Unraveling Secrets: Benjamin Hale on the Mysterious Disappearance That Haunts the Ozarks
LL: What would you like readers to do with the knowledge Cave Mountain gives them? Do you think it’s a study in human behavior? Redemption? Community? Family? All of the above? And is there anything else you’d like to share, that maybe I forgot to ask?
BH: As always, my aim first and foremost is to tell a good story. For me, human behavior, redemption, community, family — also, skepticism and faith, God, art, the really big questions — are all a part of that. It’s not like a fable, in which the story points to some abstract lesson outside of itself; there are no lessons, there is nothing I want to teach anyone. I don’t have any answers, for myself or anyone else. I just hope that people will derive some pleasure and maybe even some bliss wrestling with the angel on the riverbank till the break of dawn along with me.
