This is the first fiction
book that I have read that has been authored by two different people, and for
the most part, The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly makes the
difference in details smooth and practically unnoticeable. But in the themes
and emotions there is a lot of discrepancy between the husband and wife team
that stick out like a sore thumb, especially if you are a fan of Tom Franklin,
as I am. His breakthrough novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter was a taut
well-rounded thriller written with sympathy as well as a maniacal edge. I have
also read his collection of short stories, and while it is not as good as his
longer fiction, I found the title story, “Poachers” to be a rollicking good
read worthy of a movie adaption. And that fun that I found in most of
Franklin’s work here seems to be absent. The story takes places in 1927, the
heart of prohibition and bootlegging. In a small town in Mississippi called
Hobnob, a violent man named Jesse and his lovely wife Dixie run most of the town’s
liquor distilleries. After dispatching of two revenue agents, Dixie becomes disenchanted
with Jesse’s violent ways, brought on by the death of her infant sons. The agents’
disappearance brings fellow agents Ted Ingersoll and his loving, bumpkin
partner Ham, to the town to investigate. There they find an unrelated crime
scene that has left a baby orphaned. He takes it into his care, and is slowly
drawn into Dixie’s violent world when both want to change their futures. The characters
here are great, especially Ham, whose funny enough to warrant a prequel of some
sorts. But the big action scenes seem to be out of Franklin and Fennelly’s
league. They take too much time to happen and take away from the more filling,
emotional drama that is unfolding towards the end. I do believe that Franklin
can’t write a bad book, although Fennelly, a poet, I can’t speak for, and this
book is good enough to check out during the tale end of summer.
Rating: 4/5
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