Hang the Moon – Jeannette Walls (2023)

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls, published in 2023, is a vivid historical novel set in Prohibition-era Virginia. Walls, known for her acclaimed memoir The Glass Castle, shifts her lens to fiction once again to tell the story of Sallie Kincaid, a bold and ambitious young woman born into a powerful Southern dynasty. The narrative explores the entangled relationships, legacies, and conflicts of the influential Kincaid family, as Sallie fights to claim her place in a world dominated by men and age-old traditions.

Plot Summary

Sallie Kincaid was born into power but learned early that being a Kincaid did not guarantee protection. Her father, the Duke, was the most powerful man in Claiborne County – owner of the Emporium, head of Kincaid Holdings, and the county’s political kingmaker. Larger than life, he filled every room with his booming voice, his thick cigar smoke, and the weight of his ambition. From the start, Sallie adored him. He called her Whippersnapper, took her for rides in the Defiance Coaster wagon, and told her she had Kincaid fire in her blood.

But everything changed the day Sallie tried to teach her younger half-brother Eddie to drive the wagon. What began as a child’s surprise for their father ended in a crash on Crooked Run bridge. Eddie was bloodied and unconscious. Jane, Eddie’s mother and Sallie’s stern stepmother, was furious, declaring Sallie a danger to her son. The Duke, caught between the women in his life, sent Sallie away to live with her Aunt Faye in the mountain town of Hatfield. He promised it was only for a little while, just until Jane calmed down.

Years passed. The Duke stopped visiting. Sallie grew from a reckless child into a young woman, toughened by poverty and loneliness, scrubbing sheets and helping in a mountain schoolhouse. She never stopped believing she’d go home, even when hope felt like a luxury she could no longer afford.

Then Tom Dunbar, her childhood friend and now a college man, arrived in a gleaming green Packard with word that Jane had died of influenza. The Duke was sending for her. She was to return home.

Back in the Big House, Sallie found everything as grand as she remembered – the polished floors, the velvet curtains, the thick rugs, and the whispers. Jane’s wake was a spectacle of mourning and politics, with mourners gathered beneath chandeliers and around whiskey bottles. The Duke greeted her warmly, calling her Whippersnapper once more, but the warmth faded quickly in the presence of others. Her return stirred judgment, resentment, and half-buried memories. Even Eddie, pale and grieving, reminded her that his mother had always warned him – Sallie was dangerous.

Still, she stayed. The Duke told her plainly: she was back to look after Eddie. The boy, frail and reserved, was his legacy. He was to be a governor, a senator, a man worthy of the Kincaid name. And Sallie, hardened by Hatfield and eager to prove herself, accepted the task. She would protect Eddie, no matter what.

But Claiborne County was not a place that offered simple redemptions. At Jane’s wake, a drunken insult over a borrowed black dress led to a knife fight. Dutch Weber, a local man, fell dead in the garden, and the Duke pulled Sallie into the murky waters of justice. Her testimony, shaped carefully by the Duke’s will, cleared the accused and maintained order. It was Sallie’s first lesson in the Kincaid method – justice wasn’t always about truth, it was about keeping the peace and keeping control.

The Duke began giving her more responsibilities, first at the Emporium, then with the bootlegging business he ran behind the family’s polished storefronts. Prohibition had turned whiskey into gold, and the Kincaids controlled the flow with ruthless efficiency. Sallie learned how to negotiate, how to threaten, how to hold her own among men who laughed at the idea of a woman in charge. She used her sharp mind and keen memory to build her power. She learned to listen more than speak, to calculate risk, and to never show weakness.

When the Duke died suddenly in a crash, Sallie found herself in charge of an empire built on secrets, loyalties, and blood. The Kincaids gathered, vultures in black suits and silk gloves, each one eyeing the future. The will left most of it to Eddie, still a boy in many ways, and Sallie as his guardian and trustee. But others had plans – cousins who ran their own whiskey routes, relatives who had waited years to take the reins, lawmen with favors owed and debts unpaid.

The challenges came fast. Revenue agents grew bold. Rival families moved in on their territory. Inside the Kincaid house, trust eroded like wood under rot. Sallie faced betrayal from within – allies who turned, men who saw her as a placeholder until a more proper Kincaid could be found. Through it all, she held her ground, drawing on the grit she’d earned in Hatfield, the lessons she’d learned at the Duke’s side, and the fierce love she still held for her brother.

