Hi Folks,
I'd like to recommend a fantastic book I just read, Scott Adlerberg's JUNGLE HORSES. Here's my review of it:
Review of Scott Adlerberg’s JUNGLE
HORSES
Every great once in awhile, as a writer,
I come upon a book that serves as a wake-up call as to why I originally wanted
to be a writer and reignites that original fever. The first books I read that
excited me about literature were novels that created entirely new worlds out of
whole cloth. The Jules Verne novels, the Edgar Rice Burroughs tales, the
stories set in places like nowhere on earth. And then, as time went on and I
became more and more inured into writing professionally, I kind of forgot that
original excitement. Well, it was just reignited. I picked up a copy of Scott
Adlerberg’s newest novel, JUNGLE HORSES, and instantly felt like I was 7 or 8
again, racing through 10,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA or TARZAN OF THE APES. I was
immediately transported into a world that had never existed before and it was
just plain exhilarating! This was a writer who was obviously the kid the
English teacher back in the eighth grade singled out when she announced to the
class that this kid had a wonderful imagination. Too often, as we get older and
more jaded, we keep using the same old settings and same old plots and when you
happen on a story like JUNGLE HORSES, it feels like it does when a Santa Ana
comes down out of the mountains in L.A. and blows all the smog out to sea and
the air gets crisp and clean and your lungs feel like new.
I’ll leave it to others to describe the
plot, except to say that it involves a degenerate gambler, a weird sexual triad
with one of the players impotent, and an island that I think broke off from the
island of Dr. Moreau and drifted a few leagues away. And horses. It almost
doesn’t matter what the plot is—it’s a dream and you enter into it immediately
and willingly. Because of its atmospheric quality, it will be tempting to call
it a work of noir, but it has a higher and reaches it—this is literature and
literature of the highest quality.
I’ll leave the plot details to the cover
copy, which describes it as:
Arthur lives a quiet life in London,
wandering from the bar to the racetrack and back again. When his pension check
dries up, Arthur decides to win it all back with one last big bet at the
bookie. When that falls through, Arthur borrows money and repeats the process,
until he's in too deep with a vicious gang of leg-breakers.
The plan to save his skin will take him far from his home, to a place where a
very different breed of horse will change his life forever.
I have no idea why, but the entire time
I was transported into Adlerberg’s tale, I kept thinking I was reading a story
by William Goyen. I think it was the voice he employed.
I’m just thankful for coming upon a
story that reminded me of why I wanted to be a writer. I feel like my own roots
have been rejuvenated. It’s a wonderful thing to be reminded of the
possibilities of story.
Pick up a copy--you'll be glad you did!
Blue skies,
Les
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