Father Figure by James J. Cudney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, full disclosure, I was given a reader-copy by the author. This in no way alters my review. Second, James Cudney’s novel “Father Figure” is far outside my normal reading genre. Regardless, I enjoyed the story, and was glad for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

“Father Figure” is a story of intersecting lives. It is a tale of two teenage girls, two different times, one family. There are family secrets, big family secrets, and the search for the truth. The plot moves back and forth between the two stories, one of a mother’s past, the other of her daughter’s present. As the novel progresses, the two stories intertwine. I am a big fan of intersecting stories, so that was a plus for this novel.

I admit to struggling, at first, to hear the writer’s voice. Not far into the novel, however, the storyline pulled me in. I mean this as no discredit to the author. As I said, I am very far outside my normal genre with this novel. Once I settled in, I became engaged with the characters. I cared about what happened to them. As a reader, that is fundamentally important to me.

This is a tale of women. Strong women characters carry the plot line. It is a compliment to Mr. Cudney that he is able to craft a convincing female point of view. There was no point in the novel where I thought “This is a man writing about women.” Well done indeed. The male characters in the novel, with a few exceptions, do not shine so brightly.

“Father Figure” is a family saga, made no less a saga because the family is a single mother and her daughter. The past and present collide, often with unforeseen results. The author addresses the issues of family secrets, sexuality, and yearning for the truth. One character locks away the past, the other seeks to uncover the truth of the past. This yearning for an identity, for a family landmark, carries the story forward.

I wish to extend my thanks to Jay for trusting me to read his work. I enjoyed “Father Figure” and look forward to other works by the author.

View all my reviews

I am very pleased to announce the release of my second novel, “Blood Rust Chains.” It is available on Amazon in both eBook and Paperback editions.

No writer is an island unto himself, nor is any novel. As with my first novel, I have been fortunate enough to receive a great deal of help during the writing process. I am honoured and grateful to have had the support of my Beta-Reader Dark Army. Bless them every one!

Elena Deem, PhD, is one of the people I am most indebted to. She most graciously agreed to review an advance copy of my novel, and provided invaluable insight and comments. I wish to publicly thank her for taking the time to read and review my work. Ms Deem received an ARC of the novel prior to publication.

Elena Deem has earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington in 2008. She works as a freelance literary and art critic.

Blood Rust Chains by Marco Etheridge

Review by Elena Deem, PhD

Blood Rust Chains, Etheridge’s second book, is an inconspicuously powerful account of a struggle for inner peace in situations of conflict and loss of control. As its main character, Quinn, sweeps through the streets of Portland and faces his nemesis, the novella unfolds to deliver a strong, yet subtly forged message of redemption through self-reflection and honest ownership of one’s mistakes.

Revenge and redemption, inherent particularly to popular US fiction, are here reworked with a near Zen-Buddhist take that lifts the narrative out of recognizable genres, and deconstructs the possibility of a predictable ending. This makes for an exciting read that is simultaneously soothing and jagging as the author explores a range of popular genres (pop heroic fiction, detective story, love story), but skillfully pulls the rug from under the reader at the very moment she expects a familiar denouement.

Etheridge is a keen observer of all levels of social interactions, and a skilled writer who knows how to seamlessly join form with content to orchestrate authentic experience that also somehow stretches the boundaries of a relevant genre. He smoothly moves from one scene of social interaction to another, and from one genre to the next, citing historical accounts as well as WhatsApp messages. The story is brought to socially diverse yet quotidian contexts, digging deep into situations whose significance is never entirely predictable, and which force Quinn to see his own predisposition to conflict and violence.

At first, Quinn seems like an ordinary, freelance journalist. But Quinn has something street-and-working-class about him, and shows undue restraint when forced into a conflict. Yet, after his journalistic interest in the recent “genealogy craze” brings about an unexpected confrontation with the violent past of his own family, Quinn responds, which unleashes the ghosts from his own past.

Killing and death loom close once Quinn allows the Wild West family stories get under his skin, and he starts musing over the apparent differences between murder committed in revenge and in self-defense. In spite of himself, Quinn reacts to his belligerent neighbor, whose mission in life it is to provoke conflict. When the neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Quinn becomes the main suspect.

Confrontation and conflict, both literal and metaphoric, and their ethical ramifications, forge the central stage for the story. Unwillingly, Quinn is thrown into the ring to fight for his dignity and serenity through a series of precarious rounds of confrontation with different characters (the neighbor, police detectives, a mobster), that gradually increase in intensity. As in all good stories, the fight ultimately proves to be a matter of the character’s mind, rather than an act of physical violence unleashed onto the other (though Quinn does have a slip in the end); of taming the beast within with principle, courage, self-reflection, and guidance.

Blood Rust Chains foregrounds the premise that if there is anything like control over external situations, it is a matter of trained self-reflection; change can only happen from within. When Quinn loses his self-reflective defenses and slips, he immediately finds himself in a situation of immanent danger. This, of course, is a storyline well-known from the AA, and indeed, it turns out that Quinn is in a long-term recovery. Underpinning Quinn’s current situation is therefore another narrative that seems simpler and more solid: that of working the program. Etheridge’s writing is inherently clear-eyed; at times caustic and at others compassionate, he nevertheless presents a structure that ultimately disallows Quinn to be anything but brutally honest with himself.

Interestingly, this narrative setup causes that nearly all the characters in the novella, and Quinn’s interactions with them, serve as what might be called “Quinn’s truth posts.” Forefronted by Quinn’s partner—a lawyer whose ability to thoroughly examine and confront any gray areas in Quinn’ s honesty department is much needed—they help Quinn navigate and grow through his terrifying situation.

In the course, Quinn is forced to answer key questions that address the mechanisms of his perception of reality, and acknowledge his own responsibility to constantly check the truth of his states of being. After all, reality in the novella may be just that: whereas the exterior circumstances are beyond Quinn’s control, Quinn’s internal setup can be known—and so modified—by his acute awareness of his motives and triggers. This, in turn, may affect Quinn’s responses; a change in the usual behavioral pattern might prompt a minuscule shift in the direction of the unfolding events, which may be enough for Quinn to survive.

Blood Rust Chains is truly a story of a personal quest for redemption and inner peace, for removing what might be the “chains” of misperception and dishonesty that tie Quinn to his past. As the process concludes, Quinn feels that while this freedom might be temporary, the mechanisms of self-confrontation he has learnt are not. He is “ready for what comes. And if he felt those chains again, the chains of fear and anger, he would be ready for them as well.”