REVIEW OF CORROSION BY JON BASSOFF

Hi folks,

I want to introduce you to a new book that is one of the best novels I’ve read in decades. First, a disclaimer: I confess I was favorably disposed to like this book even before I opened the pages. It’s by Jon Bassoff, my publisher at New Pulp Press. Jon, in my opinion, is simply the single best publisher on the scene today. I say “in my opinion” because it’s just that. There may well be publishers as knowledgeable, as wise, as talented as Jon out there—and I know several who belong in that upper 2%--folks like Allan Guthrie of Blasted Heath, Brian Lindenmuth of Snubnose Press, Frank Nowatzke of the German press Pulpmaster, and some notable others—but I’ve read every one of Jon’s list of published books and there isn’t a single clunker in the bunch. Not one! I don’t know of any other publisher who has done what he has, and that doesn’t denigrate the ones mentioned nor any others—Jon has just put together an unparalleled list of writers and brilliant work.

 (Click on the picture for the Amazon link.)

That said, even though I was predisposed to like his book, I was completely caught unawares of the brilliance of CORROSION put out by DarkFuse. It absolutely blew me out of the water and surpassed my already-lofty expectations.

By ten miles.

CORROSION is easily one of the best novels I’ve read in the last decade and ranks up there—in my estimation—with the best of Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Joe Lansdale and Tom Franklin. And, I read a lot. An average of five novels a week.

It stars a protagonist that I think will end up in the pantheon of the very best of dark characters such as Anton Chigurh, E.O. Smonk, and Joe Lon Makey—the tortured soul of Benton Faulk/Joseph Downs/The Preacher… who are all the same man. Who loves two women enough to torture and kill them—Constance and then Lilith (the name of the first “Eve” in the Bible, which should be a solid clue as to the depth of these characters.).

This is the story told from the fevered and twisted mind of a sociopath/psychopath and when we are in the dark with him, we are genuinely and thoroughly frightened. I think I know something about entering the mind of such a person as I think evidenced by my own character, Truman Ferris Pinter, but Bassoff makes me feel somewhat inferior of my effort with the brilliance he brings to the task of showing us a demented soul. Benton Faulk is indeed, a monster, but Bassoff does what one of my advisers during my stay at Vermont College, Sharon Sheehe Stark, advised us to do when writing a truly despicable character. Instead of that oft-repeated writing “wisdom” others deliver—that “make your villain like kittens”—to gain the reader’s sympathy—she advised the opposite. Don’t do that, Sharon always said, but rather: “Paint your character as black as you possibly can. The light will shine through the cracks.” And this is precisely what Bassoff has done. That light Sharon spoke of, does, indeed, shine through. And not through some blinding beacon but truly “through the cracks.”

I won’t go into the plot—others are much better at delivering plot synopses than I ever will be. I simply urge you to grab onto this novel as soon as you can. If you like truth in your fiction, this is the place to find it. If you believe that in the worst of us a spark of humanity still resides, this is the place to prove that belief. If you simply want to read literature with a capital L, this is where you’ll find it. If you want to read a book that is what Jean Paulhan spoke of in the preface to the infamous STORY OF O, when he said: “Dangerous books are those that restore us to our natural state of danger,” this again, is that book.

Exactly so.

Blue skies,
Les

UPDATE! CORROSION is to be a film! Details at http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/70620/jack-reher-penning-feature-film-adaptation-novel-corrosion

TWO-WAY SPLIT by ALLAN GUTHRIE

Hi folks,

I want to talk about a book and a writer I recently discovered who's the "real deal," Allan Guthrie.

Recently, Brian Lindenmuth, my editor at Snubnose Press, made a comment about one of my novels, The Bitch, which was a wonderful compliment to it. He said, “I thoroughly enjoyed it and I appreciated that it was a dark novel that ended darkly. So many novels are dark in the telling but pull back at the end, leaving me to shake my head.”

