Coal Run

by Tawni O'Dell

With her eagerly awaited second novel, Tawni O'Dell takes readers back to the coal-mining country of western Pennsylvania. Set in a town ravaged and haunted by a mine explosion that took the lives of 96 men, Coal Run explores the life of local deputy and erstwhile football legend, "The Great Ivan Z.," as he prepares for a former teammate's imminent release from prison. As the week unfolds and Ivan struggles to confront his demons, he reveals himself to be a man whose conscience is burdened by a long-held and shocking secret.

Genres: Fiction, Family, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Literature, Adult, Football

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2004

About the author

Tawni O'Dell is the New York Times bestselling author of Fragile Beasts, Sister Mine, Coal Run, and Back Roads, which was an Oprah's Book Club pick and a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection. Tawni's screen adaptation of Back Roads is currently in development to be made into a film with Adrian Lyne set to direct. Her work has been translated into 15 languages and been published in over 30 countries.

Tawni was born and raised in the coal-mining region of western Pennsylvania, the territory she writes about with such striking authenticity. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism and spent many years living in the Chicago area before moving back to Pennsylvania where she now lives with her two children.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the book that broke my desire to be a part of the local book club scene.

"Book club scene" sounds so hip, doesn't it? Well, the only thing hip about the book club I was involved in was the talk about broken hips the old ladies in the group kept on about. If I had to guess at the median age of the members, I'd say it was somewhere around 105 years old.

But I digress...

Dangerously close to a romance novel at times, Tawni O'Dell's Coal Run was still enjoyable enough for me not to hate myself for having read it. Maybe it was because there's talk of football in it, I don't know.

The female author did a credible job creating her male characters, but surprisingly her female characters are fairly cardboard-esque. They were stereotyped tools for the male main character to use or be manipulated by through the course of the novel.

The story itself, a man fighting his demons, was enjoyable and I liked the local-color details of the small Pennsylvanian coal mining town, but all in all this is disposable stuff.

It was a book club pick and there's no way in hell I would've read it on my own. So, by the time I was done and realized the time I'd wasted on it, I was left with a sick feeling in my gut...like I had a fever and the only prescription was no more book club.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's main protagonist, Ivan Zoschenko, has had a difficult life.



Ivan grew up in Coal Run, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania.



In 1967, when Ivan was six-years-old, a mine explosion killed 96 men, including the boy's father - an immigrant from Ukraine. Ivan's mother carried on alone, doing her best to raise Ivan and his younger sister Jolene. It's hard growing up without a dad, but Ivan did well in the circumstances.



Ivan grew up to be a high school football star.....



.....and his beautiful sister Jolene became a pageant winner - many many pageants.



Both Ivan and Jolene might have benefitted from more parental guidance, because the football celebrity prided himself on seducing as many girls as he could.....



.....and Jolene, who's still single, had three sons with three different men.



Ivan played football in college, and Just as he was about to join the Chicago Bears, the athlete's leg was damaged in a freak accident. Ivan then moved to Florida, where he lived for 16 years, drinking heavily and supporting himself as an exterminator.



Now thirtysomehting Ivan has returned to Coal Run, drawn back by the news that a fellow high school football player, a universally hated bully called Reese Raynor, is being released from prison.



Right around the time of Ivan's accident, Reese beat his young wife so badly she became a vegetable, and Ivan was, and still is, incensed about the incident. Ivan knows Reese will cause trouble when he gets out, and Ivan means to do something about it.

Though Ivan's football career was cut short, he's still a superstar in Coal Run, and the sheriff makes him a deputy. Ivan is lackadaisical about the job, drinks on duty, and usually wears only half his uniform - which isn't necessarily spotless.



Ivan's life experiences may have enhanced his empathy, however, because the deputy tries to help malefactors rather than locking them up, especially since Ivan knows most of them from childhood. Ivan's personal life is a mess though. He has no apartment, bunks on Jolene's couch, and often gets so drunk he sleeps in his truck.

