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FOREST OF FORTUNE
by Jim Ruland
Tyrus, April 2015
299 pages
$15.99
ISBN: 1440589070


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

FOREST OF FORTUNE opens with a quotation from Lewis Carroll, and the first character we meet is named Alice, so it should come as no surprise that this novel is like a quick tumble down a rabbit hole. Unlike Carroll's, though, this crazy world is filled not with Mad Hatters and Cheshire Cats but with drug dealers, gamblers, and all manner of abusers and abused. And while FOREST OF FORTUNE is a crime novel, it's not a mystery. There are no problems to solve, merely problems plaguing lots of bottom-of-the-barrel characters. This is a world populated by losers of every sort, on every level, the law and justice are things to be avoided rather than embraced, and there are no neat answers at the end. This is a dark, bleak vision with little to no redeeming factors, but in spite of that (or possibly because of it), it's a fascinating story.

The novel follows three main characters: cocaine-sniffing, booze-guzzling advertising copywriter Pemberton; epileptic daughter-of-an-alcoholic Alice; and non-stop gambler Lupita. Each of the three is trying to overcome the mistakes and abuses of the past and forge a brighter future at the Thunderclap Casino. Woven amid their narratives is the tale of an early settler - now a ghost - and it is her story of abuse that seems to permeate the casino and doom all who enter. At least that's what the characters prefer to believe - it's merely bad luck or ghosts rather than their own actions that lead to their downfall. But this isn't a morality tale. It's a fast-paced story of outlaws living in the desert outside of LA - literally and figuratively beyond the edge of civilization - and Ruland takes us on a wild ride of sex, drugs, and indie rap music as we watch these lives and those of all the minor characters around them spiral out of control, leading to a dramatic climax and a not-unhappy ending. Yes, even in this bleak, lawless world, there are a few glimmers of hope - and plenty of reasons to applaud Ruland's debut novel.

The characters here could all be stereotypes, and to some extent, they are. But Ruland gives them enough of a twist that they're interesting, and we want to know more about them even though we see the self-defeating actions for what they are right from the start. Ruland also does a nice job of creating even minor characters with a lot of interest, and the plot, while always rapidly moving forward, never seems to go exactly where it's expected to go. In fact, there's no real predicting where it's going to go at all, and that adds all kinds of interest. Also adding interest is the device of switching among three narratives, all of which are completely independent (the characters don't know each other and only have brief encounters with each other) but are held together perfectly through the use of setting. The climax and ending seem a bit as though Ruland didn't quite know how to tie things up with these characters he had created, but somehow, even the over-the-top-ness of it all ultimately works because nothing in this world is "normal." And yet, at the same time, everything is. And that is what makes the whole thing work so well. As unbelievable as this world is, it is also very much our world. At the beginning of the novel, the ghost tells us she'll show us just how lucky we are, and by the end, we do, indeed, feel lucky not to be any of these characters. But if we're honest, we probably have to admit that we could be, at least to some degree, or might know someone a little bit like them or maybe heard about them on TV, and that makes the fear - and the relief - all the more real.

§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas

Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, May 2015

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