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Summary
Summary
Song Hawkins is a beautiful, tough, but lonely New York City businesswoman who thinks she's met the man of her dreams in Cable Jordan, the superintendent of a West Virginia coal mine. But soon after they impulsively marry, Song realizes they're in big trouble. She can't imagine life outside of New York, and Cable has no intention of leaving his beloved town of Highcoal.
Song's visit to the little mining community only makes things worse. It looks like the marriage is over. But in a shocking turn of events, Song realizes it's up to her to put on the red helmet of the new coal miner and descend into the deep darkness. There she faces her greatest challenge with choices and courage that will forever impact the life of Cable and the entire town.
Author Notes
Homer H. Hickam Jr. was born in 1943 in Coalwood, Va. and earned a degree in industrial engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1964. He served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1972, rising to the rank of captain. Hickam also served as an engineer at the Army Missile Command in Huntsville, Ala. and with the Army Corps of Engineers in West Germany. He has been with NASA since 1981.
Homer Hickam is a rare combination of practicing scientist and literate storyteller. As a NASA trainer he has taught astronauts to walk on the moon. As an author he has written a poignant, personal memoir about how he became an aerospace engineer.
In Rocket Boys (1998) Hickam tells how his fascination with rockets began in the 50s Sputnik space race, developed into a teenage rocket club, and led to Hickam's winning a gold and a silver medal at the National Science Fair in 1960. His inspiring story, told with honesty and humor, had its beginnings as an article in Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine in 1994 and is being adapted as a motion picture.
Hickam's other book Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War Off America's East Coast, 1942 (1989) is also praised as a literary achievement. It is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative that draws on his background as a scuba diver and explorer of sunken ships. Hickam has also written several shipwreck articles for major magazines.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest from Rocket Boys author Hickam takes an inside look at coal mining, from shoveling gob to negotiating international trade deals, through the lens of modern romance. A half-Korean New York rich girl turned takeover specialist for Daddy's company, Song Hawkins falls for Cable Jordan, a macho West Virginia mining manager. After a whirlwind wedding, she lasts four days in Cable's town of Highcoal, W.Va. (pop. 624), unable to rough it without her brand of cosmetics or low-fat meals. She likes Cable's house and artisan furniture, though, and she still loves Cable. After learning that her father has acquired the company that owns the Highcoal mine, Song returns to see for herself why the company isn't meeting quotas and signs on for beginner miner's training. As she encounters the camaraderies, rivalries, satisfactions and dangers of mining, Song works on solving a murder along with saving her marriage. Hickam's secondary characters-including a folksy wisdom-spouting preacher, a busty Botoxed ex-girlfriend, and a meticulous MSHA safety inspector-narrowly escape caricature by showing their human side during the climactic scene. Love may conquer all, Hickam suggests, but in a coal mine you also need good engineering. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
An improbable romance brings a flashy New Yorker to coal country. Opting for a fictional excavation of the territory he mined in three bestselling memoirs (Sky of Stone, 2001, etc.), Hickam introduces us to Song Hawkins, a beautiful, successful executive who runs her father's business acquisitions with an iron hand. When she falls for West Virginia mine superintendent Cable Jordan during a meet-cute accident, however, her brain goes out the window. While on a romantic vacation she agrees to a quickie wedding, then the two return to their separate lives, hoping the future will resolve their lifestyle--and location--conflicts. Song tries first. Arriving in the mountain town of Highcoal, she's appalled by the filth and apparent ignorance of the natives, who judge her "a pure little witch." Song lasts four days before fleeing back to a ridiculously stereotyped New York. But Song's heart belongs to Cable, and to help her get him back her father buys the mine's controlling company, effectively putting her in charge. When an accident kills one of the few people she liked during her brief stay, Song returns to Highcoal and ends up wearing the red helmet of a mine trainee. If she's going to save the floundering mine--and Cable's job--she's going to learn about it from the bottom up. In the real world, acquisitions expert Song would be highly unlikely to be involved with the day-to-day running of any company, but why let reality stand in the way? The pure and noble spirits of Highcoal have ruined New York for our spunky heroine, and it's only a matter of time before she's back in Cable's arms, $200 blouses forgotten. Hickam's caricatures do neither community justice. Only the mine resembles a living thing in this flat and utterly predictable tale. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.