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Brad Smith’s superb job of writing
Book Review
By Derryll White
Smith, Brad (2020). Cactus Jack.
I never read or even heard of author Brad Smith, but when Dennis Lehane says, “Brad Smith has got the goods,” I pay attention.
Smith is a Canadian, with 12 novels to his credit including ‘The Return of Kid Cooper’ which won the Western Writers of America 2019 SPUR award for Best Traditional Novel.
‘Cactus Jack’ has drama, tension, emotion – heck it pulls hard on the reader’s heart strings. Perhaps most interesting, it shows up inherited wealth and privilege for what it is, shallow and indecent behaviour. Brad Smith has a feeling for what makes a person weak, or strong. To his credit he places the real strength in three female characters of widely different ages.
This is a story of certitude, unbending intent, and belief. This is also a story of characters and the author pays strict attention, using everything in his creative portfolio, to growing all the characters. The author brings the reader to believe anything is possible, if you only try hard enough and risk everything. A superb job of writing!
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Excerpts from the novel:
LIFE – Of course Billie had known that her mother had emotional issues. She’d had her ups and downs over the years, but who didn’t? Billie was of the opinion that people were fucked up in general, even the ones who seemed to have it together. There had been a time when Billie had wondered if her mother’s problems stemmed from her marrying the wrong man. But that wasn’t even true. She hadn’t married the wrong man; she’d married the wrong circumstance. Billie doubted she was ever really happy on the farm.
TIME – From the road she heard a hot rod downshifting as it approached the stop sign, glasspack mufflers rumbling like distant thunder. The driver turned onto the highway and then pounded the vehicle through the gears as he headed for town for cold beers and female companionship, Billie presumed.
HUMAN NATURE – Billie remembered that her father used to say that there was nothing in the world more stubborn than a child. Not that a person became less stubborn as they grew up (Billie was evidence of that), but they learned how to manage it better, how to disguise it as something else, whether it was feigned indifference or even ignorance of certain facts. But nine-year-olds didn’t hide behind disguise. They were too pure for that.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
