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How much is too much? How far can an individual be pushed before he abandons everything he stands for and lashes out at those who have wronged him? These are some of the questions asked and answered in this harrowing tale of toil, triumph, and tragedy.
When the novel begins, Lynx is a young boy in South Africa abandoned by his father and almost killed by his mother. The only decent thing he is left with is a commitment to help those in need and an almost unworldly stoicism. Thus begins a modern Dickensian tale of a young man growing to adulthood and overcoming innumerable obstacles through work, wit, stamina, perseverance, and irrepressible resolve. At every stage of his life, villains seek to take advantage of what they perceive as Lynx’s gullibility. Drug addicts steal his money. Women bed and trick him. Employers use and cheat him. But he learns as he grows and manages to make lasting friendships from one continent to the next, as he experiences not only enormous success, but also unrelenting treachery.
Reddy details the young man’s journey dispassionately. He dramatizes scenes of love, lust, lying, larceny, and more with an economy of emotion. As innumerable injustices pile up, readers are never quite sure which, if any, will make Lynx stop turning the other cheek and start erupting into unbridled retribution. This author’s hero is not easy to understand, and in some instances believe, as the novel careens from one betrayal to the next. But rest assured, a reckoning of epic proportion awaits, and new meaning is given to the phrase, revenge is a dish best served cold.