Review: Beasts of the Earth by James Wade

 

   
BEASTS OF THE EARTH
BY
JAMES WADE
 

Categories: Literary Fiction / Crime Fiction
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Date of Publication: October 11, 2022
Number of Pages: 350 pages

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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.


PRAISE FOR BEASTS OF THE EARTH

“Wade’s pitch-perfect, personality-driven dialogue sings in the voice of life, and his ability to meld existential thought, situational metaphor, and cinematic setting is a full-bodied experience…A soul-deep exploration of a wounded man in crisis, James Wade’s Beasts of the Earth…secures his position as an author of extraordinary merit.” —New York Journal of Books

“James Wade writes a terrific story, but that isn’t what makes him so good. Wade is a craftsman. His books should be read slowly, to luxuriate in his word choices, his sentence structure, his character revelation. That is why he is a joy to read.” —James L. Haley, Spur Award–winning author of the Bliven Putnam Naval Adventures

“I found myself rooting for the characters throughout their near-Biblical tribulations, and the storyline kept me turning the pages, desperate to find out what would happen next. Here we have a novel that blends realism with existentialist philosophy to redefine contemporary Southern fiction. Don’t miss this tour de force of modern literature.” —David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Spur and Anthony Award–winning author of Winter Counts


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Thank you to James Wade for providing a copy of his book Beasts of the Earth for my review.

Michael Fischer is a young boy living hand to mouth with his mother and younger sister, Doreen. Forbidden from attending school so he can provide food for the family, Michael risks his life to steal fish from a neighbor's traps. He and his sister share a mattress in their house in the swamp. His life goes from bad to worse when his father returns from a stint in prison, doing time for raping a young girl. When forced to commit a soul-crushing act, Michael flees his home. 

Harlen Leblanc is a mild-mannered man with the simplest of lives. A maintenance man at the local high school, he lives in an almost empty duplex with any of the niceties of life. But he has a keen eye for those who are in need and goes out of his way to spread kindness. When a high school girl is found murdered on campus, his young co-worker is accused. Harlan’s attempt to help the boy backfires and he finds himself questioned for the crime and suddenly shunned by those he’d help, as if all his good works were wiped away in an instant.

The two stories intersect in a painful, heart-rending finale. For Harlan, the psychological scars of an abusive, cruel childhood are impossible for him to overcome. After a lifetime of battling his demons, he gives in to them, understanding fully what he is, what he will always be. He realizes that the man Michael becomes was forged by the evil fire of his father and once tempered cannot change. 

To say that this book is a difficult read is no exaggeration. Wade scrapes together the worst of human behavior: rape, murder, child abuse, pedophilia, and prostitution and spins a gritty, painful tale. But his prose is lyrical, almost poetic. His languorous descriptions of a wide Texas sky or a hot Louisiana swap juxtaposed with the violent narrative gives the book a seductive duality that is hard to put down. How does beauty co-exist with the ugliness in the world? What makes a man good, what makes him evil and can those traits live inside the same person? 




PURCHASE LINKS:


"Beasts of the Earth is a beautiful gut-punch of a novel.” —Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas

James Wade lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and daughter. He is also the author of River, Sing Out and All Things Left Wild, a winner of the prestigious MPIBA Reading the West Award for Debut Fiction, and a recipient of the Spur Award for Best Historical Novel from the Western Writers of America.
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Two winners each receive an autographed copy of Beasts of the Earth.
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