Father's Troubles

Carter Taylor Seaton’s Father’s Troubles is a rousing good story of the wildcatting days of the nineteen twenties in the Appalachian mountains. Fortunes were made overnight—but often at the expense of honesty. Lawrence Burgher is the main character of this novel of four generations; he is a poor boy with that All-American zeal to succeed. He is determined to buy, sell, and cut corners on his way to a life with servants, big cars, and big deals. He is also the lifelong lover of one woman, his wife, and the story of their love affair is the most poignant part of the book.

But Lawrence’s personal ambition…leads him step by step to ruin. The remarkable thing about the book is that even details of finance are gripping as we trace Lawrence’s fall. There is a kind of magnificence in his story, but the novel also leads us to see the ever-widening circles of suffering that man seduced by a predatory business culture can create.