cover image Over and Under

Over and Under

Todd Tucker, . . St. Martin's/Dunne, $23.95 (275pp) ISBN 978-0-312-37990-2

A bitter 1979 labor strike at southern Indiana's Borden Casket Company serves as the volatile backdrop for this haunting coming-of-age novel from nonfiction writer Tucker (The Great Starvation Experiment ). With their fathers on opposite sides of the dispute, Andrew Jackson Gray and Thomas Jefferson Kruer, both 14, learn there is more to life than exploring caves, shooting targets with their prized M-6 Scout rifles and sneaking out on starry nights to run through the woods. Andy, who narrates in retrospect from adulthood, has a father who's a manager; Tom's dad is a laborer with “knotty, showy muscles.” The boys' friendship takes on complicated nuances—especially in the wake of a factory explosion that kills the casket company's president. Tucker convincingly makes Andy's voice at once eloquent and gritty, and makes the rural Indiana landscape palpable. Secondaries such as Andy's mother (who has a mysterious past) and Andy's would-be girlfriend, Taffy Judd (who has an abusive father), add further depth to this poignant and memorable tale of lost innocence. (July)