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richardwells 's review for:
The Weight of This World
by David Joy
Broken cutters, broken saws
Broken buckles, broken laws
Broken bodies, broken bones
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin'
Everything is broken
--Bob Dylan
There is not one character in this book who has not been broken by circumstance, abuse, sexual trauma, drugs, or war. What saves this book from being unreadable besides the beauty and depth of writing, is the occasional glimmer in each of the book's three main characters that breaks into light and offers the hope of redemption.
The action, and there's a lot of it, takes place in the outback of the North Carolina mountains. This is what we now call Trump Territory, with high unemployment , minimum wage jobs taken by migrants willing to work for even less, homes left half constructed after the housing bubble burst, cheap whiskey, methedrine, a gun in every pickup, and two or three at home.
The novel opens with Thad, and Aidan, life long best friends and closer than brothers stripping an abandoned home of copper wire. Events only get worse from there as toxic life histories, petty criminality, and happenstance weave together like a knot of copperheads.
This isn't a pretty book, but it is deep, and true. I read it compulsively, shuddering, exclaiming, and breathing deeply. The Weight of This World is a brilliant title, and the weight is nigh overwhelming.
Broken buckles, broken laws
Broken bodies, broken bones
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin'
Everything is broken
--Bob Dylan
There is not one character in this book who has not been broken by circumstance, abuse, sexual trauma, drugs, or war. What saves this book from being unreadable besides the beauty and depth of writing, is the occasional glimmer in each of the book's three main characters that breaks into light and offers the hope of redemption.
The action, and there's a lot of it, takes place in the outback of the North Carolina mountains. This is what we now call Trump Territory, with high unemployment , minimum wage jobs taken by migrants willing to work for even less, homes left half constructed after the housing bubble burst, cheap whiskey, methedrine, a gun in every pickup, and two or three at home.
The novel opens with Thad, and Aidan, life long best friends and closer than brothers stripping an abandoned home of copper wire. Events only get worse from there as toxic life histories, petty criminality, and happenstance weave together like a knot of copperheads.
This isn't a pretty book, but it is deep, and true. I read it compulsively, shuddering, exclaiming, and breathing deeply. The Weight of This World is a brilliant title, and the weight is nigh overwhelming.