Ore Vein, the debut short story collection by Danilo John Thomas, explores the thin spaces between hardship and heroism prevalent in small-town America. Thomas captures what it feels like to come of age among the urban decay and cracked pastoral landscapes of Southwestern Montana and a fictionalized version of the town where he was raised. From the claustrophobia of crumbling mine shafts to the senseless consequences of bar brawls, these stories are at once mystical and all too real, violent yet deeply introspective, masculine but tender.
In “Gift Horse” Tarin and her father, an aging football star, are visited by the children of a childhood friend, and they want to go fishing in the mountains . . . in the middle of the night; in “Beating the Dead” Pinpurse kills snakes with his sister hoping to dredge up some sympathy. Instead, he faces some hard truths; and in “Birdbone,” a horrific mine accident buries Tom Birdbone. Unable to go back underground after being rescued, he finds a job in an import warehouse where the demands of furnishing the rich may come at too high a cost.
Ore Vein, like the mines it showcases, digs deep in dark places after fortunes, showing what it means to hit the mother lode and, sometimes, what it means to lose it.
