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American Novels #6
Feast Day of the Cannibals
In the sixth stand-alone book in The American Novels series, Shelby Ross, a merchant ruined by the depression of 1873–79, is hired as a New York City Custom House appraiser under inspector Herman Melville, the embittered, forgotten author of Moby-Dick. On the docks, Ross befriends a genial young man and makes an enemy of a despicable one, who attempts to destroy them by insinuating that Ross and the young man share an unnatural affection. Ross narrates his story to his childhood friend Washington Roebling, chief engineer of the soon-to-be-completed Brooklyn Bridge. As he is harried toward a fate reminiscent of Ahab’s, he encounters Ulysses S. Grant, dying in a brownstone on the Upper East Side; Samuel Clemens, who will publish Grant’s Memoirs; and Thomas Edison, at the dawn of the electrification of the city.
Feast Day of the Cannibals charts the harrowing journey of a tormented heart during America’s transformative age.
Feast Day of the Cannibals charts the harrowing journey of a tormented heart during America’s transformative age.
240 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2019
5 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Norman Lock
45 books41 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Norman Lock has written novels, short fiction, and poetry as well as stage plays, dramas for German radio, a film for The American Film Institute, and scenarios for video-art installations. His plays have been produced in the U.S., Germany, at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, and in Turkey. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese.
He received the Aga Kahn Prize, given by The Paris Review, the Literary Fiction Prize, given by The Dactyl Foundation of the Arts & Humanities, fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. (source: http://www.normanlock.com/)
Norman Lock has written novels, short fiction, and poetry as well as stage plays, dramas for German radio, a film for The American Film Institute, and scenarios for video-art installations. His plays have been produced in the U.S., Germany, at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, and in Turkey. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese.
He received the Aga Kahn Prize, given by The Paris Review, the Literary Fiction Prize, given by The Dactyl Foundation of the Arts & Humanities, fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. (source: http://www.normanlock.com/)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 7, 2019
Norman Lock's sixth book in the American Novel Series delves into the ugly side of the Gilded Age.
With a window view of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Shelby Ross visits his old friend Washington Robling, who is incapacitated, his capable wife overseeing the construction of the bridge his father designed. Ross tells his sad story to Robling, his fall from fortune forcing him to seek work, and the events that led to his imprisonment.
Having lost his business in the depression, Ross found employment at the Customs House, working under Herman Melville, a bitter, failed novelist. Ross also works with a dreamy younger man who pursues a friendship, while another co-worker, a sinister older man, harasses them as suspect homosexuals.
A man of numbers and business, Ross reads Melville's forgotten books, and Moby Dick comes to influence him in dark ways. Ross passively plays into the hands of his nemesis, until his rage drives him to commit a crime of passion.
The Gilded Age world comes to life. Ross comes into contact with Mark Twain, who encourages a dying and broke Gen. Grant to write his memoirs to provide income to his beloved wife Julia.
This is a dark novel of evil and hatred, of failed dreams, the bitterness of life's unjustness, and the many ways humans are all cannibals at heart.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
With a window view of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Shelby Ross visits his old friend Washington Robling, who is incapacitated, his capable wife overseeing the construction of the bridge his father designed. Ross tells his sad story to Robling, his fall from fortune forcing him to seek work, and the events that led to his imprisonment.
Having lost his business in the depression, Ross found employment at the Customs House, working under Herman Melville, a bitter, failed novelist. Ross also works with a dreamy younger man who pursues a friendship, while another co-worker, a sinister older man, harasses them as suspect homosexuals.
A man of numbers and business, Ross reads Melville's forgotten books, and Moby Dick comes to influence him in dark ways. Ross passively plays into the hands of his nemesis, until his rage drives him to commit a crime of passion.
The Gilded Age world comes to life. Ross comes into contact with Mark Twain, who encourages a dying and broke Gen. Grant to write his memoirs to provide income to his beloved wife Julia.
This is a dark novel of evil and hatred, of failed dreams, the bitterness of life's unjustness, and the many ways humans are all cannibals at heart.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
January 4, 2020
“Were I to publish the story of my life, literary critics would condemn me as an untrustworthy witness to events and a most unattractive character to boot.”
So says Shelby Ross, the fictional narrator in Norman Lock’s Feast Day of the Cannibals to Washington Roebling, the geniune chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. Ross tells his story in a series of visits all taking place in Roebling’s second-story room on Brooklyn Heights, starting on April 22, 1882, and ending on May 17, 1884.
Ross’s story is a sad one and not just because Ross is a somewhat “unattractive character.” Nor is he an “untrustworthy witness,” although he does like to put a gloss on things. Ross is a young man who managed to survive the Panic of 1873 with his life but not his money. To make ends meet, he secures a position as a customhouse appraiser serving under Herman Melville although, at the time, he knows nothing of Melville’s writing. A young coworker named Martin soon enlightens him, but the illumination is secondary to Ross’s uneasy friendship with Martin, which is the core of the story.
Martin is young and naive, interested in literature and given to dreamy thoughts. Ross is both attracted to and repelled by Martin, his inner conflict seeming to be a kind of awakening. Enter another coworker, Gibbs, a thoroughly disgusting and reprehensible character with a sharp eye. He wreaks havoc with Ross, forcing him to engage in debauchery, daring the man to admit his attraction to his own sex, which, of course, Ross denies. His denial costs him greatly but none more so than Martin.
While Ross’s own personal story is fairly predictable once all the characters are in place, the journey through the novel is fascinating. Lock does more than include all the right details to make the New York City of the early 1880s come alive. The novel is practically a “who’s who” compendium. Besides being an acquaintance of Washington Roebling, Ross is also on friendly terms with Ulysses S. Grant, from whom he asks a favor. In Grant’s company, he meets Mark Twain and takes an instant dislike to the man. He has dinner with Melville, meets his stoic wife, and then gets drunk along with Melville.
Lock takes us to and through the more seedy parts of the city, including brothels and saloons, as well as to the docks and boarding houses. Very quickly after starting Feast Day of the Cannibals, you feel like you are there, in the city with Ross, either comfortably situated in Roebling’s room where there’s a splendid view of the nearly finished Brooklyn Bridge or alongside Melville, choking on foul air in the bowels of a ship.
The novel is written in first person, always from Ross’s point of view, and the young man does love to talk. He was often insightful, another important aspect of the historical novel. The reader wants not just details in terms of clothing and living conditions, but also a sense of the morality of the age.
“My father bought a choice pew in the old Cedar Street Presbyterian Church as he would have a seat on the stock exchange. The doctrines of predestination and election confirmed his self-interest. He could do nothing, he said, on behalf of the unfortunates, because God had forecast his every move, as if life were a horoscope and we were obedient to planetary aspects and conjunctions.”
The novel’s structure was a bit confusing at first and, for this, I was glad to have a print copy of the book and not an audio. Lock includes the location and date with each shift in Ross’s narration. It’s a minor point to note that it took some flipping back and forth before I understood the system. Once I did understand it, though, the novel flowed.
If you enjoy historical novels, I highly recommend Feast Day of the Cannibals.
So says Shelby Ross, the fictional narrator in Norman Lock’s Feast Day of the Cannibals to Washington Roebling, the geniune chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. Ross tells his story in a series of visits all taking place in Roebling’s second-story room on Brooklyn Heights, starting on April 22, 1882, and ending on May 17, 1884.
Ross’s story is a sad one and not just because Ross is a somewhat “unattractive character.” Nor is he an “untrustworthy witness,” although he does like to put a gloss on things. Ross is a young man who managed to survive the Panic of 1873 with his life but not his money. To make ends meet, he secures a position as a customhouse appraiser serving under Herman Melville although, at the time, he knows nothing of Melville’s writing. A young coworker named Martin soon enlightens him, but the illumination is secondary to Ross’s uneasy friendship with Martin, which is the core of the story.
Martin is young and naive, interested in literature and given to dreamy thoughts. Ross is both attracted to and repelled by Martin, his inner conflict seeming to be a kind of awakening. Enter another coworker, Gibbs, a thoroughly disgusting and reprehensible character with a sharp eye. He wreaks havoc with Ross, forcing him to engage in debauchery, daring the man to admit his attraction to his own sex, which, of course, Ross denies. His denial costs him greatly but none more so than Martin.
