|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Reavis Wortham notes in his Acknowledgments section that part of our emotional lives are lived in "dark places," the title of his new novel. He also notes that our prejudices want criminals to somehow look "criminal," to exhibit some kind of hint that, if we were astute enough, we could read the book of life and stay out of harm's way. Wortham's premise is that badness is often illegible; it is busy just next door, or down the street.
Dramatis personae: Beatrice Parker, also known as Pepper, bored 16-year-old orphan staying with her grandparents; Top Parker, her cousin and the sheriff's son; Cale Westlake, high-school boy of the "in" clique; Miss Becky Parker and Constable Ned Parker, Pepper and Top's grandparents; Marty Smallwood and John T. West, small-town toughs; Freddy Vines, who clings to the toughs because his lisp makes him unpopular; Deputy John Washington, whose African heritage enables him to keep the law on the other side of the tracks; Deputy Anna Sloan, the first woman on the local police force; Crow, mysterious man who may or may not be a Native American; two businessmen; hippies; the operator; waitresses with hearts of…
In the late nineteen-sixties, in Center Springs, a non-existent town in the real county of Lamar (county seat: Paris, Texas) on the Red River, two businessmen come to town to buy real estate. They are a little too free in showing their wallets in front of the locals, and bad things befall them. Constable Ned Parker, the sheriff, and the rest of Center Springs law and order begin looking for two strangers, reported missing.
On the same night that the businessmen meet their fate, Pepper and the gang see something they should not have. Hating Center Springs as a hick town far too small to contain her talents, and frightened by what she saw, sixteen-year-old Pepper entices Cale, the high school bully, to steal some money and take her to San Francisco, the land of sophistication, where everyone has flowers in their hair. Constable Ned Parker roars off down Highway 66 to rescue the missing Pepper, and readers are treated to a view of the funky motor hotels and diners, crash pads and bars that lined the legendary highway. On the way, Ned picks up Crow, a man who has no other name, seems to be Native American, and seems to want to help. Like all members of the genus Corvus, Crow has an agenda, but he is willing to watch and observe the strange race of men and their doings.
On that same fateful night in Center Springs, an old man, trying to shoo some cattle off the highway and back into the pasture, is hit by a car. Law enforcement is suspicious. When they are not worrying about Pepper or looking for missing persons, members of the sheriff's department visit and re-visit the dead man's strange wife who, instead of weeping, giggles mirthlessly when spoken to.
As always, Reavis Wortham's novels are endowed by the charm of a time that seems simpler to us, and by a place whose emotional landscape seems easy to parse. Wortham dots his scene-painting with childhood pranks, such as an attempt to release a tame monkey in the Baptist church on Sunday, and with products that this reader recalls having eaten or used in those long ago days which have given way to now.
In this particular Wortham novel, there are several plots and several mysteries, such as, who is Crow, and where is Pepper and, where did those guys disappear to? There may be a few too many balls in the air here. The parallel plots, interesting on their own, do not always reinforce each other, while Wortham's central premise remains: look to the right, look to the left. Of those sitting close by you now, do you know what darkness drives them forward?
§ Cathy Downs is Professor of English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and a fan of the well-turned whodunit.
Reviewed by Cathy Downs, December 2015
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
