Shelf Space - Notes from the underground

Melissa Fay Greene became a household name (in Atlanta, at least) thanks to her non-fiction books chronicling the devastating legacy of Southern racism. Both Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing exhume ghosts from modern Georgia history and call them into account for their prejudices.

But in her latest, Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster, the local author digs in an entirely different graveyard. The time is October 1958, the same as The Temple Bombing, but the setting is Springhill, Nova Scotia, home of the world's deepest coal mine. That autumn, the mine suddenly seized shut due to shifting underground gasses, killing 75 miners and trapping 19 more.

Using extensive records and an exhaustive 1960 academic study, Greene reconstructs the lives of the miners and their kin affected by the tragedy. The author again shows a talent for precise detail, as when she writes of the black half-moon lip marks miners leave on their beer mugs, or the abject darkness of the mines. She captures the dreams of the '50s underclass with admirable subtlety, making the book often feel more like fiction than history.

Yet, in Greene's retelling, the miners become sort of Heroic Everymen, and the history overall suffers from a certain Lake Wobegon nostalgia, where all the workers are kind and just, all the children above average. And yes, the ugly face of racism eventually appears, as Greene reveals how the mine's lone black survivor was later snubbed by Georgia's governor.

Ultimately, Last Man Out probes deeper than a history of racism or classism, unearthing a tale of survival and camaraderie. It's too bad such an inescapable vein of "So what?" runs just beneath the book's surface.

Melissa Fay Greene appears Thurs., April 24, at 7 p.m. at A Cappella Books, 1133 Euclid Ave., 404-681-5128, and Sun., April 27, at 2 p.m. at Chapter 11 Discount Books, Emory Commons, 2091 N. Decatur Road. 404-325-1505. www.chapter11books.com.

Shelf Space is a weekly column on books and Atlanta's literary scene.