“It’s a crime that history repeats itself”
- Book: Blacktop Wasteland
- Location: Virginia
- Author: S A Cosby
In my full blog post I only featured a small fraction of the many excellent and compellingly observational, quotable and meaningful lines, with which this book is satisfyingly replete, although none of which are included without great thought and placement, in direct correlation with the story.
This book pushed all the buttons and hit all the hot spots for so many reasons, although after reading a couple of the earlier reviews, I feel that the storyline took me on a completely unique and individual journey, which may not have been the same as so many others, or indeed that which the author had in mind for me to take.
There are, under varying circumstances, three or four defining markers, which for me make a complete and satisfying read – A decisive and scene setting opening, which this high octane beginning definitely was – A well constructed strong storyline, which this unequivocally had without any argument – A definitive and conclusive ending, which was much more difficult to achieve with this particular storyline, but which was dealt with in the best possible way given the circumstances and offered quite a satisfying outcome, but no ‘happy ever afters’, if that’s what you are looking for! – Oh! and you can’t be dead! which Beau manages, but only by the skin of his teeth, and leaving a trail of bodies and destruction in his wake!
This is a multi-layered, multi-genre, multi-generational story, which encompasses so many historical, cultural, economic and societal issues, that it is difficult to define them individually. Better perhaps to treat them as an overall study in human behaviour, cultural mores, and social history and commentary. It is masterfully written from the heart, with total authority, compelling confidence and raw passion, which sets the author up as a consummate exponent in the art of storytelling and skilled in the imagery of words, affording an added dimension to the depth and range of the reading experience for me.
This story was an intensely intuitive, atmospheric mix of plot and character driven elements, each fluidly fuelled by the other. As a hard-hitting, action packed, gritty thriller, with a strong narrative and dialogue, this one effortlessly hit the spot full throttle, grabbed me by the throat and never let go until the last baddie was scuppered and wasn’t going to be coming back for more any time soon. A gripping story, rich in detail, of cross and double-cross, non violent crime turned into a blood bath, taking Beau along with events, as he would have me believe, against his will, but with him all too easily reverting to flashbacks of his former lifestyle, with some of the breath-taking, ‘need for speed’ car chases he took me on. This motley team of would be thieves, have convinced themselves that money will solve all their ills, magically change their lifestyles, better their life chances and buy them out of the dire situations in which they find themselves. However none of them are able to function at a basic level and realise all too late and at a terrible personal cost, that money alone can’t work miracles.
I became completely invested in the sprawling cast of multi-faceted, diverse and complex characters, who were easy, yet not always comfortable to connect with. Even though they were well drawn and defined, none of them were particularly engaging, as the school of life had taught them all the hard lesson of self protectionism, whilst cruel and often brutal family histories, together with harsh and destructive upbringings, had left them feeling worthless, forgotten and searching for a sense of belonging, although most would probably never have admitted it.
Beau isn’t a stupid person by any means, although he has convinced himself that he is a direct reflection of his fathers influence and legacy, despite his best efforts to change his ways. Even with the demon on his shoulder egging him on, I was quite surprised by the level of violence which Beau was prepared to adopt in order to protect his family, although to witness his inner turmoil, was quite heart-wrenching at times, as he was almost having to try and deny the true bond of love he felt for his father, despite knowing that he would never have been a good or stable role model and that he had been quite prepared to run out on his family and abandon them to their fate, whilst accepting that he is a product of that man and the sins of the father are often visited on the children. In Beau’s own children, without imminent intervention, it is so easy to see the next generation forming in exactly the same way, so it is now up to him to turn things around, set the ground rules and sow the seeds of a better future for them as a family. He should never forget his father and the undoubted good times they shared, but he needs to shake that demon off and carve a new and different path for the Montage family.
For me personally, although race and ethnicity were an obvious focus of the entire piece, they weren’t the most outstanding feature of the work. It was more a nuanced examination of the effects of poverty and deprivation, on a small rural community of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, in a landscape which time forgot, or even worse, simply chose not to remember!
As well as being a first rate crime thriller of course!
This is a book not to be missed and a storyline which begs being adapted as a screenplay and optioned for film.
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