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A review by laurenbdavis
The Kept by James Scott
5.0
Terrific book -- quite Southern Gothic, although set in the northern landscape of ice and wind and snow. It's bleak. It's realistic. Shadows of Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor cannot be ignored. I swept through the book, barely able to put it down from its violent, grab-you-by-the-throat opening. A fine review in The Rumpus says this:
"Although the material is bracingly grotesque, The Kept has a current of artistry running beneath. Scott’s technique is to interlace the macabre with lyrical images, an approach that has two effects. The first is that we are simultaneously horrified and captivated by the events. The second is that we never become fully inured to their savagery. Instead, each eruption of violence retains its poignancy, the unique vividness of a lived experience. Consider the following example: Before leaving on their hunt, Caleb decides to burn his dead relatives in a funeral pyre, only to accidentally ignite the family home when the wind changes course, redirecting the flames along a tributary of spilled kerosene. As the house becomes an inferno, a pair of owls burst forth from the attic, one of them unlucky enough to have its feathers set alight by the blaze. It flaps furiously through the night sky until the flames consume it, at which point it plunges to the snow-covered earth with a hiss. The book is filled with such moments. Half beautiful, half disturbing, they decorate The Kept like frescoes in a crumbling cathedral."
I know some readers have found the ending a bit baffling. I didn't, although I won't give it away. I thought it was the perfect ending, although perhaps not the one Hollywood will choose if ever they make a film out of it (pray a European filmmaker does instead!)
If you're like me and find value in such themes as the nature of evil, us vs them, what it means to belong, to confront our deepest fears and what the meaning of redemption is... well, this book is for you.
Read the entire Rumpus review here. https://therumpus.net/2014/01/the-kept-by-james-scott/
"Although the material is bracingly grotesque, The Kept has a current of artistry running beneath. Scott’s technique is to interlace the macabre with lyrical images, an approach that has two effects. The first is that we are simultaneously horrified and captivated by the events. The second is that we never become fully inured to their savagery. Instead, each eruption of violence retains its poignancy, the unique vividness of a lived experience. Consider the following example: Before leaving on their hunt, Caleb decides to burn his dead relatives in a funeral pyre, only to accidentally ignite the family home when the wind changes course, redirecting the flames along a tributary of spilled kerosene. As the house becomes an inferno, a pair of owls burst forth from the attic, one of them unlucky enough to have its feathers set alight by the blaze. It flaps furiously through the night sky until the flames consume it, at which point it plunges to the snow-covered earth with a hiss. The book is filled with such moments. Half beautiful, half disturbing, they decorate The Kept like frescoes in a crumbling cathedral."
I know some readers have found the ending a bit baffling. I didn't, although I won't give it away. I thought it was the perfect ending, although perhaps not the one Hollywood will choose if ever they make a film out of it (pray a European filmmaker does instead!)
If you're like me and find value in such themes as the nature of evil, us vs them, what it means to belong, to confront our deepest fears and what the meaning of redemption is... well, this book is for you.
Read the entire Rumpus review here. https://therumpus.net/2014/01/the-kept-by-james-scott/