Local book review: 'The Fracking King'
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
With a last name that rhymes with "truth," it's as if Winston Crwth was born to expose government corruption.
The Fracking King
James Browning
(New Harvest, 2014, 208 pp.)
“Pennsylvania is a state where it takes years for people to admit they’ve made mistakes, a lifetime to correct them.” James Browning perfectly describes Pennsylvania politics in his debut novel, The Fracking King. The book calls attention to the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing — aka fracking — for natural gas in northwestern Pennsylvania.
With a last name that rhymes with “truth,” it’s as if Winston Crwth was born to expose government corruption. Win finds himself at Hale Boarding School for Boys — his third high school in as many years — on a full scholarship awarded by Dark Oil & Gas, named for the family that is doing everything they can to cover up the damage fracking is doing.
After encounters with exploding tap water and toxic cattle, Win makes it his mission to reveal the truth behind fracking. His only chance to get to the capitol is to get to the state Scrabble championship; winning will land him in front of the governor.
The names are allegorical and the characters are fairly eccentric, and the novel tells a unique story of environmental consciousness through the eyes of a Holden Caulfield-esque prep schooler.
Win endures class on Saturdays, unrequited love for the headmaster’s daughter — the only female at Hale — and a fraud of a professor, all in a place that is dark, depressing and literally toxic.
His hometown is Philadelphia, but Browning focuses the novel on the Pennsylvania outside of Philly. Overall, The Fracking King is a little slow, with some plot parts never coming to full fruition, but it’s hard to pull away when you’re waiting to see how Win helps to crack down on the frack.
