I’ve read Matt Null’s “Allegheny Front” at least three times, and the nine stories always leave me in awe. There’s his language—lyrical and visually precise, even as it describes harsh geography and naturalistic fate. And his characters—complex and vulnerable as they choose violence and self-protection. And most of all, his ability to write about layered generations of West Virginians as if they were his next-door neighbors—both loved and reviled and, finally, doing what they must do.
What you’ll find in Allegheny Front are people who know their place—its bears and eagles and trout, its ridges and rivers and woods, and most of all, its native sons and daughters. Some of whom are scraping by in the old ways, hunting and fishing. And some of whom are giving a newer way a try—tourism and mountain ecology and education. I guarantee that nearly every story in this book will leave you a bit puzzled, going back to find what you missed. In Null’s stories, there are more hard questions than easy answers provided—sure proof that you’re in the company of a great writer.
I’d be hard-pressed to choose a favorite story in “Allegheny Front.” But for suspense and landscape and storytelling skill (it’s largely told by observers sitting and watching the action play out), try “Gauley Season.” It’s hard to know who the real victim is in this story: the one who dies, or the one who lives.
It’s no surprise that Allegheny Front won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction the year it was published, and garnered raves from reviewers all over the country. Null can make tragic mistakes read like inevitable beauty. He knows his homeplace from 50 different observation points, and writes about it with grounded honesty.
Read “Allegheny Front” to know Null’s world from rock center to the air above it. Read it because it tells the truth about the piece of West Virginia known as the Allegheny Front, no holds barred.
Allegheny Front, by Matthew Neill Null. Sarabande Books, 2016. 165 pp.
The story above first appeared in our March / April 2022 issue.
