Review in the Telegraph Journal

Rock Reject

by Jim Williams  

Rock Reject won the 2011 inaugural Beacon Award for Social Justice Literature, which is an honour for author Jim Williams, but could be something of a warning sign for readers simply seeking a good story well-told, rather than a literary lesson on the ills of the world.

Luckily, the book, about a mine in Stikine, B.C. “Home of the World’s Best Asbestos,” in 1974, is motivated more by character than cause.

The narrative is set in motion when Peter, a medical-school dropout, leaves Toronto burdened with guilt that he is responsible for the death of Rose, his young wife. He sees the mines as the “end of the goddamn road,” the perfect place for the self-flagellation he seeks.

He trades his London Fog overcoat for a hard-hat and steel-toed boots, and a job so tough, most guys last three weeks before quitting and heading back south. It is masculine story, in character, setting, dialogue and style, the writing as tight and wiry as the hard men who mine.

Despite the isolation he thinks he needs, Peter can’t help getting involved in the medical and political dimensions of the blatant asbestos exposure that is happening around him. And the reader can’t help getting involved in the story, which makes personal a headline-grabbing story that most readers will know, but, until this book, probably haven’t really felt. - Kate Wallace, Telegraph-Journal

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