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dantastic's review against another edition
5.0
Patterson Wells is a tree clearer who has never gotten over the death of his son and writes letters to him and lives a life of self destruction. He meets Junior Bascom, a drug runner traveling down a similar path. Will they be one another's salvation or ticket to the grave?
I got this from Netgalley. It took the publisher almost five months to approve my request and the ARC is full of spaces inside words and weird characters at the beginning of some sentences, making some paragraphs hard to read. It was still worth it.
I loved Ben Whitmer's Pike a couple years ago and was foaming at the mouth for his next novel. Cry Father did not disappoint.
Cry Father is a tale of fathers and sons. It's also a tale of brutal violence and drug and alcohol abuse. It reminded me of James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss, only without the mystery element, unless you consider wondering if Patterson and/or Junior are going to OD in it.
There are two threads in this book that periodically intersect. Patterson works as much as he can and drinks and drugs away the time he has left, trying to forget his dead son, all the while trying to avoid his ex-wife, who wants Patterson to take part in a malpractice lawsuit against the doctor who treated her son. Junior runs drugs all over the southwest and has some a young daughter living with his girlfriend. He also hates his father with a cold passion and blames him for all the problems of the world.
There's more drunken misadventures in this book than there is action but the action is brutal when it happens. If I learned one thing from this book, it's don't turn your back on a tweaker. Patterson went through so much alcohol and cocaine in this book that I felt a little nauseous and hungover while reading it. As Patterson's substance abuse gets worse and he hangs out with Junior more, things gradually come completely unglued.
Whitmer's writing is masterful. The letters Patterson writes to his dead son are touching and make the harsh, unblinking depictions of violence and drug abuse that much more powerful. The quality of the writing, coupled with the trainwreck appeal of Patterson and Junior had me reading long into the night to finish it.
That's about all I want to say. Unless you only read shitty books, Cry Father should not be missed. Five out of five stars.
Kids, don't do drugs!
I got this from Netgalley. It took the publisher almost five months to approve my request and the ARC is full of spaces inside words and weird characters at the beginning of some sentences, making some paragraphs hard to read. It was still worth it.
I loved Ben Whitmer's Pike a couple years ago and was foaming at the mouth for his next novel. Cry Father did not disappoint.
Cry Father is a tale of fathers and sons. It's also a tale of brutal violence and drug and alcohol abuse. It reminded me of James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss, only without the mystery element, unless you consider wondering if Patterson and/or Junior are going to OD in it.
There are two threads in this book that periodically intersect. Patterson works as much as he can and drinks and drugs away the time he has left, trying to forget his dead son, all the while trying to avoid his ex-wife, who wants Patterson to take part in a malpractice lawsuit against the doctor who treated her son. Junior runs drugs all over the southwest and has some a young daughter living with his girlfriend. He also hates his father with a cold passion and blames him for all the problems of the world.
There's more drunken misadventures in this book than there is action but the action is brutal when it happens. If I learned one thing from this book, it's don't turn your back on a tweaker. Patterson went through so much alcohol and cocaine in this book that I felt a little nauseous and hungover while reading it. As Patterson's substance abuse gets worse and he hangs out with Junior more, things gradually come completely unglued.
Whitmer's writing is masterful. The letters Patterson writes to his dead son are touching and make the harsh, unblinking depictions of violence and drug abuse that much more powerful. The quality of the writing, coupled with the trainwreck appeal of Patterson and Junior had me reading long into the night to finish it.
That's about all I want to say. Unless you only read shitty books, Cry Father should not be missed. Five out of five stars.
Kids, don't do drugs!
sandin954's review against another edition
5.0
Very impressively written with a spare but powerful style this was a dark, grittily realistic, and violent (though not gratuitously) look at life, choices, and loss.
t_d_brooking's review against another edition
5.0
Cry Father is on my lifetime Top 100 novels. Ben Whitmer's story of loss and generational violence opens with rapid fire in a landscape carved from the dregs. Every one of the hardcore men and badass women who try to save them from themselves are complex and interesting. Respites come, in the form of epistolaries, just in time to catch your breath before you have to go back in for another whipping. Since I read the last word, I've pined for Ben's characters and think of them often. Part of me never wants to meet them in real life; the other part of me wants to drink a beer with them in a shitty border bar.
sjj169's review against another edition
4.0
This type of book is quickly becoming one of my favorite "genres" to read. Dark, gritty fiction that will either make you think twice about your fellow man or stick your head in that oven. I have an electric oven so that rules that out for me. So I'm just gonna keep on reading em.
This book starts with Patterson going over to a friend's house to go fishing. When he goes to the bathroom he realizes that his good buddy Chase has his wife "hog-tied" in the bathroom. Well, she did piss him off. Patterson steps up and unties and frees said wife...and our story begins.
This book touches on fathers and sons. You have Henry-off the grid type fellow who is estranged from his son Junior. Junior is a tweaker of the degree to which I have no clue how this fucker even speaks or manages to get out of bed. He does that much cocaine and drinking.
Then you have Patterson. He lost his son to death at a early age and releases some of that grief by writing letters to his son.
Once Patterson meets up with Junior I liked him less than I thought I would. Something about that poor guy though kept me turning the pages. My copy of this book was majorly jacked up. Spaces between words and weird symbols for the "th" words. I kept reading it though because it was just that good.
Sometimes I think Henry and Brother Joe have it exactly backward. The question isn't how to live off the grid, it's how to remain tied to it. Most of what you think is your life can be ruptured in an instant. If you don't believe me, ask any prison inmate. Maybe the real question isn't how to make the world forget you, maybe it's how to make it recognize you. Even your parenthood, your right to your own children, can be stripped from you at the whim of a bureaucrat.
Drugs don't pay.
I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book starts with Patterson going over to a friend's house to go fishing. When he goes to the bathroom he realizes that his good buddy Chase has his wife "hog-tied" in the bathroom. Well, she did piss him off. Patterson steps up and unties and frees said wife...and our story begins.
This book touches on fathers and sons. You have Henry-off the grid type fellow who is estranged from his son Junior. Junior is a tweaker of the degree to which I have no clue how this fucker even speaks or manages to get out of bed. He does that much cocaine and drinking.
Then you have Patterson. He lost his son to death at a early age and releases some of that grief by writing letters to his son.
Once Patterson meets up with Junior I liked him less than I thought I would. Something about that poor guy though kept me turning the pages. My copy of this book was majorly jacked up. Spaces between words and weird symbols for the "th" words. I kept reading it though because it was just that good.
Sometimes I think Henry and Brother Joe have it exactly backward. The question isn't how to live off the grid, it's how to remain tied to it. Most of what you think is your life can be ruptured in an instant. If you don't believe me, ask any prison inmate. Maybe the real question isn't how to make the world forget you, maybe it's how to make it recognize you. Even your parenthood, your right to your own children, can be stripped from you at the whim of a bureaucrat.
Drugs don't pay.
I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
screamdogreads's review against another edition
4.0
Cry Father is a story of fathers and sons. It's also a story of brutal and unflinching violence fueled by substance abuse. This book sits more towards the extreme end of grit-lit, it's full of bloodshed, bleak situations, death and casual racism. While this makes it a book that won't be for everyone, it's certainly a worthwhile read if you like reading about messed up people doing messed up things.
Whitmer's writing is stunning here. There are these moments of quietness, of actual loveliness, where our main character writes letters to his dead son. These parts break up the unapologetic violence, making those scenes even more powerful. There's a certain... Something about a book like this. It's a special experience, it's a painful, gut-wrenching feeling that makes your heart sink every time you pick it up.
"We're all everything we've lost. Just as my fuckups as a father came, in part, from losses before you. Nothing ends, nothing heals."
Whitmer's writing is stunning here. There are these moments of quietness, of actual loveliness, where our main character writes letters to his dead son. These parts break up the unapologetic violence, making those scenes even more powerful. There's a certain... Something about a book like this. It's a special experience, it's a painful, gut-wrenching feeling that makes your heart sink every time you pick it up.
"We're all everything we've lost. Just as my fuckups as a father came, in part, from losses before you. Nothing ends, nothing heals."
alexcarbonneau's review against another edition
4.0
First of all, this novel ain't for the faint of heart. It is pure grit, violence, and anti every clichés you can think of.
The author made damn sure to strip his novel bare of any polished stuff, pre-chewed setups and threw every Big5 publisher molds in a pit, spit on 'em and set fire to the whole damn thing.
Let me be crystal clear. Benjamin Whitmer writes to another level of grit. There's grit, and there's Ben-Whitmer-Grit, with a freaking huge Capital G.
I first heard of Whitmer with an essay he wrote that David Joy shared on social media. An essay about unlikable/unlovable characters. Cry father helped me put some meat on the whole concept. It also helps the belief that I have that not anyone can write Grit like Whitmer and Joy do. You can spot a fake wannabe a thousand miles from here, someone who just wants to add fucks and meth and damn and coke and whiskey to his/her word count and therefore creates a very cliché canvas. Ben Whitmer sure ain't one of those. To paraphrase a review I read about another book recently, he belongs at a table where few gets to sit. Cormac, Woodrell, Joy, Ron Rash, William Gay, Pollock and Larry Brown.
Will wait impatiently for the next one, and in the meantime, Pike is at arm length.
The author made damn sure to strip his novel bare of any polished stuff, pre-chewed setups and threw every Big5 publisher molds in a pit, spit on 'em and set fire to the whole damn thing.
Let me be crystal clear. Benjamin Whitmer writes to another level of grit. There's grit, and there's Ben-Whitmer-Grit, with a freaking huge Capital G.
I first heard of Whitmer with an essay he wrote that David Joy shared on social media. An essay about unlikable/unlovable characters. Cry father helped me put some meat on the whole concept. It also helps the belief that I have that not anyone can write Grit like Whitmer and Joy do. You can spot a fake wannabe a thousand miles from here, someone who just wants to add fucks and meth and damn and coke and whiskey to his/her word count and therefore creates a very cliché canvas. Ben Whitmer sure ain't one of those. To paraphrase a review I read about another book recently, he belongs at a table where few gets to sit. