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One of the interesting fixtures of modern fiction is the evolving relationship between the author and readers. The abbreviated nature of publishing allows writers like Joy to produce more rapidly and likewise for readers to consume an ever-growing cavalcade of material from an author they enjoy. This quick pace also allows for new freedoms and exciting methods to be explored within the narrative, which is exactly what Joy has produced in this truly compelling piece of fiction. This book covers a vast tapestry of time as it fearlessly touches on eternal and human themes.
Joy's previous output showcases a determining mastery of such themes as friendship, community, and mortality. Here the story slowly unfolds with a fresh and commanding series of wonderfully written characters. Each one grapples with their marginalized existence surrounded by lavish American settings. The author touches on some muted and underutilized aspects of the American personality and identity, gifting them upon these diverse figures. The result is a restlessness that imbues each of them. Some of them rage against their fellow characters, society, or their own challenging lot in life. But it all comes across in a human and insightful manner.
The trying twentieth and the insulating twenty-first centuries are used throughout as backdrops in this cunningly simple tale. Family, illness, triumph, the heat, reformed rebels, memory, and music are all used to anchor the characters and the reader in this illuminating piece of worldbuilding. This book may very well be destined to find a lasting place in the new world of modern American storytelling.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review