Author taps into his youth: Matthews' 'Mercy Creek' teen's coming-of-age story

COLUMBIA -- Life, and literature, thrive where there is a sense of adventure.

For Matt Matthews, growing up in Hampton, Va., hard by the Chesapeake Bay meant that every day held the promise of discovery.

"I had a wonderful and exciting childhood," he says. "You never knew what exotic thing was going to wash up on shore."

If that wasn't sufficient to lure a boy to stories, having his mother read to him from "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" was the clincher.

"It was all about being enthralled by the story," says Matthews.

And it was the real genesis of his book, "Mercy Creek" (Hub City Press), selected by Charleston novelist and short story writer Bret Lott as the winner of the biennial South Carolina First Novel Contest.

Matthews, a panelist at the recent South Carolina Book Festival, is the first of Hub City's stable of novelists to get a review in Publishers Weekly, a bit of a coup. Pastor at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Greenville, he is also the author of a children's book, "Fritz & Christine and Their Very Nervous Parents." Matthews lives with his wife, Rachel, and their three sons in Greer.

But just because he is a minister, he is not keen to see his book lodged in some calcified category.

"I would resist being pigeonholed as this or that," says the author. "Publishers Weekly said 'Mercy Creek' was a 'who-dun-it' and gave it a positive review, which I was happy for. But I don't really want to think of it that way any more than I want to regard it as a 'Christian novel.' I am a Christian and am not ashamed of it. But it's not a Christian novel or a Hindu novel or a Taoist novel, or even a mystery novel.

"I suppose you have to put things in cubbyholes at some point -- you have to have a handle for it -- and, yes, it has elements of a mystery, and, yes, the lead character, Isaac, is the son of a Presbyterian pastor. Admittedly, I'm new at this game."

Matthews says if it had to wear a label, he would be more comfortable with "Mercy Creek" being considered a coming-of-age story, reflecting, in part, his own progress as a writer.

Have 'Mercy'

Set one sultry summer on Virginia's Eastern Shore, "Mercy Creek" taps into an undercurrent of guilt and repression that flows beneath the seeming normality of the small town of Rooksville.

In this year after his mother's death, with girlfriend woes and his father's assaying a new romance, 16-year-old Isaac is exploring not only the mysteries of his own maturation, but also the shadows of a communal past.

Enter the figure of Crazy Eddie, a flurry of strange vandalism and the response of a group of self-appointed vigilantes.

"Writing through Isaac's eyes was (comparatively) easy," says Matthews. "I saw him as a kind of everyman, or everyteen. I've dealt with young people my whole ministry, and I wanted to portray the things that animate young people's lives, not just what they are grateful for, but the fear of loss, how life can become unanchored. Growth is another theme, as are justice and, as the title suggests, grace.

"In some ways, I hope Isaac is distinctive, but I also wanted some of his concerns to be universal ones."

Matthews finished his first draft of the book over the course of 38 uninterrupted writing days in 2002, but had all but given up on having it published until winning the First Novel prize, which included publication.

"The parts that were easier for me were the characters and sense of place; those most difficult found me asking, 'Why would you want to turn the page?' You don't want pages and pages of character study with nothing happening. That was the challenge for me, and I hope I succeeded at conveying what Isaac is discovering about himself and his father and his community, how Crazy Eddie figures in, and what Isaac is going to do about all that, what justice means to this kid.

"You have to have that page-turning idea, and Eddie's role is a little bit more shrouded in mystery."

A new path

Matthews is well-acquainted with turning the page. He studied journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University before attending Union Seminary in Richmond -- with no real intention of inhabiting the pulpit. At first.

"I went to seminary not to become a parish pastor but to have the theological training necessary to work as a journalist with the mainline church. I was going to write documentaries, and I was already doing a radio show in Richmond. I wanted to help tell the church's story.

"A lot of the things I was seeing in the media that had 'Christian' or 'church' labels on them were not something I recognized. It certainly was not part of my experience. It is also the way I approached my novel; I wanted to portray characters as real people, and small-town life that was true to life."

Reach Bill Thompson at 937-5707.