She Treads Softly: Beasts of the Earth

Saturday, October 8, 2022

Beasts of the Earth

Beasts of the Earth by James Wade
10/11/22; 350 pages
Blackstone Publishing

Beasts of the Earth by James Wade is very highly recommended literary fiction.

Two timelines are followed in the novel. First, in 1987 Harlen LeBlanc is an employee of the grounds department at Carter Hills High School in Texas. He is a quiet man who keeps to himself and his routines. When his coworker and recent high school graduate, Gene Thomas, is discovered holding the dead body of a former girlfriend, he is charged with her murder. LeBlanc is certain that Gene is not responsible and he sets out to find the guilty party.

In Louisiana in 1965, 12 year-old Michael Fischer tries his best to protect his younger sister and survive with his fanatical mother. He steals from trap lines in the bayou to provide for his family. Then his father, a child rapist and murderer, returns from serving his prison sentence. His father's evil actions eventually result in Michael fleeing and finding help and safety with an older man who is dying, but more importantly is a kind and good man who rescues him. He teaches Michael to be good and care even when the world around you is bad and uncaring.

This is a beautifully written, descriptive novel that skillfully intertwines the two stories in the alternate time lines. The narratives in the two timelines are both tightly plotted and create suspense in events that are surely coming in both story lines. Although crimes and investigations occur, Beasts of the Earth is not a procedural or investigative novel. It is a pensive, thoughtful novel reflecting on what it means to be a truly good person in a world full of wickedness and corruption. Even in the most forlorn and bleak moments, there is still a small measure of hope and, perhaps, redemption for the characters.

Beasts of the Earth is a visceral, disturbing tale that explores polarizing themes, including hate and love, fate and free will, trauma and goodness. It poetically yet starkly confronts how to deal with evil and guilt all while moving steadfastly toward a heartbreaking ending.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.