While Ross’s own personal story is fairly predictable once all the characters are in place, the journey through the novel is fascinating. Lock does more than include all the right details to make the New York City of the early 1880s come alive. The novel is practically a “who’s who” compendium. Besides being an acquaintance of Washington Roebling, Ross is also on friendly terms with Ulysses S. Grant, from whom he asks a favor. In Grant’s company, he meets Mark Twain and takes an instant dislike to the man. He has dinner with Melville, meets his stoic wife, and then gets drunk along with Melville.
Lock takes us to and through the more seedy parts of the city, including brothels and saloons, as well as to the docks and boarding houses. Very quickly after starting Feast Day of the Cannibals, you feel like you are there, in the city with Ross, either comfortably situated in Roebling’s room where there’s a splendid view of the nearly finished Brooklyn Bridge or alongside Melville, choking on foul air in the bowels of a ship.
The novel is written in first person, always from Ross’s point of view, and the young man does love to talk. He was often insightful, another important aspect of the historical novel. The reader wants not just details in terms of clothing and living conditions, but also a sense of the morality of the age.
“My father bought a choice pew in the old Cedar Street Presbyterian Church as he would have a seat on the stock exchange. The doctrines of predestination and election confirmed his self-interest. He could do nothing, he said, on behalf of the unfortunates, because God had forecast his every move, as if life were a horoscope and we were obedient to planetary aspects and conjunctions.”
The novel’s structure was a bit confusing at first and, for this, I was glad to have a print copy of the book and not an audio. Lock includes the location and date with each shift in Ross’s narration. It’s a minor point to note that it took some flipping back and forth before I understood the system. Once I did understand it, though, the novel flowed.
If you enjoy historical novels, I highly recommend Feast Day of the Cannibals.
July 12, 2019
Feast Day of the Cannibals is the sixth in the American Novels series by Norman Lock at Bellevue Literary Press. It tells the story of Shelby Ross, a formerly wealthy man whose been bankrupted by a depression. He’s hired to work at New York City’s customs house under the supervision of Herman Melville. Like most people at the time, Ross had no idea Melville was a great author, his books were long forgotten and dismissed.
Two other colleagues are important to the story. First, there is the gentle Martin Finch with whom Ross feels an instant rapport. They develop a friendship and even plan to go west to San Francisco together. Then there is Gibbs, a disagreeable and threatening man who repeatedly insinuates that Ross’ friendship with Finch is unnatural. However, his enmity seems rooted in envy more than homophobia.
Feast Day of the Cannibals is told in a one-sided conversation with Washington Roebling, the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge. He is a friend from Ross’ youth and they shared a giddy ice-skating adventure on the freshly frozen Hudson. Roebling is an invalid, his wife carrying out the management for him. He sits in his home overlooking the bridge while Ross tells him the story of what happened to him with Melville, Finch, and Gibbs. Roebling does not utter a word. The story is somewhat of a confessional and apologia for Ross’ actions, which he feels driven to, perhaps by Moby Dick, but more honestly by rage at what Gibbs has done.
There seem to be many similarities with today’s cultural environment and the past in terms of the flagrant corruption of this new Gilded Age where the rich get richer and everyone else is feasted upon by the wealthy. There is also the exploration of internalized homophobia. Gibbs draws Ross into a homosexual experience and persecutes both Finch and Ross with his insinuations about their friendship, driving both Finch and Ross to drastic actions.
Ross meets many other historical people in his story including Mark Twain and President Grant who is bankrupt himself and hoping to make enough with his memoirs to support his wife. He also meets up with Rev. Winter from the last book, “The Wreckage of Eden,” a sad, but fitting, encounter.
Feast Day of the Cannibals is a grim book. It was interesting to see Melville through the eyes of his subordinate and to get an insight into the world of the docks during the Gilded Age. I thought the writing was incredibly descriptive and captivating even though the story left me frustrated since Ross could have simply refused Gibb’s company, but sort of drifted into difficulty again and again.
In some ways, I feel I failed as a reader with this book. While I could enjoy the prose and the historical detail, it just never clicked, so to speak. Perhaps it was the conceit of telling the story to Roebling with no reaction or interaction. It created a distance that kept the book from gelling.
I received an ARC of Feast Day of the Cannibals from the publisher through a LibraryThing drawing. It will be released on July 16th.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
Two other colleagues are important to the story. First, there is the gentle Martin Finch with whom Ross feels an instant rapport. They develop a friendship and even plan to go west to San Francisco together. Then there is Gibbs, a disagreeable and threatening man who repeatedly insinuates that Ross’ friendship with Finch is unnatural. However, his enmity seems rooted in envy more than homophobia.