Normally, I wouldn’t insert myself or my own work into the review of another’s work—that smacks of crude and blatant self-promotion--but Brian’s quote so perfectly fit my assessment of Allan Guthrie’s novel, Two-Way Split, I wanted to give him credit and then trust that the reader of this review and Mr. Guthrie himself, wouldn’t take offense at doing so.

Like Brian, I am so often disappointed when reaching the end of a noir or crime fiction when the work takes a major turn and ends with a “Hollywood happy-sappy” finale. You know, where the mass intellect is satisfied that the person they’re rooting for throughout the book didn’t end up in jail or get killed or maimed or something terrible. I always recall what screenwriter Callie Khouri went through with her brilliant screenplay of Thelma & Louise, when the “suits” at the studio wanted to let the two women live at the end—perhaps go off to prison for a few years and then emerge as happy campers. Thank god, Khouri resisted all of that silly nonsense and had Thelma and Louise plunge to their deaths off the Grand Canyon!

And, here we get another writer who doesn’t bow down to the knucklehead mouth-breathers who prefer such sappy endings! You know those folks. They’re the ones who keep that political correctness bullshit going and whose spiritual forebears were responsible in earlier ages for changing the Cinderella story where the evil stepsisters originally cut off their toes to fit the slipper into the insipid and soulless version kiddies are subjected to today. Those folks who don’t like to see much truth in their fiction… Or in their own lives…

Two-Way Split starts out dark, gets even darker, and ends in almost total blackness. Superb! A novel for intelligent readers. Halleluiah! Sharon Sheehe Stark, a brilliant writer who led one of my workshops during one of my MFA residencies at Vermont College put forth to us her very original and against-the-common-herd-mentality of fiction teachers, when she dismissed the prevailing writing theory of creating characters, who promoted the technique of “having your bad guy like kittens,” as a sort of trick to get the reader to like him or her.

Sharon gave contrarian advice. “Paint your character as dark as you possibly can. Don’t make him ‘love kittens’ or any of that crapola. Create a real person who hates cats as much as he hates everything else. Do not fall temptation to giving him any of those ‘saving graces.’ If you do that (and here is her genius), then the light will shine through the cracks.” (Italics mine.)

This is precisely what Guthrie does in his novel. He gives us characters who act honestly, according to their view of life, as flawed as that view may be to those who prefer their characters to end up in AA or forgiving those who trespassed against them. Ain’t happenin’ in Two-Way Split.

And, best of all, this is a novel that is enormously entertaining. The words such as “riveting” and the phrases such as “couldn’t put it down,” or “this was a page-turner,” are overused in assessments like this—many times, undeservedly--but dang it, all of those and more apply to this novel. I couldn’t put it down; it was riveting; it was decidedly a page-turner… and I’ve become a huge, huge fan of Guthrie. This is going to cost me some bucks, as now that I’ve read Two-Way Split, I have to buy the rest of his novels… and he has a few!

I’ll leave it to others to deliver plot points and all that. I just want to get out the message that this is a powerful book and one you’ll thank me for recommending to you. One thing I will mention is the title. It’s one of the great titles in literature. It works on several levels which I won’t reveal. You’ll just have to read it to find that out.

One note about the ending. As you can guess, this isn’t one of those “happy-sappy Hollywood endings.” It is, quite so, one of the best endings I’ve ever read. A good ending represents both a win and a loss. In Thelma & Louise, for example, the “loss” is fairly clear. They die. The win takes a bit more thought, but it’s also clear. The two women achieve their independence from men. Two-Way Split also has a profound win and a profound loss. You’ll have to read it to see. I promise you it’ll be worth it.

I teach creative writing. You can bet I’ll be using this novel in my classes. I’m already using it to inform my own writing.

Blue skies,

Les

P.S. Allan Guthrie is a writer, editor and literary agent who lives and creates fantastic fiction  in Scotland. I think he wears a kilt and plays bagpipes, but that isn’t confirmed and may just be a stereotype spread by vicious rumors… You can check out Allan Guthrie on his blog and website at http://criminal-e.blogspot.com/ and http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/