author was trying to convey.
I mentioned earlier that the story was dialogue heavy, as the entire story is comprised of the POV of a few certain characters. While reading, it seemed to me like the author might have interviewed some individuals still alive who experienced or had some first hand knowledge of some of the events leading up to that uprising, and then attempted to weave a story that connected the information gathered via the interviews. And indeed, at the end of the book the author indicated that that was what she basically had done. This definitely explained the, at times, incoherent and wild ramblings of the Sicilian woman throughout the story.
I’ve read other books - works of historical fiction - that truly captured the horrors and atrocities committed by company/corporate owners and operators against their hapless workers that occurred before the acceptance of the various unions and enactment of effective labor laws. This particular work paled in comparison. Likewise, of its representation of life in the Appalachian region; there were other books I read that I thought provided the reader with a more robust description of life in the many “hollers” of those mountains.
This was a dialogue rich story, so much so, that I thought that there wasn’t enough description throughout it to really make me feel like I was experiencing life in one of the hollers or coal camps in the Appalachian mountains in the early 1900s. If some of the characters within the story hadn’t mentioned the “Great War” (a/k/a WWI) in their conversations, the reader wouldn’t even be aware of the period of time in which the story takes place. The story is supposed to be based on true events surrounding what was the largest ever labor rights uprising in the United States - the coal miners vs. the coal mine owners and operators in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and extreme western Virginia. Yet, reading through the story the author really doesn’t seem to focus much on the extreme hardships experienced by the miners nor of the atrocities committed by the owners of the mines that would cause the incitement and even justify the uprising of the miners against their employers. Instead the author seems to direct more of the attention to the advantages the coal mine owners provided to the miners and their families: the opportunity to reside in small towns - coal camps - built by the coal mine owners that offered a variety of amenities, some not available to those non-residents, like better schools for the children, a company store, churches, medical services, etc. The author even included an entire chapter devoted to the practically play-by-play of a baseball game promoted and endorsed by the coal mine owners for the benefit of the workers and their families, with the mine workers comprising the teams playing the game. Any of the strife or other hardships experienced by the miners seemed to be barely mentioned throughout the story and that conflicts between the miners and the coal operators seemed more like personal vendettas of a disgruntled worker or two, or three. To me, I thought the author just did not describe enough or place enough emphasis on the extent of the conditions experienced by the miners and their families, collectively, that would justify the impending major labor uprising. Instead, the author almost made it seem like it was just a few bad apples or rabble rousers trying to stir up trouble among their coworkers and cause problems for their employers. And I’m sure that is NOT the message the author was trying to convey.
I mentioned earlier that the story was dialogue heavy, as the entire story is comprised of the POV of a few certain characters. While reading, it seemed to me like the author might have interviewed some individuals still alive who experienced or had some first hand knowledge of some of the events leading up to that uprising, and then attempted to weave a story that connected the information gathered via the interviews. And indeed, at the end of the book the author indicated that that was what she basically had done. This definitely explained the, at times, incoherent and wild ramblings of the Sicilian woman throughout the story.
I’ve read other books - works of historical fiction - that truly captured the horrors and atrocities committed by company/corporate owners and operators against their hapless workers that occurred before the acceptance of the various unions and enactment of effective labor laws. This particular work paled in comparison. Likewise, of its representation of life in the Appalachian region; there were other books I read that I thought provided the reader with a more robust description of life in the many “hollers” of those mountains.
January 31, 2022
I really enjoyed this historical novel, telling the story of the Battle of Blair Mountain from the perspective of those involved with the union. This is a piece of WV history that is so well known that I think we oftentimes forget that there were real people, real Appalachians involved. I think Giardina did a good job of capturing that. However, there are several explicit parts of the book that I felt were inappropriate and unnecessary. I also think that the view of theology in the novel was skewed and frankly unbiblical. Maybe that was her point? But I just wish she would have explored other Christian traditions within Appalachia, considering the fact that it was one of her main themes.
October 5, 2017
A fascinating, fictional, account of the Battle of Blair Mountain. It led me down many rabbit holes researching the background. Excellent novel about an infamous time in US history. My only real criticism is the inclusion of chapters from Rosa's POV. They are unnecessary to the story and even weigh it down as they feel so out of place. It's disappointing, really, as the voice of an immigrant would be welcome.
February 5, 2019
The first novel I have read in 4 1/2 years. Was a good run.
