Michael Farris Smith has just released Nick, a prequel to The Great Gatsby. This, however, is original fiction in his personal strand of Southern Noir or Southern Gothic. His setting is not Rust Belt America but something far older, which has been declining for a much longer time.
It starts in 1956, when young Colburn is coming up twelve and finds something really nasty in the woodshed. Twenty years later Colburn is back in the unnamed town looking for answers. It is 1976 and wherever it is has become so godforsaken that artists can have shopfronts for free - which is what Colburn does. He makes sculptures out of scrap. Also foraging for scrap is a drifter family, so debased that they don't even have names. Celia has a bar from which she befriends the young buy of the family. She also starts an affair with Colburn.
In Colburn's absence the valley has been taken over by the invasive kudzu vine. It has swallowed up the house where Colburn used to live, swamped everything, hidden secrets.
People start disappearing without trace. First the woman who might have been the feral boy's mother. Then twin brothers. Then Celia. The town sheriff has never had so much work to do. He makes no headway at all. But when Celia goes, Colburn kicks in. He finds out...
It's a great read. I especially enjoyed the vagueness of it all. I'm not even sure what state it's supposed to be. I wondered why it should be mainly set in 1976 - I mean, it's not as if these forgotten corners of America have recovered in the years since. But all is explained in the last couple of short chapters. For once, continuing the story after the denouement really pays off. I am very keen to read more of Michael Farris Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment