The Marrowbone Marble Company (2010)

The Marrowbone Marble Company feels like it was dug out of the earth, a product of grimy, perspiring toil. It takes place over 30 years, from WWII through Vietnam, in West Virginia, where racial tensions bristle and crack like electrical storms, and where Glenn Taylor's protagonist, Loyal Ledford, angers the locals when he turns his marble factory into a color-blind commune. In this version of regional America, the heroes keep on with quiet courage and the villains all but twirl their mustaches. The descriptions can be overserious, but they match the near-mythic backdrop of Marrowbone Cut, an expanse of nothing but dust and omens. B+

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