May 20, 2023
Interesting story re coal mining in 1921 in West Virginia. Read for “50 States/50 Books Challenge.
May 30, 2024
I had not read this book for more than 30 years. It was amazing!
September 2, 2024
Very good book!! I definitely think more people should read it, especially those curious about Appalachian history
The prose was written in dialect, which I found easy to read as it really made the characters real for me
MILD spoiler:
Could’ve done without the last chapter & the afterword but I’ll just pretend it ended happier than it did 🫣
The prose was written in dialect, which I found easy to read as it really made the characters real for me
MILD spoiler:
Could’ve done without the last chapter & the afterword but I’ll just pretend it ended happier than it did 🫣
September 12, 2020
A captivating and illuminating historical novel, Storming Heaven slowly builds to the story of The Battle of Blair Mountain, the biggest and ultimately bloodiest union uprising in US history, where 10,000 members of a coal miner union attempted to overthrow local county governments but were ultimately massacred when the US government stepped in.
I first read Storming Heaven for my Denise Giardina course in college, but I equally enjoyed revisiting it more than five years later. One of my favorite aspects of the novel would have to be its use of multiple narrators to show the way that the struggle between unions and coal companies affected different kinds of people, as it alternates between the first-person perspective of four different characters. Storming Heaven contains one of the most effective uses of multiple POVs that I have ever encountered in any book—and it (along with its sequel, The Unquiet Earth) was what first inspired me to try out writing from multiple POVs in my own creative writing. Storming Heaven was the first book I’d read with multiple narrators, but it set a high bar for me, as now I am very picky about this storytelling technique when it is used in other works of fiction.
Not only is the narration superb, but the characterization is, as well. Storming Heavens contains perhaps my favorite cast of characters from any Giardina novel. All the major characters are unforgettable, from the gruff yet cerebral CJ Marcum, who emerges as the unlikeliest of Marxist revolutionaries—to the seemingly meek but ultimately unrelenting Christian universalist preacher Albion Freeman, who serves as a fascinating and multilayered moral-compass character with a unique message—to the stoic and oftentimes callous union organizer Rondall Lloyd, who aims the to create the best world for humanity while also refusing to care deeply about specific individuals.
What’s more, Storming Heaven also contains perhaps the best literary love triangle that I’ve ever encountered. The love triangle between Carrie Fisher, Albion Freeman, and Rondal Lloyd is not only deeply believable but also very compelling. It is a far cry from your typical angsty, competitive, which-man-will-she-choose love triangle. The dynamics between these three individuals feel far more complex and real, and the resolution is uniquely satisfying.
Storming Heaven has become Denise Giardina’s most famous work for a reason, and I am glad to have read it!
I first read Storming Heaven for my Denise Giardina course in college, but I equally enjoyed revisiting it more than five years later. One of my favorite aspects of the novel would have to be its use of multiple narrators to show the way that the struggle between unions and coal companies affected different kinds of people, as it alternates between the first-person perspective of four different characters. Storming Heaven contains one of the most effective uses of multiple POVs that I have ever encountered in any book—and it (along with its sequel, The Unquiet Earth) was what first inspired me to try out writing from multiple POVs in my own creative writing. Storming Heaven was the first book I’d read with multiple narrators, but it set a high bar for me, as now I am very picky about this storytelling technique when it is used in other works of fiction.
Not only is the narration superb, but the characterization is, as well. Storming Heavens contains perhaps my favorite cast of characters from any Giardina novel. All the major characters are unforgettable, from the gruff yet cerebral CJ Marcum, who emerges as the unlikeliest of Marxist revolutionaries—to the seemingly meek but ultimately unrelenting Christian universalist preacher Albion Freeman, who serves as a fascinating and multilayered moral-compass character with a unique message—to the stoic and oftentimes callous union organizer Rondall Lloyd, who aims the to create the best world for humanity while also refusing to care deeply about specific individuals.
What’s more, Storming Heaven also contains perhaps the best literary love triangle that I’ve ever encountered. The love triangle between Carrie Fisher, Albion Freeman, and Rondal Lloyd is not only deeply believable but also very compelling. It is a far cry from your typical angsty, competitive, which-man-will-she-choose love triangle. The dynamics between these three individuals feel far more complex and real, and the resolution is uniquely satisfying.
Storming Heaven has become Denise Giardina’s most famous work for a reason, and I am glad to have read it!
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