Ivan's ties to Coal Run include Jolene and her three boys;



Ivan's mother, who works as a care facility administrator;



the town doctor, who provides free care to families, especially children, who have no medical insurance;



and Ivan's former neighbor Val Claypool, who lost a leg in Vietnam.



Ivan also happens to meet meet an attractive woman surgeon who works in Coal Run, and he's instantly infatuated. (I'll admit, my first and ongong thought was, what would this successful woman want with a drunk who has no prospects.)



As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that a dark secret has drawn Ivan back to Coal Run, and the truth is revealed little by little.

The family ties that bind the Zoschenko family are heart-warming, and Ivan's demons are convincing and sad. However, I didn't much like Ivan. His arrogance in high school was off-putting (to put it mildly), and his conviction that he should be with the doctor, just because he's attracted to her, smacks of male entitlement at its worst.

That said, though, this is a compelling, well-written story. Highly recommended.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Leo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find my reading experience of this book to be very entertaining at all, rather boring. Couldn't get intrested enough in the story nor characters to care what was happening next or how it would end

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and rewarding novel covering the lingering impact on a rural Pennsylvania community of a coal mining disaster and the pathways to recovery that people take. Ivan Z. lost his Ukrainian immigrant father in the mine explosion which killed nearly 100 others. His success as a football hero in school and college was cut short by an accident that damaged his leg, and now, after a 15 year interlude in Florida, he returns to the town of Coal Run where he takes a position as a deputy sheriff. The narrative explores his efforts to achieve balance in his life though his relationships with his big-hearted sister, who has three children from different fathers, a mentor from youth who lost a leg in Vietnam, and a doctor who knows all the dark family secrets of the town . Ivan�s positive efforts to be a good uncle to his nephews, to help with his friend�s domestic violence issues, and to initiate a new relationship with a woman doctor are undermined by his own dark secret from his youth and his hidden plans to deal with the impending release of a man whose abuse put his wife into a coma. O�Dell manages these themes with great compassion, humor, and life affirming character development. The book is a strong follow up to her excellent �Back Roads�. �

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the second Tawni O'Dell novel I read, and I found it a bit tedious. Again, I shouldn't say read, as I actually listened to the audio book, and I found myself getting frustrated with the protagonist - he was a boor, and I couldn't understand why his "love interest" was interested in him at all. The story advanced at a snail's pace, the protagonist hinted at his past sins but it took forever to get to them, and then I'm not really sure he was redeemed at all by the story's end. If you choose to read it, prepare to feel frustrated.

[Mª Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish it. Her writing is really good, there are some excellent little gems of prose in what I read. But...

It lacked a lot of the luster of Backroads, and I didn't like the protagonist as much as in Sister Mine. I thought this guy was an ass, actually.

I also am finding it hard to forgive the author's opinions about female bodies. In Backroads there were some nasty things said about aging women who didn't fight the process tooth and nail, but since it was a sixteen year-old boy saying it, I thought they were the opinions of the character and not necessarily the author. Then similar things were said in Sister Mine and I squirmed. So, when I encountered a couple of remarks in the same vein in this book, I just had to stop.

I just can't keep going on with hateful things said about aging women or women who are getting soft around the middle. I'm sorry, but it's a battle to keep up my self-esteem as it is. The closer I get to 40, the harder that battle is sometimes. The last thing I need is to be blasted with negativity during my leisure time. Ms. O'Dell is cute and tiny and I guess she should just be pleased as punch with herself, but you know? Leave the rest of us out of it.

[Asghar Abbas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't as good as her first published novel but let's be fair what can possibly top that?
Nonetheless, this is still a good book by a great writer.

On a side note: This woman is my hero, O'Dell writes like a writer and can be an inspiration to all genders. Love her style, work. And her intelligence.

Not a good enough follow-up to Back Roads, but just about.

[Repix Pix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tercer libro que leo de esta escritora y tercera maravilla.

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any discussion of Tawni O'Dell's novel Coal Run should begin with the novel's setting -- one that captures well the slow-motion tragedy that has enfolded many communities of America's Rust Belt. O'Dell's Coal Run, Pennsylvania, is an industrial ghost town that has been twice cursed. The first of Coal Run's tragedies occurred in 1967, when the J & P Coal Company Mine No. 9, the "Gertie" mine, blew up, killing 97 miners, including the father of the novel's protagonist, Ivan Zoschenko. The second took place years later, when an underground mine fire similar to the real-life Centralia mine fire forced the evacuation of the town. Most people moved to the county seat at Centresburg, one of those towns with a crumbling and moribund downtown and a bunch of big-box retailers springing up like weeds out on the fringes.

The trauma of the town of Coal Run mirrors that of the novel's main character, Ivan Zoschenko, who narrates the novel. In high school, Ivan was a football star, "the great Ivan Z." His football success continued at Penn State, and then he was drafted by the Chicago Bears; but his prospects of NFL wealth and fame ended when he suffered a crushing knee injury. Now, after years of drifting, he has returned home to Pennsylvania and become a deputy sheriff. His reasons for doing so are complex, and relate to the impending return of a former football teammate, Reese Raynor, who beat his wife Crystal into a permanent coma and was sent to prison for it. Ivan has his own reasons for wanting to seek an accounting from Reese for what Reese did to Crystal.

To say more would risk giving too much away. I was impressed with the manner in which O'Dell conveyed the voices of her characters, the thought processes of her narrator, and authentic details of life in Western and Central Pennsylvania. (Any resident of State College could tell you that O'Dell's presentation of life at Penn State is absolutely on target.) Coal Run is a powerful and complex novel, building suspense well and offering surprises throughout.

[Imane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ivan ! Ivan!
This book is definitely not as good as her first one (Back Roads),but still she is capable of morphing boring stories into something funny and sad at the same time.I was not interested in the story as much as I was eager to discover Tawni's writing again! She is indeed a very good writer and she is able to develop numerous characters perfectly. I do not regret reading this book. In fact , it was as if Ivan was a person I've known very well.

[Alesha Cary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn... With a book that had a massive mine explosion, a professional athletic career wrecked by injury, a Vietnam veteran, an abused woman whose abuser was released, and the list goes on.... This book was just...dull...


The Good - Probably my favorite part of the story occurred in the beginning, centering around the mine explosion. It had a sense of place and time which was enjoyable...and the characters hadn't had time to develop into selfish egotistical pigs.

The Eh - Too much. Just too much. I felt like I was listening to a middle schooler's summer vacation: and then this happened...and then this happened... There were plenty of strands to the story and none of them were satisfying.

The Ugly - I really despised these characters. The convenient atheism is tiresome (I've been a selfish pig and messed up my life and the lives of others. If there is a God, how could this happen? I guess I don't believe in Him. Or personal responsibility.) I'm also tired of grown people acting like adolescents in books. I've written about that before. Here it is again.

I listened to the audio all the way to the end awaiting a resolution. I suppose there was a small sense of resolution. But it wasn't worth the read.

[Cindy Marcelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tawni O'Dell is in my top 5 favorite authors. Her books hit me in the feels every time - some are quicker to do so than others. This was a page turner.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading O'Dell's first novel (Back Roads) and finding it extremely good, I was somewhat disappointed at her second attempt. The story wasn't that bad however, lacked 'substance' and felt like saying 'What IS the point to this story?'

From back cover:

"With her eagerly awaited second novel, COAL RUN, O'Dell takes us back to the coal mining country of western Pennsylvania, the territory she renders with striking authenticity. In a town haunted by a deadly mine explosion three decades earlier, Ivan Zoschenko, the local deputy and erstwhile football legend, "the great Ivan Z," spends a week preparing for a former teammate's imminent release from prison. In doing so, Ivan introduces a rich cast of characters-his fiercely independent single-mom sister, the long-absent Vietnam vet he idolized as a child, and the old friend and onetime mirror image who now lives the kind of ordinary life Ivan both admires and pities.

