Clayton Lindemuth's Blog, page 7
January 18, 2013
Tom Franklin is a Magician: Review of Hell at the Breech
Hell at the Breech, by Tom Franklin, is a story about an event and group of people who actually existed, but whose stories are probably much more interesting in Tom Franklin’s telling.
Tom Franklin is pitch perfect in every regard. I was into the story from the beginning scene, a boy drowning a bag of puppies. It wasn’t as you might expect, overwritten, sappy, etc. It was poetically antiseptic and the perfect introduction to a novel about bad men.
One of the reasons Franklin’s writing is so powerful is that real life has a lot of pain—things that when examined from the comfort of a leather recliner with a blanket on your legs and cup of steaming coffee at your side—don’t make a hell of a lot of sense. These ugly things are parts of our everyday lives, and they baffle and hurt us. Many readers look to fiction to create a womb where they can hide for a short while, and an author’s skill is measured in terms of his or her capacity for sustaining the illusion that all is well and good in the world. A great author in this realm is one who has mastered fluff.
What I love about Tom Franklin’s writing is that you don’t measure his ability to make you more comfortable. Comfort isn’t part of the equation. Comfort is obscenity. His skill is measured by the grace of his words, the depth of emotion they provoke, and the sheer density of original story elements he packs into a novel. Tom Franklin is amazing because he can unmask the stupidity of human action, shine a spotlight into mindless depravity and pain, and you’ll come out of it more enlightened, and somehow, oddly, more convinced that all is right in the world. Tom Franklin is a magician.
I was happy with Hell at the Breech on every single level. The characters are real. The story is told with such a perfect understanding of his readers that Franklin anticipates our every question, our every concern, our every heartbeat, it seems. The middle ratchets up the tension. The end is satisfying in a dozen ways: the violence, the tenderness, the poetic justice, both good and bad, the revelations about story questions infused so deep you almost forgot to ask them. Simply a perfect novel.
If Hell at the Breech somehow never made it onto your reading list, it’s time to go back and pick up a copy.
January 11, 2013
Readers Want White Knuckles
The author should be more dangerous than the villain. The glint in his eyes is as important as the protagonist’s character arc. Readers want white knuckles, and they need to know the author has the grit to destroy the characters he loves.
How does this happen?
January 9, 2013
A Good, Just Society Would Execute Pedophiles
Think back to the last time you listened to the nightly news and heard a story about an eight year old girl that was missing for two weeks, and then found in a shallow grave with evidence of having been raped. The grave turned out to be in the back yard of a “person of interest” identified within a day of the child’s disappearance. Why? Because he was a registered pedophile.
When you heard that story, did you wish our society had tried harder to help the child rapist-turned-murderer? Or did you wish we were a stronger, less tolerant society?
I believe we would improve our society by executing pedophiles.
My reasoning is simple. I’m not concerned with whether its possible to heal a pedophile and turn him into a model citizen. It isn’t. I’m not concerned with people caught in the system who are accused of being pedophiles because he was eighteen and she was seventeen. I’m not concerned with whether the death penalty deters other would-be pedophiles from committing the act. I’ve read that it doesn’t, but no matter. Lastly, I’m also not concerned with all of the good stuff that a pedophile can add to society, when he’s not busy raping children.
(That bullshit apologism for Joe Paterno really got to me. The man loved his football program more than the sexual innocence of dozens of young boys. He valued a game more than the frail innocence that was being routinely stolen in his hallowed locker-room showers. But his fans want to talk about all he accomplished, as if it’s possible to quarantine the part of Joe Paterno who passed the moral buck and was thereby an accomplice to evil. That’s akin to saying “Charles Manson, sure he’s a murderer, but…” There is no but. He’s Charles Manson. Yes, an act of pure evil wipes away all the good you did. One “oh shit” destroys a thousand “attaboys,” especially when the oh shit is ignoring a child rapist in your midst. It’s okay to judge, really–and if you lose that ability, then what separates you from evil? How do you know?)
I’m not concerned with any of the above arguments against executing pedophiles. Here’s why: did you hear about the little boy who walked along the beach throwing starfish back into the ocean, one by one? An old man called him foolish. “You can never save all of them. You can’t make a difference.”
The little boy picked up a starfish and tossed it into the water. “I made a difference to that one.”
Here’s the point about executing pedophiles. You make a difference to that one. You make it impossible for him to destroy another life.
In my novel Cold Quiet Country, several pedophiles meet a harsh form of justice. Reviewers have spoken about how emotionally charged the story is, and how brutal. None have taken issue with the end, though, and I suspect my readers agree a healthy society doesn’t tolerate pedophiles.
I wrote Cold Quiet Country because my eternal hope is that I can help foment a less tolerant society in this one regard. I don’t believe the appropriate response to a person visiting sexual evil upon a child is to try to heal the evil man. If we were a better society, we would execute him.
Evil doesn’t heal, and a just society rids itself of evil where it is found.
