A hauntingly unforgettable story of tragedy and love

J. Eric Laing’s debut novel, Cicada is a remarkable story of love, hardship, guilt and racial tension in America’s deep south. It is a page-turner from the opening scene all the way to the end. In the opening scene, farmer John Sayre sits in his truck with the barrel of a gun in his mouth. Should he kill himself or shouldn’t he? The scene is so cinematic that I could taste the oil and feel the metal of the gun barrel in my own mouth. One reviewer calls the book a “tense Southern Gothic page-turner”, which it is. Another says it reminded him of William Faulkner, one of the best writers around sixty years ago. It reminds me of Faulkner as well, yet it is far more. It is so real that I could hear the whir of the cicadas and feel the oppressive summer heat.

It is the story of a man who is guilt-ridden over his older brother’s death when they were schoolboys. It is the story of racial conflicts in a changing South, where some of the local Good Old Boys are active in the Klan and lynch a local black man “to teach them folks a lesson.” it is a scene so chilling that I still see and feel it. It is the story of changes in a small Southern town where traditions die hard. It is a story about a man’s love for his young son and his wife, and the affair he has with Cicada, a beautiful young black woman. Cicada will run you through the gamut of emotion, lifting you up and sometimes causing you to burst into tears.  it is the story of heartbreak and, justice and, ultimately, forgiveness told by a master storyteller. 

I see it as a major motion picture, a blockbuster of a movie that will linger. I hope Cicada receives all the attention it so richly deserves. I understand the author has several more novels somewhere in the pipeline. If they’re anywhere close to being as good as this one, we’re seeing the birth of a major American writer.

A definite 5 Star read.  

The Poison of a Smile

“This is my voice. You cannot hear me, but I hope you will read my thoughts.” So begins Steven Jensen’s novella, set in late 19^th century Wales. The voice belongs to Alatiel, the sinister, ghostly woman who appears in many guises throughout Steven Jensen’s novel, soon to be published by the UK’s Night Publishing.

Appealing, compelling and ghastly, “Alatiel” is a succubus, an evil spirit who destroys everyone she touches, changing guises as she goes. The men she is involved with, enchanted by her airy beauty, sleepwalk through their relationship with her as she sucks them dry and dismissively casts them aside, destroying them.

Though I didn’t especially like this novel (I don’t usually read ghost stories set in the late 1800s), it is well-written and compelling. After reading it this morning I fell asleep and woke up an hour or so later from a dream in which I had come home looking forward to seeing my wife, but couldn’t find her. I went through each room, all empty but the bedroom, which was empty except for a large black tarpaulin thrown over the bed. Was that my wife lying under it? At that moment I woke from the dream and got up. “Like” the novel or not, my dream shows me that Steven Jensen tells a story in a way that pulls you into it even when you may not want to go.

My only critical comments is that it would benefit from being two or three times as long. Around seventy pages for a tale like this is a bit too short, especially when Part Two – Blood Is Sweeter Than Honey – is scheduled for publication in 2011. Seventy pages seems a “teaser” for what comes next … and that, I think, is too bad.

But if you’re looking for a little chiller of a tale, The Poison of a Smile is a good one. And if Alatiel appears somewhere in your dreams, don’t be surprised.