But Eddie, now a teenager, was growing restless. Raised in privilege, adored by Jane, and haunted by Sallie’s exile, he carried the weight of expectation like a stone. His grief turned inward, his trust strained. He made choices that endangered their hold on the business, their safety, even his own life. Sallie fought to reach him, to pull him back from recklessness, to show him that being a Kincaid didn’t have to mean following the Duke’s path into ruthlessness.

In time, Eddie made his decision. He would leave Claiborne County, go to school, learn the world beyond the Kincaid lands. He would try to be something different. And Sallie, who had spent her life proving she was more than a mistake, finally stood alone – not cast out, not hidden, but at the head of the empire.

She sat at the old desk in the Emporium, the one the Duke had once ruled from, the one where she had learned to read ledgers and wield power. Outside, the wind blew through the trees that lined Crooked Run Road. Inside, Sallie Kincaid – daughter of Annie Powell, heir to the Duke – knew the business was hers. Not because it had been handed to her. Because she had taken it. And she would hold it.

Main Characters

• Sallie Kincaid – The fiery, resilient protagonist. Sallie begins the story as a spirited and impulsive girl, eager to win her father’s approval. After being cast out of the family home following a tragic accident involving her younger half-brother, she returns as a determined and mature young woman ready to stake her claim. Her journey is one of reinvention, strength, and reckoning with both familial loyalty and personal ambition.

• The Duke (Sallie’s father) – A towering patriarch and the most powerful man in Claiborne County, the Duke is both charming and authoritarian. He shapes Sallie’s early worldview and serves as a symbol of legacy, power, and moral compromise. His contradictions—affectionate and calculating, progressive and traditional—make him a magnetic but flawed influence.

• Eddie Kincaid – Sallie’s delicate and sheltered half-brother, raised under the stern eye of his mother, Jane. Eddie’s relationship with Sallie is strained by childhood trauma and years of estrangement. As Sallie returns to the family fold, Eddie’s character becomes a mirror for the burdens and expectations placed on the heirs of power.

• Jane Kincaid – Eddie’s mother and Sallie’s stepmother. Jane’s rigid control and social ambition contrast sharply with Sallie’s free spirit. Even in death, Jane casts a long shadow over the Kincaid family, especially in how she shaped Eddie’s perception of Sallie.

• Tom Dunbar – Sallie’s lifelong friend and a war-scarred, steady presence. Tom serves as both confidant and potential romantic interest, offering Sallie emotional grounding and support as she navigates the treacherous waters of family politics and personal ambition.

• Aunt Faye – Sallie’s maternal aunt who raises her during her years of exile. Kind-hearted and practical, Aunt Faye is both a surrogate mother and a symbol of the simpler life Sallie leaves behind.

Theme

• Power and Patriarchy – At its core, the novel dissects the machinery of male dominance in family, business, and politics. The Duke’s influence looms large, and Sallie must carve out space in a world where women are expected to stay silent and compliant. The tension between inheritance and individual agency drives much of the conflict.

• Reinvention and Identity – Sallie’s exile and return illustrate a theme of rebirth. Her identity is not inherited but earned, shaped by hardship and resilience. Her transformation from outcast to leader is the emotional spine of the narrative.

• Family and Legacy – The legacy of the Kincaids—both a source of pride and a chain around the characters’ necks—serves as a motif throughout. The novel asks: what do we owe our families, and what must we shed to be free?

• Justice and Morality – The novel frequently blurs the lines between justice and corruption, particularly through the Duke’s influence over the law. Sallie’s understanding of right and wrong evolves as she navigates this morally gray world.

• Coming-of-Age and Womanhood – Sallie’s journey from girlhood to womanhood is marked by both external trials and internal reckonings. Her path challenges traditional roles and redefines what it means to be a strong, capable woman in early 20th-century America.

Writing Style and Tone

Jeannette Walls writes with a clarity that is both lyrical and grounded, drawing the reader into a world rich with historical detail and emotional resonance. Her prose often mirrors the rhythms of Southern speech, earthy and unadorned, but carries a subtle poeticism that evokes both nostalgia and grit. The pacing is brisk, the dialogue sharp and evocative, and the atmosphere immersive, whether she’s describing a dusty rural road or a lavish funeral wake.

The tone of Hang the Moon is an elegant blend of wistfulness and defiance. It captures both the aching beauty of a lost time and the fierce energy of a heroine pushing against its boundaries. While deeply rooted in the past, Walls’s narrative pulses with contemporary relevance, especially in its feminist undercurrents and exploration of societal power dynamics. Through Sallie’s voice, the novel speaks with confidence, urgency, and a touch of melancholy, offering readers not just a tale of survival but of transformation.