Beasts of the Earth
A Novel
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wade (River, Sing Out) stumbles in this bleak tale of violence, small-town secrets, and lingering trauma. Harlen LeBlanc, groundskeeper in a Texas town reeling from an oil downturn in 1987, gets by on a humdrum routine. When his coworker, recent high school graduate Gene Thomas, is seen cradling the dead body of his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Harper, everybody in town assumes Gene killed her. But LeBlanc suspects otherwise and starts sleuthing. His doubt causes him to be ostracized, especially after a chilling encounter with Cassie's father. In a parallel narrative set in 1965, 12-year-old Michael Fischer lives with his mother and younger sister on a Louisiana bayou. Michael's father, a child rapist and murderer, is released from jail and brings terror back to their house, including sexually abusing the two children. Michael flees and finds protection from an older loner who shows him the first real kindness of his life. Harlen's search for information becomes more determined as his story reaches its climax and Michael heads toward another tragedy. Wade jarringly shifts the tone for the thriller-esque third act, leaving behind contemplative character development and evocative descriptions of the landscape for a hardboiled and needlessly shocking closer. The setup is there, but the payoff isn't.
