“Some Go Hungry paints an indelible portrait of Everytown, USA”

Check out the ARC review of Some Go Hungry by J. Patrick Redmond coming May 3, 2016!

My Review- Some Go Hungry

By DAVID ROSE

J Patrick Redmond knows suffering.

In Some Go Hungry, Redmond’s brilliant roman a clef, suffering is dissected and examined in each of its conjoined parts. It is an unflinching and brutally honest journey into the collective human ‘closet’. Skeletons, carefully guarded and fiercely shrouded in denial, provide the framework for this page turning tale of life in the age of Baby Boomer rule. Although a work of fiction, Some Go Hungry addresses the real world with shockingly familiar characters and situations; controversy is imminent.

An updated vision of the Prodigal Son parable (Luke 15:11) gets the tale started. Grey Daniels has returned to the hometown he left years earlier to assume responsibility for the family business. The reader is introduced to a menagerie of colorful individuals, some of whom have been unwillingly oppressed by the restraints of small community mores while others use the size and dwindling resources of the community to exploit and control. Indirect characterization allows for rapid plot advancement while simultaneously fleshing out the participants with keen observation and profound compassion. Redmond loves his creations – even the antagonists are treated with fairness and empathy.

Returning to Fort Sackville in rural Indiana after a lengthy adventure in the city, Grey is able to process his past, present and future with newly awakened insight. Redmond uses faux newspaper reports detailing a 20 year old local ‘murder’ case to illustrate the stagnation of Fort Sackville thinking and accentuate the proliferation of intolerance that resulted from the death. These clippings, juxtaposed with the main narrative, provide the reader with intriguing clues to Grey’s current conflict with his native community. Self-actualization needs nurturing and honesty to manifest; Grey desperately wants to be honest and open with his identity but is met with roadblocks and hostility from those propelling the community forward – or, in this case, those maintaining irrational self-serving delusions of grandeur.

Rich in vivid imagery and symbolism, Some Go Hungry paints an indelible portrait of Everytown, USA from an exciting new author. Redmond shares the beauty of the dogwood blossom with confident allegory. Pinballs are transformed into a fresh interpretation of Matthew 18:9; “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye.” Some Go Hungry will break your heart. It will also give hope and direction to those whose voices have been historically silenced and ostracized.

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-rose/my-review-some-go-hungry/1032976016781487