352 pages, Soho Press
Review by J. S.
Colley
I received a
galley copy from the publisher for review purposes.
Little Wolves weaves
myth, folklore, and modern-day news headlines into a haunting literary
thriller/murder mystery.
The setting is
1980s rural Minnesota as a small, close-knit town comes to terms with a
horrific act of violence. The story features the new pastor’s young wife,
Clara, who teaches at the high school and is working on her doctorate in
Anglo-Saxon literature; and Grizz, the father of the teenage boy who commits
the terrible crime.
The morning of
the violence Clara glimpses, through a small basement window, the familiar
boots and long, oiled coat of Seth Fallon when he comes to knock on her front
door. The long coat brings up images of the real-life Columbine massacre. I
found this disquieting and, at that moment, I wasn’t sure I was emotionally
ready to read the novel. The images seemed too visceral and near, but I’m glad
I stuck with it. The rest of the novel is a thrilling, disquieting, and
mesmerizing account of Grizz and Clara’s individual journeys as they struggle
to deal with their personal guilt concerning the incident and their individual
past connections to the town and its inhabitants.
The story is
woven with the underlying thread of wolf folklore and mythology. When she was a
child, Clara’s father told her tales of wolves, and her students were studying
Beowulf before the incident. When he was younger, Seth saved several wolf pups
from sure death, and now they roam the woods and the mountain behind his
father’s farm. There are more wolf connections, but I don’t want to give too
much away.
Another theme is
the parent-child relationship. Clara is pregnant and, having been abandoned by
her mother, must come to terms with this knowledge before the birth of her
baby. Grizz must learn to live with the aftermath of his son’s actions while
examining the cracks in their relationship.
I wasn't sure at
first about some aspects of the ending but, after sitting on it for a few days,
I realized it fit perfectly within the underlying themes of folklore, paganism,
and mythology—the heroes are always bigger than life, and the monsters are
always…well, “monsters.”
Little Wolves is reminiscent of Kent
Haruf’s Plainsong, but grittier. I loved the
poetry of the writing and the storytelling, and the author’s use of metaphor
and simile. It is a great read with loads of literary merit.
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