The new book by author Richard Helms, A Kind And Savage Place is a prequel to Six Mile Creek and others that are part of the Judd Wheeler series. While Judd plays a role in this book that runs from 1942 to 1989, he is not the central character.
Instead, this is a book about how
daily interactions, even minor ones, have a major impact. Each contact has a
reverberation to it for all involved. Then there are the reverberations of childhood
and the random role of dice regarding who are parents are as we enter the
world. That childhood, and the families we come from and their legacy, for good
or ill, reverberates throughout our lives. Even death, at a young age or after
a full life have a reverberation through others on and on. People talk about the
fall of a single domino and how that changes everything. They miss all the dominoes
that lead up to that single domino being in a certain place at a certain time
and thus there to fall.
That idea,
all the dominoes that must fall to cause the certain domino to fall in a major
way—seen by some and unseen by many others—is the heart of this complex tale that
spans generations, families, and decades. While a central act plays a
major role and triggers all sorts of events across decades, many minor daily
interactions played a role for that event to happen. Life is complex as author
Rick Helms beautifully illustrates in A Kind and Savage Place as
he illustrates through a number of characters in this complex tale.
One of those daily interactions that
was unremarkable at the time and yet put many things into motion was when Arlo
Pyle hired Everett Howard to work in his auto shop. Pyle, a while man who had
been to Europe and fought the Nazis before coming back home, hired Everett
Howard to work in his shop and run errands. Howard was black, a young kid, and
had dropped out of the segregated school, which wasn’t much to begin with, as
was common at the time in North Carolina and elsewhere. It didn’t help Howard’s
educational prospects that he was also a bit slow. He soon proved to Pyle that
he was a hard worker.
Despite doing everything he knew to do and doing a job well, that did not stop others from accusing him of misdeeds. The fact that Howard had not done any of things he was accused of never mattered to those who could not see beyond the color of his skin.
An inability to see others as they
truly are also played a major role in life as Rennie Poole was able to
parlay a humble start as a local businessman, into a political force. Some
folks saw him for what he was at the start and avoided him. Many others did not
and became part of his world to manipulate. Long before his political career and
the creation of his political machine, one of his projects was a local
dancehall where teens hung out.
It was
there, on a warm Saturday night in May 1954, Coral Pyle, one of four daughters
of Arlo Pyle, and Adele Pyle, met Jude Pressley. A recent graduate and QB of considerable
talent at the local level, Pressley is currently drifting through life and
enjoying the adoration as a county football champion who set more than a dozen
records. He also has good looks and has certainly caught the attention of Coral
Pyle. That meeting in the dance hall put into motion a series of events that
changed their lives forever while also directly and indirectly impacting nearly
every character in this wide ranging and complicated book.
Set against the social movements of
the various decades with themes of politics, greed, racism, and more, author
Rick Helms tells a complicated and engrossing tale. Far more is at work beyond
the brief premise. To explain more would create spoilers as things and people
are tightly interlocked in this wide ranging and complex read.
Life,
death, drama, and a lot more, are at work in A Kind and Savage Place
by Rick Helms.
Strongly recommended.
My reading copy
was an ARC provided by the author with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2022
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