I discovered the writing of Kathleen Novak with the publication of her 2016 novel, DO NOT FIND ME. I thought it was a terrific novel and her two subsequent novels, RARE BIRDS (2017) and THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CORRINE BERNARD (2018) became my favorite books of their respective years. I have now been privileged to read her forthcoming novel, STEEL, slated for publication in February of 2022. STEEL is a historical novel set in the mining communities just outside of Hibbing, Minnesota on the Mesabi Iron Range during the years 1927-1930. A period that encompassed two monumental historical events Prohibition and the Great Depression.

The novel's plot centers around the first romantic relationship of Tony Babic and Vita Markovic, two first-generation Americans. Tony, is the first of the nine surviving children of Jocco and Marie Babic. Jocco and Marie came from Croatia. They sailed across the Atlantic and crossed half the country to northern Minnesota and all because they believed that they had an opportunity to make money. Jocco worked for the Oliver Mining Company in the vas Hull-Rust-Mahoney Open Pit Iron Mine. He and Marie also ran a boarding house out of their home for other Eastern Europeans who worked at the mine. It is in the entryway of the Babic boarding house where the novel begins. The opening sentence is "The gun hung by the door where the men could see it." Jocco had purposely placed the gun in full view of his boarders as if to say, "stay away from my daughters." And as Anton Chekhov once famously observed if there is a gun displayed in the opening scene, then it absolutely must, at some point, go off. If it is not going to go off, it has no business being present.

Vita's family ran a small grocery store. Vita's father, George, left the mine to open the grocery. When George found out that Tony and his daughter were seeing each other he did not approve. He was of the old world opinion that girls shouldn't date until they were ready to get married. So Tony and Vita endeavored to keep their relationship secret from Vita's father.

Aside from the relationship between Tony and Vita there is a parallel story of Luka. Luka was a Croatian miner who once resided at the Babic boarding house, but had left the mine and became a policeman in Chicago. Luka kept in contact with the Babics through letters and postcards. This was during the time of Al Capone, Bugs Moran, and Big Bill Thompson. Gangster crime, in Chicago, was rampant and exacerbated by Prohibition. But, perhaps the most interesting technique that Ms. Novak employs in STEEL are the five entries narrated, in the present day, by Johnny Babic. Johnny is now an old man and the last surviving member of the Babic family and he looks back over the life of his family from the retrospective of years of hindsight and rumination. Johnny's sections come at the end of each of the five chapters in the book and are titled, FAMILY, FAITH, ORDER, WANT, and TRUTH. Johnny's final section TRUTH, at the end of chapter five, concludes the novel.

As a result of Vita's father's disapproval of their relationship, the two young lovers had to resort to clandestine meetings in the garden shed of one of Vita's friends. This soon becomes problematic and Tony makes a series of unilateral decisions that adversely impacts his relationship with Vita. Tony decides to drop out of school and get a job working in the mine in order that he can save money, secure a house, and marry Vita. This did not sit well with Vita and the relationship becomes strained. Then the depression arrives in Minnesota and Tony loses his job at the mine. His relationship with Vita further deteriorates to the point of her wanting to sever their relationship.

One day Tony takes the gun from the wall at the boarding house and tragic consequences occur. What brought about the tragic sequence of events? Some speculate that it was due to clinical depression or economic depression resulting in Tony losing his job at the mine. Others thought that the violent nature of the times was to blame. Or, perhaps it is as simple as what the late, great author William Gay once observed, "A woman'll warp your mind worse than whiskey ever dared to."

Come February of 2022 I enthusiastically recommend that you give STEEL by Kathleen Novak a try. You'll be glad that you did. ( )