Review by Booklist Review
When Lyle was a teenager when his father confessed to murdering nine women. Lyle and his mother were excoriated by the community; Lyle's mother withdrew, but Lyle, after numerous vicious beatings by haters, decided to flee. Being underage, he couldn't get a new identity legally, so he bought a forged one. Ever since, he's lived in fear of being discovered. His life is a mess. He struggles to hold a job, is arrested on a fake drug charge, spends time in prison, and builds up massive debts. Then he meets Sera; they fall in love, marry, and have a child, but even this may not be enough to save him. Alongside Lyle's story is that of Icarus, an alien being sent to Earth from his home among the stars by Mother Howl--a sort of divine, omniscient being--on an undefined mission. Given his weird appearance and actions once he lands on Earth, Icarus is taken for a homeless madman and sent to a mental hospital. Eager to complete his still-unknown mission and return to his distant home, Icarus escapes the hospital, and, in a shattering climax, his mission and Lyle's world collide. Dubbed "neo-noir," Clevenger's book is brilliant, original, and genre defying, veering from the mundane to the truly bizarre and from dark hopelessness to strangely hopeful.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
After an 18-year hiatus, Clevenger (Dermaphoria) returns with a sweeping story of cursed bloodlines and self-discovery. Lyle Edison is a husband and father who is just trying to stay out of trouble. Before he became Lyle Edison, however, he was the son of a serial killer who murdered nine women. Shunned and attacked by society for his father's sins, Lyle thought all he needed was a name change. However, after Lyle's years of living under an assumed identity, an enigmatic giant of a man named Icarus, who may not even be a man, threatens to reveal Lyle's deepest secrets. Clevenger imbues his protagonist's mundane existence with an evocative beauty and a rough lyricism that is well matched to Icarus's otherworldly perceptions. Narrator Greg Lockett gives Lyle an everyman quality that shows his quick wit and fiery passion. Lockett helps Icarus stand out by giving him a Southern drawl seasoned with unique euphemisms, such as calling the body he's inhabiting "this here monkey leather." VERDICT Though this story doesn't mention cypress trees or bayous, Lyle's attempts to reconcile the blood in his veins with the content of his character bring to mind the best Southern gothic fiction.--James Gardner
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