January 8, 2013
Radio Interview Scheduled
Just scheduled a radio interview with Mr. Patrick Walters at Triangle Variety Radio. The interview will be on January 15th at 8:30pm Eastern, here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trianglevariety
I’m looking forward to some good questions. I anticipate we’ll be talking about the story behind the story of Cold Quiet Country, the unusual path to publication, and a host of other topics. I’d love to know what you’d like to hear, so write a comment below or send me an email.
It’d be a great help if you’d consider passing along the word about the interview to a few friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
As always, I appreciate every one of you who spends some of your time reading my words. It’s a privilege.
CL
January 7, 2013
Stay tuned for reviews on:
Winter’s Bone,
Hell at the Breech,
Knockemstiff,
Crimes in Southern Indiana
January 6, 2013
Stay tuned for reviews on:
Tom Franklin’s Hell at the Breech
Frank Bill’s Crimes in Southern Indiana
Donald Ray Pollock’s Knockemstiff
Matthew McBride’s Frank Sinatra in a Blender
December 31, 2012
John Locke has Heart, Guts, and Smarts: My review of How I Sold 1 Million eBooks…
I don’t know John Locke, but I’d like to. I’ve read the same derogatory reviews you have, all of them about how he tackled acquiring reviews for his books on Amazon. Personally, in deciding to read How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months, I put all of that aside for a few reasons. First, I’m an author. All other things equal, if I could have fifty perfect reviews for my novel overnight, it would accomplish nothing. No one would know about it. Reviews, by themselves, are not a marketing plan and anyone who trashes How I Sold 1 Million eBooks because it “leaves something out” isn’t thinking clearly. Second, before reading John’s how-to, I learned he was a highly successful businessman in the same industry that I’ve spent the last fourteen years. My suspicion was that he applied a businessman’s mind to a problem, and found a solution. Last, I read somewhere that he didn’t actually demand good reviews. He merely tried to direct his books to readers with a propensity for liking his work, which is what any marketer, anywhere, does every time. Lastly, his famous line about the other guys needing to prove their books were worth ten times as much as his, priced at 99 cents, also made sense in terms of me buying this book. What’d it cost? 3.99 or so? Not enough to remember. So in value, I got a lot more out of it than I paid, which incidentally, is part of John’s premise.
John comes across as a genuine good guy who applied principles of success he learned in other business ventures to his career as an author. I found it refreshing to read because John gets it. Meaning, he knows his client and seeks to make his client happy. He knows his readers and his enterprise is entirely focused on those readers–identifying them, reaching them, developing relationships with them, encouraging their participation, etc.
What he doesn’t do, which I also greatly appreciate, is come across as pretentious. He’s blunt about his success but hey, that’s way better than false modesty. Nor does John equate sales success with writing the great American novel. So many aspiring writers lament that their work is great, but no one will read it. The game is rigged, etc. Writing is inherently a marketing business as much as it is an art. If the author doesn’t have other people to do the marketing, it falls on his/her shoulders. And in some cases, such as John’s, it’s more advantageous to assume the entire burden–and profit.
John’s insurance business background comes through in this way: insurance sales is about not just finding the right market and gaining access to it. It’s also vital to build real relationships with people. That’s the only way to earn trust, and there is no lasting approximation of it. The insurance business is rife with how-to books about sales presentations and magic techniques and systems, but I suspect John built his insurance business one relationship at a time, just like he built his readership for his books.
I recommend this read to both aspiring authors and anyone who is interested in marketing through social media. John’s insights about online relationships should be worthwhile to just about everyone in business, these days. A final note: I finished this book feeling like I’ve known John ten years. He’s got heart and values, so forget about the detractors that pop up all over the place. If you don’t know anything about building relationships through social media, give How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months a try.
–Clayton
John Locke has Heart, Guts, and Smarts: My review of How I Sold 1 Million eBooks…
I don’t know John Locke, but I’d like to. I’ve read the same derogatory reviews you have, all of them about how he tackled acquiring reviews for his books on Amazon. Personally, in deciding to read How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months, I put all of that aside for a few reasons. First, I’m an author. All other things equal, if I could have fifty perfect reviews for my novel overnight, it would accomplish nothing. No one would know about it. Reviews, by themselves, are not a marketing plan and anyone who trashes How I Sold 1 Million eBooks because it “leaves something out” isn’t thinking clearly. Second, before reading John’s how-to, I learned he was a highly successful businessman in the same industry that I’ve spent the last fourteen years. My suspicion was that he applied a businessman’s mind to a problem, and found a solution. Last, I read somewhere that he didn’t actually demand good reviews. He merely tried to direct his books to readers with a propensity for liking his work, which is what any marketer, anywhere, does every time. Lastly, his famous line about the other guys needing to prove their books were worth ten times as much as his, priced at 99 cents, also made sense in terms of me buying this book. What’d it cost? 3.99 or so? Not enough to remember. So in value, I got a lot more out of it than I paid, which incidentally, is part of John’s premise.
