Bootlegger Marion Sylder kills a man on his way home from Atlanta back to East Tennessee. He carries the body with him back to the mountains, and dumps the body in an abandoned concrete pit. Little does he know that he end up crossing paths with the dead-man's son and becoming a mentor type figure. All the while, an old man of the mountains witnessed Sylder dump the body of the man that was murdered, and he has tended to the body the last seven years. Cormac McCarthy's debut novel follows the comings and goings of three characters with the backdrop of East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. There's bootlegging, there's mink trapping, and there are Wampus cats. We're asking the tough questions. Did McCarthy try too hard in his first go? How authentic are the characters that are presented in the book? Why are the Appalachian people so afraid of cats? Jason Crockett joins us today as we answer these and more.

Thanks for listening!

Resources for today's episode:

• The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy

Theme song for A Deadman's Books: Surfing! by automaticbananas

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