Author to speak at Lunch at the Library

By Katie Nichols (Contact) | Selma Times-Journal

Published Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Moore family in “The Well and the Mine” would have loved to be able to take part in Wednesday’s “Lunch at the Library.”

The Moores — Albert, Leta, Virgie, Tess and Jack — would have loved the food, fellowship and to hear the author of their world, Gin Phillips, speak.

“Gin Phillips is a first time fiction writer,” Library Director Becky Nichols said. “The book she wrote, ‘The Well and the Mine,’ is truly a powerful book. The library always tries to get one new author every year and we hope everyone will come out and support Gin.”

Phillips’ novel paints the reader into 1931 Alabama, before President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal helped the people of Carbon Hill, where the book is set. It focuses on a family of five, the Moores, and Phillips uses each member’s voice to give depth and perspective to events.

The father, Albert, is a hard-working coal miner who lives honestly and by a code of morals. He is married to Leta, a no-nonsense, but incredibly loving woman. “The Well and the Mine” touches lightly on what many mothers and wives did and do during hard times — go without their own supper or breakfast for the sake of their loved ones.

Virgie, Tess and Jack round out the family and provide a localized view of how the Great Depression affected Alabama towns like Carbon Hill.

“The book begins with a very traumatic event, but the end is redeeming,” Nichols said. “It really is touching and moving.”

The novel tells a story many Alabamians may have heard from parents, grandparents or lived themselves.

Author Fannie Flagg penned the introduction to “The Well and the Mine” and described the rich texture Phillips wove for readers.

“I know Alabama well, and ‘The Well and the Mine’ takes me back there,” she said. “But this story doesn’t’ so much re-create a place as it does a life — lives, really — a town and a family full of hopes and oddities and hidden fears.

“Life is boiled down to its fundamentals for the Moores — hard work, family, the taste and smells of land and home.”

Phillips will be at the Selma-Dallas County Public Library from 12 p.m. until 1 p.m. Lunch is served from 12-12:30 and Phillips will speak about “The Well and the Mine” for the remaining time.

Copies of the book will be for sale and autographed. To reserve a seat for lunch, call the library at 874-1725. The cost of the lunch is $7.

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