Distributed for Carnegie Mellon University Press
Hard Side of The Mountain
Dark family secrets follow Coe as he drops out of college and attempts to start a new life with fellow outlaws in the mountains of Wyoming.
“Fleeing a mental illness diagnosis pushed by his family, Coe drops out of college and hits the road, ending up in Wyoming, where he falls in with a group living illegally on the mountain above a resort town. Here he works muscle jobs, climbs mountains, befriends a pair of brothers new to the sport, and slips under the spell of Benny, a Vietnam war vet who sleeps beneath a rocky overhang, ascends cliffs like a mountain goat, and seems to know things he shouldn’t about Coe’s French grandfather. At Benny’s command, the group climbs routes well beyond the brothers’ abilities and kicks off a dangerous vandalism war against the resort corporation. An old cook warns Coe away from Benny, suggesting the secret to his identity is encoded in a bible passage. Meanwhile, from letters sent by his great aunt, Coe receives contradictory accounts of his grandfather’s past. As those close to Coe meet tragic ends, he is forced to confront the frightful notion that this Wyoming violence may connect to a crime committed a half century before. Is the old cook right about Benny and the biblical mystery? Is Coe slipping into mental illness? High on the mountain, alone with Benny, Coe must cast his lot.