Driven by the same honesty and compassion that made O'Dell's first novel so unforgettable, Coal Run is an uncompromising and absorbing novel about letting go of the goals of greatness for the ordinary grace of hard work, family ties, and an acceptance of where you come from."

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel is disturbing and wrong in too many ways. I want to give it more stars because she isn't a bad writer. She's just bad at creating realistic characters for whom her readers can feel empathy.

The main character, Ivan, is a rapist and that's an okay choice for a protagonist. What isn't okay is making him a total ass and then asking us, the reader, to understand him or his quest for forgiveness. Not happening.

As a daughter of a coal miner and having grown up in a Western PA coal town and still having strong ties to it and my background? I have never been so insulted or offended by a writer who is portraying my native land in such an unrealistic manner. Why even bother creating the fictional towns when she actually names some of the real ones? Does she think no one in this part of the world will actually read her stories? The only character in this novel who is true to character is Jess. The rest of them do not represent Western PA at all. I was so incredibly embarrased by the way she chose to portray her female characers.

She simply did a horrible job of describing life in an Appalachian town. No justice at all for the real people who live there.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed "Back Roads" very much and was excited to see another Tawni O'Dell novel on my library shelf. "Coal Run" is as atmospheric as the last. I could visualize the entire small, run-down Pennsylvania town. I know all the heart-of-gold, just trying to make the best of a hard life people. Coal Run was devastated by a mining accident that left most of the men in town in a casket or buried under ground. The way in which the widows and children move on with their lives is a secondary theme in the novel. At the forefront is Ivan Z., who lost his much beloved father but grew into the football hero of the town. And all that entails. An accident derails his stardom and he's back in town to exact his revenge on the town's other football hero, who is due back from prison any day. I thought I knew fairly early on how Ivan met with his fate and why he so thoroughly hated his high school rival. And yet I enjoyed every page of finding out if I was right. At times my heart would just break for the unfairness and "smallness" of these people's lives. And yet, there was joy, and love, and meaning in their lives. Who are we to judge? Worth the read.

[Marisolera · Rating 5 out of 5]

La vida en un pueblecito minero antes y después de que la mina se desmorone sepultando a la mitad de los habitantes del pueblo. Con un trasfondo social duro, el de la sociedad en un sitio tan alejado del mundanal ruido como Coal Run tras perder la industria que le sirve de sustento, se nos cuenta la vida de Ivan, hijo de un inmigrante ucraniano que muere en la mina, y de cómo trata de salir de el ambiente no tanto opresivo como deprimente del pueblo y hacerse a sí mismo como jugador de fútbol americano.
Pero Ivan vuelve varios años después de haber perdido su oportunidad deportiva por una grave lesión en la rodilla, y nadie sabe por qué. Poco a poco vamos conociendo a otros habitantes del pueblo que significaron algo en su niñez: Zo, Val, Crystal, y poco a poco va dejando entrever por qué ha vuelto y qué es lo que busca. Mientras tanto, ejerce de ayudante del sheriff y bebe alcohol sin parar.
El personaje de Jolene, hermana de Ivan y una mujer fuerte, decidida, que no necesita de nadie ni de nada para tirar adelante, me ha encantado.

[LadyCalico · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a coal miner's daughter from a small Western PA coal town near the author's hometown and feel as if my hometown was part of the composite fictional town of this story. Since it is so rare that anyone writes about the kind of place where I grew up, of course, I am going to appreciate this book. My big complaint is that she grossly overstated the importance of Penn State to the people of that locality, and vastly understated the overriding importance of the mighty STEELERS. I was also disappointed at the lack of Hunkie names aside from the main character--this is certainly not WASP country. I deducted a star for these two glaring errors--a girl from Indiana, PA should know better! Go Steelers.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This novel has it all, mystery and intrigue and the overwhelming desire to punch someone in the face and hug them to make them feel better all at the same time. Small towns have long histories and even long memories, you can leave but you are never gone and sometimes it is just best to come back and clean up your own mess and realize that everyone would have supported you no matter what.

[Kerry Zukus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania tip their hat to the bituminous mines of the west -- or west of Philadelphia meets east of Pittsburgh. Tawni is funny, plotty, descriptive, and draws you into her world. We seem to cover a lot of the same territory in our writing, which makes me a big fan.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chose this book because it's based in a PA coal town and has references to State College/PSU (my hometown). I should've known nothing good could've come from an author named Tawni. This is unredeemable dreck.

[Rusane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Good story about coming to terms with mistakes made in life. I also really liked the main character, Ivan, even though he had made some pretty bad decisions in his younger life. Don't know why, but liked him.

[Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful web of characters. With a male protagonist, it's hard to believe the author is female. One of those books you expect to be a movie, so imagine the actors/actresses as you read. Can't wait to read another O'Dell. Fortunately there are three others.

[Betsy Burrows]

I loved this book! I love the way Tawni O'Dell writes... It's so hard to put one of her books down once you pick it up. I love her quirky characters, they seem so real to me. Thank you Marcie Grau for reminding me of her books. Now I will have to find some more!

[Karyn Niedert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book in spite of the main character, Ivan Z. He seemed like a dumb high school jock in perpetual arrested development. Author Tawni O'Dell did give his character a tremendous arc of learning, to bring readers from beginning to end with great satisfaction for this character.

[Suzanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was highly disappointed in this book, nothing like her debut novel, Back Roads. Long, drawn out and mostly boring. Glad I borrowed it from the library and didn't waste my money on this one.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great one by Tawni O'Dell. Her stories are very familiar yet distinct and original. I recommend them all. They all have a bit of drama and a bit of humor.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coal Run by Tawni O’Dell is a novel situated in a western Pennsylvania coal-mining town. The main character is town deputy and injured football star Ivan Z. The book was published in 2005 Berkeley Books.

Ivan has recently returned to his hometown after years of being away. He returns to Coal Run to await a former teammates release from prison and to facedown his troubled past. The town Sheriff has hired him as deputy despite the fact that Ivan has no qualifications, is physically unfit, and he’s a raging alcoholic. Gee, What could go wrong here?!?!

The reason novels interest me — that simple reminder that humor & hope can still be found amongst pain. This novel is no exception. I laughed out loud a few times due to the quick wit of a few of its characters. Tawni O’Dell is always great at bringing the town and it’s people vividly into the light so the reader can actually know the town, its residents, and their beauty & flaws.

Audible narrator is Daniel Passer. He does a good job of presenting the towns people & conveying their thoughts and emotions clearly through his narration. His “female” representations do sound like a man mocking a woman, but it still works. The audiobook is published through Penguin Random House.

[Marley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was between a 3 and 4 for this but went with the 3.

I really LOVED the first third/half of this book. Like a solid 5. But then Chastity was introduced and I felt it went too YA for me. Then by the end I started to think about plot points and just said, "Why? What did that accomplish?"

Spoilers: There was just something missing in the Val/Ivan connection. I get he was upset about not receiving the letters but then after reading Zo (don't get me started on how confusing having a character named Zo while 3 other characters had the last name of that started with Zoschenko. Initially I thought his mother died?) he....what?...understood? That was all muddy to me.

And what about the weird thing with Jolene and Val? Why? What did that add? It just made things weird to me.

The Chastity plot line was another missed target in my opinion.

Ms. O'Dell is a great writer but as she noted in her acknowledgements, she was going through some personal stuff while writing this and maybe that is why I had issues.