Kinfolk (2023) By Sean Dietrich

 

Within the first chapters of Kinfolk, author Sean Dietrich had me, introducing his main character, nick name of Nub. The setting is smalltown Alabama. Nub is the town drunk. He works odd jobs for the county, one of which was painting the water tower. When he finished, town folk realize he painted PAPK as the name of the town, accidentally leaving off the “lower leg” of the second P in PARK, Alabama. Drunk driving home from the Legion Post that snowy Thanksgiving and trying to lose a police chase, he crashed into the water tower causing a water outage in town, destroying his truck, and landing himself in the hospital.

Sharing the hospital room with him is a teenage girl named Minnie who had fallen at the diner where she works, knocking her head on the floor. The fall was a result of fainting when she was told her mother had just committed suicide, her father is in prison, she’s never met him. Her unconscious singing annoyed Nub.

Nub, age 62, is divorced, with an adult daughter named Emily he has a hostile relationship with because he was either never there, or embarrassingly drunk throughout most of her life. He was not a good father, and they both know it.

Minnie was relentless teased at school because she is awkward, a “jolly green giant,” poor, and worked to support her dysfunctional mother. With the death of her mother, and the incarceration of her father, Minnie is about to become a ward of the State.

Long, but great, story short, Nub works to become her foster parent, freaking out the social workers, not to mention his biological daughter. He’s a misfit, she’s a misfit, and they share one particularly important bond: his father committed suicide when he was a kid, and her mother committed suicide while she is still a kid. The relationship is heartbreaking and heartwarming.

The story of these two unlikely people is priceless. As are some of the other main characters in the novel: his daughter Emily; Benny, Nub’s cousin, drinking buddy and best friend; LeighAnn, the bartender at the Legion Post who becomes his AA support buddy; and Burke, the town’s Mayberry-like cop.

There are three substories going on in this novel. First, is the small-town norm Baptist atmosphere it takes place in (observations not a religious critique). Second, are country & gospel music and the Grand Ole Opry. Third is a crime subplot, why Minnie’s biological father was in prison.

Sean Dietrich is an author I discovered only recently. He is primarily a short story writer, though he has a few novel length books to his name. He’s also a musician. He has a Facebook page called Sean of the South, which is how I came across his work. It covers historical tidbits on American folk music, as well as his short stories. He performs live several times a year.

Recommendation: Yes, book and his Facebook page.