Powerful Must Read — BEASTS OF THE EARTH by James Wade
James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as “rhapsodic” and “haunting,” delivers his most powerful work to date–a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana.
Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School’s grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend, while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice.
Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael’s life that sends him running from everything he has ever known. He is rescued by a dying poet and his lover, who extract from him a promise: to be a good man, whatever that may require.
Beasts of the Earth deftly intertwines these stories, exploring themes of time, fate, and free will, to produce a revelatory conclusion that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Published: October 2022
My ThoughtsJames Wade has stories in his soul.
It’s not just the way he creates characters, so you forget they’re not real.
It’s not just the way he captures setting and atmosphere in his hands, then sprinkles it all over the pages.
It’s not just that he weaves a complex plot around you, dropping pieces like breadcrumbs.
It’s the way he uses words sparingly, powerfully, beautifully. It’s the words he chooses to use, as much as the words he chooses to omit. It’s in the spaces he leaves and the spaces he fills. It’s his timing and eloquence and relatability.
With Beasts of the Earth, I wasn’t reading, I was experiencing; I wasn’t thinking, I was feeling. For me, that’s the rarest of all gifts to have and to receive.
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