John comes across as a genuine good guy who applied principles of success he learned in other business ventures to his career as an author. I found it refreshing to read because John gets it. Meaning, he knows his client and seeks to make his client happy. He knows his readers and his enterprise is entirely focused on those readers–identifying them, reaching them, developing relationships with them, encouraging their participation, etc.
What he doesn’t do, which I also greatly appreciate, is come across as pretentious. He’s blunt about his success but hey, that’s way better than false modesty. Nor does John equate sales success with writing the great American novel. So many aspiring writers lament that their work is great, but no one will read it. The game is rigged, etc. Writing is inherently a marketing business as much as it is an art. If the author doesn’t have other people to do the marketing, it falls on his/her shoulders. And in some cases, such as John’s, it’s more advantageous to assume the entire burden–and profit.
John’s insurance business background comes through in this way: insurance sales is about not just finding the right market and gaining access to it. It’s also vital to build real relationships with people. That’s the only way to earn trust, and there is no lasting approximation of it. The insurance business is rife with how-to books about sales presentations and magic techniques and systems, but I suspect John built his insurance business one relationship at a time, just like he built his readership for his books.
I recommend this read to both aspiring authors and anyone who is interested in marketing through social media. John’s insights about online relationships should be worthwhile to just about everyone in business, these days. A final note: I finished this book feeling like I’ve known John ten years. He’s got heart and values, so forget about the detractors that pop up all over the place. If you don’t know anything about building relationships through social media, give How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months a try.
December 23, 2012
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: Smooth as Makers Mark
Structurally, there are a few key story questions that keep the reader wondering. What happened between the protagonist and his former friend that caused the present day rift?
The story is constructed with a blink spot—the identity of a young girl’s boyfriend on the night she was murdered. I’m calling it a blind spot because the author doesn’t make it a compelling story question, which I think shows admirable restraint. (Having the reader asking the wrong questions would have diluted the strength of the more compelling, literary, character-motivation based questions.) However, when Franklin fills that blind spot, he provides a great ah-huh! moment, and cements the reader’s trust in the all-sensing, all-knowing authority of the author. You’ll know you’re reading a master of the craft.
There is no doubt Franklin is a master. In spite of my gripes, which result from personal preference, I read the novel in two days and enjoyed it. I was a happy reader because I’m usually incapable of reading bestsellers because they so often compel me only to get out a red pen and edit them. This was not the case with Franklin. He’s smooth as Makers Mark.
My gripes have to do with structure. I anticipated the answer to every single story question. Every one. Franklin telegraphs everything and the result was that I read to have my suspicions confirmed, instead of to be surprised. I’m confident Franklin knew he was telegraphing, and that his higher purpose was to write an in depth character study, not a thriller/suspense. As a character study, you won’t find one finer. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter will make you think, and it’ll make you feel. However, the novel probably won’t make you bite your nails.
My advice? If you want to see how an absolute master develops characters, then Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter will deeply satisfy. Franklin is perfect at creating compelling characters and revealing their thoughts, emotions, and woes in a way that keeps the reader involved. I’m looking forward to reading Franklin’s other work, particularly Smonk and Hell at the Breech.
Smooth as Makers Mark: review of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Almost all of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is backstory; the novel is only bookended and punctuated with present action. For purposes of characterization, it works fine. Most of the backstory is devoted to characterization, and the characters are believable and highly sympathetic. If you’re the kind of reader who wants to know your characters deep down, you’ll love Crooked Letter Crooked Letter.
Structurally, there are a few key story questions that keep the reader wondering. What happened between the protagonist and his former friend that caused the present day rift?
The story is constructed with a blink spot—the identity of a young girl’s boyfriend on the night she was murdered. I’m calling it a blind spot because the author doesn’t make it a compelling story question, which I think shows admirable restraint. (Having the reader asking the wrong questions would have diluted the strength of the more compelling, literary, character-motivation based questions.) However, when Franklin fills that blind spot, he provides a great ah-huh! moment, and cements the reader’s trust in the all-sensing, all-knowing authority of the author. You’ll know you’re reading a master of the craft.
There is no doubt Franklin is a master. In spite of my gripes, which result from personal preference, I read the novel in two days and enjoyed it. I was a happy reader because I’m usually incapable of reading bestsellers because they so often compel me only to get out a red pen and edit them. This was not the case with Franklin. He’s smooth as Makers Mark.
My gripes have to do with structure. I anticipated the answer to every single story question. Every one. Franklin telegraphs everything and the result was that I read to have my suspicions confirmed, instead of to be surprised. I’m confident Franklin knew he was telegraphing, and that his higher purpose was to write an in depth character study, not a thriller/suspense. As a character study, you won’t find one finer. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter will make you think, and it’ll make you feel. However, the novel probably won’t make you bite your nails.
My advice? If you want to see how an absolute master develops characters, then Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter will deeply satisfy. Franklin is perfect at creating compelling characters and revealing their thoughts, emotions, and woes in a way that keeps the reader involved. I’m looking forward to reading Franklin’s other work, particularly Smonk and Hell at the Breech.
