Book Review: Mother Howl, by Craig Clevenger
The son of a serial killer tries to reinvent himself, and maybe there's an angel?
Angry Robot, 2023, 301 pages
A compelling literary crime that follows the son of a serial murderer who changes his identity in a bid to escape his past.
Sixteen-year-old Lyle Edison recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news-the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day, his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then, eight further bodies are discovered.
Following the revelation that his dad is a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again.
Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret....
This was an odd book to tag, genre-wise. Clevenger writes in a literary style (many long and almost dreamy passages and internal dialogues). The story seems like a straightforward dark thriller: the main character is the son of a serial killer trying to escape his past. There's a crazy homeless guy, however, who knows who he is, and has a message for him, from the "Mother Howl."
That last character is what places this book in a strange place. Chapters alternate between the main character, Lyle Edison, and "Icarus," who is an angel who just landed on Earth in a "meat body" on a mission to deliver a message to Lyle. Or he's a crazy homeless schizophrenic. Their respective chapters are both narrated in third person limited omniscient, and Icarus's internal monologue is very consistent and plausible as either an angel trapped in a monkey-suit or a crazy homeless guy. It's never explained precisely why he needs to deliver a message to Lyle, and his chapters, after a while, fade away as some interesting secondary internal dialog.
Lyle Edison (not his real name) was a teenager when his perfectly normal father was revealed as a serial killer who had raped and murdered at least nine women. Lyle spent the rest of his childhood and teen years getting beaten up every time he's recognized. He was unfortunately a "Junior," sharing a name with his now-infamous father, so he was unable to get a job anywhere. Eventually he resorted to paying a shady forger for false identification, and has now spent his adulthood living under a false name. In the process, through an unfortunate series of events (this guy has the worst luck in the world), he got caught holding a drug package for a "friend," which resulted in a possession with intent to distribute charge. Now he's on parole, with a pregnant wife, and a parole officer who's well written as the absolute worst and pettiest little tyrant ever.
This was a great story and I really felt for poor Lyle, who's had an absolutely shitty life through no fault of his own. Yes, buying fake papers was a mistake, and he's made other mistakes, but they were all understandable given his circumstances. He now struggles with anger issues, and when he occasionally mouths off and the reader (and later his wife) wants to strangle him for being so foolish, at the same time you can't really blame him. He's been getting kicked around since he was a kid, and it would take the patience and stoicism of a saint not to lose it eventually. Much of the book is Lyle white-knuckling it to the end of his parole, while he (and the reader) wonder if he'll make it.
Icarus's chapters, like I said, were strange and almost ethereal, and they actually could have been cut without affecting the plot too much, but they definitely changed the mood. Icarus is probably not an angel, but I liked thinking there was a touch of the otherworldly in the book.
Inevitably, we know Lyle will have to confront his father, and I think the climax was executed well.
This was an unusual book with some really sympathetic characters, and an overall theme of just how hard it is to be a little person being crushed in the gears of impersonal or malevolent bureaucracy.
My complete list of book reviews.
Angry Robot, 2023, 301 pages
A compelling literary crime that follows the son of a serial murderer who changes his identity in a bid to escape his past.
Sixteen-year-old Lyle Edison recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news-the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day, his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then, eight further bodies are discovered.
Following the revelation that his dad is a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again.
Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret....
This was an odd book to tag, genre-wise. Clevenger writes in a literary style (many long and almost dreamy passages and internal dialogues). The story seems like a straightforward dark thriller: the main character is the son of a serial killer trying to escape his past. There's a crazy homeless guy, however, who knows who he is, and has a message for him, from the "Mother Howl."
That last character is what places this book in a strange place. Chapters alternate between the main character, Lyle Edison, and "Icarus," who is an angel who just landed on Earth in a "meat body" on a mission to deliver a message to Lyle. Or he's a crazy homeless schizophrenic. Their respective chapters are both narrated in third person limited omniscient, and Icarus's internal monologue is very consistent and plausible as either an angel trapped in a monkey-suit or a crazy homeless guy. It's never explained precisely why he needs to deliver a message to Lyle, and his chapters, after a while, fade away as some interesting secondary internal dialog.
Lyle Edison (not his real name) was a teenager when his perfectly normal father was revealed as a serial killer who had raped and murdered at least nine women. Lyle spent the rest of his childhood and teen years getting beaten up every time he's recognized. He was unfortunately a "Junior," sharing a name with his now-infamous father, so he was unable to get a job anywhere. Eventually he resorted to paying a shady forger for false identification, and has now spent his adulthood living under a false name. In the process, through an unfortunate series of events (this guy has the worst luck in the world), he got caught holding a drug package for a "friend," which resulted in a possession with intent to distribute charge. Now he's on parole, with a pregnant wife, and a parole officer who's well written as the absolute worst and pettiest little tyrant ever.
This was a great story and I really felt for poor Lyle, who's had an absolutely shitty life through no fault of his own. Yes, buying fake papers was a mistake, and he's made other mistakes, but they were all understandable given his circumstances. He now struggles with anger issues, and when he occasionally mouths off and the reader (and later his wife) wants to strangle him for being so foolish, at the same time you can't really blame him. He's been getting kicked around since he was a kid, and it would take the patience and stoicism of a saint not to lose it eventually. Much of the book is Lyle white-knuckling it to the end of his parole, while he (and the reader) wonder if he'll make it.
Icarus's chapters, like I said, were strange and almost ethereal, and they actually could have been cut without affecting the plot too much, but they definitely changed the mood. Icarus is probably not an angel, but I liked thinking there was a touch of the otherworldly in the book.
Inevitably, we know Lyle will have to confront his father, and I think the climax was executed well.
This was an unusual book with some really sympathetic characters, and an overall theme of just how hard it is to be a little person being crushed in the gears of impersonal or malevolent bureaucracy.
My complete list of book reviews.