As Fate Would Have It by Michael Louis Calvillo

As Fate Would Have It centers around two couples, Montgomery and Liz, who are well to do cannibals, and Ashley and her rocker boyfriend, who are strung out on heroin. I don’t know what it says about me, but I found the cannibals far more interesting and easy to relate to. Drug addicts in literature and film are a dime a dozen, but cannibals – way cooler. Montgomery is top chef with a culinary obsession with human flesh. These two couples come into contact after Montgomery kills Ashley’s friend after he runs low on his human food supply. Ashley is desperate to find her friend and believes Montgomery is responsible. She begins to stalk him, convinced of his guilt.

Meanwhile, both of our happy couples are having difficulties. Montgomery is facing a moral dilemma about having to kill his own food. He desperately wants to break his habit, but his girlfriend Liz isn’t so keen on the idea. Ashley and her boyfriend are trying to break their heroin habit, but aren’t having an easy go of it.

Calvillo presents the novel in an interesting way by paralleling these two situations. Although the type of problems the couples face are drastically different, their struggles are very similar. His writing is visceral and hits an emotional chord. There is a certain resonance to Calvillo’s writing that comes through in this novel. The story is a bit short in action but still carries at a nice pace. My only quibble is that I thought the novel had an abrupt ending, and didn’t come to a real conclusion. Michael Louis Calvillo’s life was cut prematurely short, which is unfortunate to all readers since his brilliant mind had much more to offer.