BEASTS OF THE EARTH
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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| “Beasts of the Earth is a beautiful gut-punch of a novel.” —Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas |
Michael Fischer steals from other folks’ trap lines in the swamps of Louisiana in 1965. His life is one of grinding poverty and despair, and stealing is the only way he can try to provide for his fanatically religious mother and younger sister while his father, Munday, is in prison. But Munday’s return home doesn’t restore order to the family. Instead, when Munday returns home, trouble follows in his wake. He soon displays the measure of the evil that lurks within him, and when Munday turns that evil on his own daughter, Michael flees. He is taken in by a dying man, Remus, who is the opposite of Munday and who does his best to show Michael how to be a good man even when life’s trials threaten to overwhelm.
The book opens with a prologue that seems almost scriptural in its reading. It describes a watchmaker, toiling diligently at his station, ever winding, ever creating, oblivious to the horde crowding around his workspace seeking salvation. Wanting to be seen. The multitudes cry out, asking why the creator has forsaken them. But the watchmaker continues working, creating. The relentless flow of time and the stolid indifference of a creator to man’s problems is not an obvious part of the story, but it is a constant underlying thread.
James Wade drew me into the stories of both characters, Harlen and Michael. Through their eyes, he paints a vivid picture of the unfairness, the brutality, that life can often inflict upon a person. Michael didn’t ask to be the child of a pedophile and abuser. Harlen didn’t ask for the choices that he finds he must confront as he seeks to establish Gene’s innocence. Yet there they both are, struggling with their respective burdens.
The ending of the book wasn’t what I expected, I don’t think, but I’m not sure it could have ended any other way. There is closure, of a kind, a wrong set right. And while Harlen is a flawed man, broken in a way he cannot redeem, he still brings a little light to at least one person’s life. In the darkness, there is a thread of hope.
Beasts of the Earth is not a quick, easy read. It digs into some dark places in the human psyche and doesn’t flinch from harsh topics. But it’s worth reading for the idea that, even though a man may walk through some of the deepest darkness, it does not have to overwhelm him.
I had good things to say about Wade’s second book, River, Sing Out. Beasts of the Earth is another five-star read for me and establishes Wade firmly as one of my must-read authors.
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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Agree that this author is firmly on the must-read list. Thanks for the great review.