Book review: Wild Mountain by Nancy Hayes Kilgore. Green Writers Press, 2017.

Wild Mountain, a story of a Vermont village, centers on two characters. The first is Mona, a middle-aged woman who has fled a brutal husband to run a general store in her hometown. The second is Frank, who once lived in a commune on Wild Mountain, moved on to wander the world, and now has returned to the town of Wild Mountain to try to live off the grid.

I say two central characters, but in a sense there is a third – the town of Wild Mountain, with the river below it, and the namesake mountain which looms over it. A sense of place provides background  and atmosphere to a story; without it, a novel is flat and empty. But Kilgore’s writing is so vivid, so sensuous that the town, the river, and especially the mountain come to the foreground, and become as large as any of the characters.

Living in Florida, I only know the cliches of Vermont – snowy landscapes, covered bridges, country stores, progressive politics. After reading Wild Mountain I feel I have spent a season immersed in that world –  Kilgore brings to light what the cliches conceal.

image: Dreamstime ID 62576588 © Linnaea Mallette

Mona’s store is the center of the community, and the novel’s multiple plots and problems are all connected to Mona or seen through her eyes. Foremost is the love growing between Mona and Frank; we see this from both their points of view. He is strongly attracted to her, and with time she puts aside her reluctance to try romance again.

The book begins with an ice jam in the river. “Giant blocks of ice, piled and shoved onto the riverbank, a shattered moonscape. Treetops stuck upside down in the crust, and gnarled roots jabbed like contorted fingers into the sky.” When the river rises and the ice hurtles downstream, it destroys the historic covered bridge, and the Selectboard, or town council, must decide after contentious town meetings whether to undertake an expensive restoration.

image: Dreamstime ID 7076392 © Patricia Hofmeester

It must also decide how to respond to a petition to remove Roz, the chair of the Selectboard, and a friend of Mona’s since childhood. Roz is a lesbian, and active in the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont. She lives in a civil partnership with her long-time partner, Heather, an organic farmer who wants nothing to do with conflict and politics.

As the fight grows more intense, an arsonist attacks their farm, and suspicion falls on Gus, another childhood friend of Mona’s. Mona’s ex-husband lurks in the background, tormenting her with phone calls, threats and sudden visits, and she comes to believe he is the arsonist.

Gus is possibly schizophrenic, possibly autistic, certainly a spiritual force. He lives in a hidden place on Wild Mountain, and rarely comes down to town, though Mona and others leave food for him on the mountain trail. He has found a neolithic stone circle aligned with the sun at the summer and winter solstices, and believes the mountain is a power point like Stonehenge, where spiritual forces are strong.

The end of the book is truly satisfying – all questions answered, all plots resolved. Mona has been healed by the mountain, and the true community of this tiny town emerges from the enmity and quarrels as they go to the mountain to celebrate the life and mourn the loss of one of their own.

You don’t have to believe in mystical spiritual forces to be engaged by Wild Mountain. Kilgore brings even the minor characters to life, and though you may never make it to Vermont, her writing will take you there.

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