Feast Day of the Cannibals is told in a one-sided conversation with Washington Roebling, the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge. He is a friend from Ross’ youth and they shared a giddy ice-skating adventure on the freshly frozen Hudson. Roebling is an invalid, his wife carrying out the management for him. He sits in his home overlooking the bridge while Ross tells him the story of what happened to him with Melville, Finch, and Gibbs. Roebling does not utter a word. The story is somewhat of a confessional and apologia for Ross’ actions, which he feels driven to, perhaps by Moby Dick, but more honestly by rage at what Gibbs has done.
There seem to be many similarities with today’s cultural environment and the past in terms of the flagrant corruption of this new Gilded Age where the rich get richer and everyone else is feasted upon by the wealthy. There is also the exploration of internalized homophobia. Gibbs draws Ross into a homosexual experience and persecutes both Finch and Ross with his insinuations about their friendship, driving both Finch and Ross to drastic actions.
Ross meets many other historical people in his story including Mark Twain and President Grant who is bankrupt himself and hoping to make enough with his memoirs to support his wife. He also meets up with Rev. Winter from the last book, “The Wreckage of Eden,” a sad, but fitting, encounter.
Feast Day of the Cannibals is a grim book. It was interesting to see Melville through the eyes of his subordinate and to get an insight into the world of the docks during the Gilded Age. I thought the writing was incredibly descriptive and captivating even though the story left me frustrated since Ross could have simply refused Gibb’s company, but sort of drifted into difficulty again and again.
In some ways, I feel I failed as a reader with this book. While I could enjoy the prose and the historical detail, it just never clicked, so to speak. Perhaps it was the conceit of telling the story to Roebling with no reaction or interaction. It created a distance that kept the book from gelling.
I received an ARC of Feast Day of the Cannibals from the publisher through a LibraryThing drawing. It will be released on July 16th.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
June 2, 2019
Brilliant evocation of the sordidness of the Gilded Age through the monologue of an appraiser at the U.S. Customs House in New York City, Shelby Ross, given to Washington Roebling, incapacitated [and, in this novel, silent,] builder of the Brooklyn Bridge. Definition: An appraiser checked the cargoes of various merchant ships coming into New York Harbor and assessed any tax to be paid. We follow the progress of the bridge being built, through Roebling's 2nd floor window. The failed novelist, Herman Melville is his supervisor and in the course of the novel, Shelby interacts with Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison. A bankrupted businessman, Shelby obtains the appraiser job and we follow his life for a period of two years, 1882-84, as told to Roebling. We discover the tormented Shelby is not entirely reliable as narrator. He has his bête noir in the crude, vulgar John Gibbs and makes a friend in the effeminate, sensitive Martin Finch. Each hurls us toward the novel's shattering conclusion.
The language was at times lyrical and I could picture the whole novel in my mind's eye. I much enjoyed Shelby's visit to General Grant where Mark Twain is trying to convince him to write his memoirs. The author gave me a glimpse of Twain's humor. I hope to read the author's other books in the same American Novels series. My favorite period in historical fiction is the ancient world, but this novel turned out to be a most happy choice set in the modern era.
Highly recommended. I thank LibraryThing for an ARC.
The language was at times lyrical and I could picture the whole novel in my mind's eye. I much enjoyed Shelby's visit to General Grant where Mark Twain is trying to convince him to write his memoirs. The author gave me a glimpse of Twain's humor. I hope to read the author's other books in the same American Novels series. My favorite period in historical fiction is the ancient world, but this novel turned out to be a most happy choice set in the modern era.
Highly recommended. I thank LibraryThing for an ARC.
June 26, 2019
This book had such potential. Lovers of historical fiction would have loved this book if the author hadn’t gotten lost in his own prose. The disgraced Shelby Ross who lost everything in the depression of 1873-1879 visits his friend Washington Roebling, the house-bound chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Lock’s book begins to bog down when he turns his attention to the “conversation” between Roebling, who doesn’t participate in the conversation, and Ross who does all the talking – at least so the reader assumes since Lock didn’t include quotation marks. The conversation is part pity-party about Ross’ losses, Ross talking about his new job and his new boss, Melville, and Ross seemingly sucking up to Roebling. Roebling is not developed as a character, but then neither is Ross. And there are too many information dumps to show the reader how much – or how little – research Lock has done.
If you enjoy historical novels that evoke time and place in subtle well-crafted sentences, this is not the book for you. However, if the Gilded Age of America is your cup of tea, you may very well enjoy this book.
Thanks to Bellevue Literary Press and Edelweiss for an eArc.
Lock’s book begins to bog down when he turns his attention to the “conversation” between Roebling, who doesn’t participate in the conversation, and Ross who does all the talking – at least so the reader assumes since Lock didn’t include quotation marks. The conversation is part pity-party about Ross’ losses, Ross talking about his new job and his new boss, Melville, and Ross seemingly sucking up to Roebling. Roebling is not developed as a character, but then neither is Ross. And there are too many information dumps to show the reader how much – or how little – research Lock has done.
If you enjoy historical novels that evoke time and place in subtle well-crafted sentences, this is not the book for you. However, if the Gilded Age of America is your cup of tea, you may very well enjoy this book.
Thanks to Bellevue Literary Press and Edelweiss for an eArc.
July 24, 2025
Norman Lock's historical fiction starts with possible connections between known historical characters and builds those characters right before our eyes, sometimes with words they actually have said but most importantly with his own understanding of the tensions, aspirations and character flaws of the historical personages as he interprets them.
But it is not Washington Roebling, Herman Melville, Mark Twain and US Grant that you will remember most from this book. Shelby Ross, the narrator of this dark tale, is one of the most unsavory characters ever invented. He fancies himself a grander man than he is, proving again and again that he is unread, intolerant, self-absorbed, ungrateful and weak. He allows himself to be led into situations where he is degraded and debauched even further. So unlikeable. I worried for poor Roebling, on his invalid bed, unable to escape Shelby's droning rendition of the sins committed against himself.
The historical descriptions of New York are luscious and the irritating character of Ross so affected me that I will remember this book a long time.
But it is not Washington Roebling, Herman Melville, Mark Twain and US Grant that you will remember most from this book. Shelby Ross, the narrator of this dark tale, is one of the most unsavory characters ever invented. He fancies himself a grander man than he is, proving again and again that he is unread, intolerant, self-absorbed, ungrateful and weak. He allows himself to be led into situations where he is degraded and debauched even further. So unlikeable. I worried for poor Roebling, on his invalid bed, unable to escape Shelby's droning rendition of the sins committed against himself.
The historical descriptions of New York are luscious and the irritating character of Ross so affected me that I will remember this book a long time.
November 8, 2019
Author Norman Lock is writer of a series of historical novels. In Feast Day of the Cannibals, he uses the characters of Herman Melville, Samuel Clemens and others to examine them in light of what they contribute to our legacy of moral and ethical values in today's world. The narrator is a man of no great repute who delivers what is essentially a soliloqy to the architect of a great bridge and who is an invalid and captive listener. The writing is in somewhat stilted English and yet imminently readable. A very interesting work from a capable writer, this one is worth reading.
December 8, 2019
Historical fiction set in Gilded Age New York City, where the narrator hangs out with Herman Melville, Washington Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge engineer), and others. An annoying book – so annoying I made it only about halfway through. The incessant name-dropping is bizarre. Look, there’s Thomas Edison! Let’s mention President Garfield, and also note that he was assassinated by disgruntled office seeker Charles Guiteau, not that Guiteau is relevant to the story but because we’re not sure if we’re writing a novel or a Wikipedia page.
October 18, 2019
Probably the fastest time I've abandoned a book. Though the subject matter is right up my alley (historical NY fiction or mystery) I couldn't follow the "dialogue" since there were no quote marks. Were they charging extra at the printers for quote marks?? Absurd to write in such a way.
August 28, 2019
Pure drudgery, unfortunately
September 12, 2019
As good as American literature gets. A brilliant, complex novel worthy of its literary subjects.
March 11, 2020
A sort of confession—slyly told in Lock’s careful way.
July 15, 2019
I won this book through the LibraryThing April giveaway to review. I only made it about 1/3 of the way. I didn’t like the monologue format.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews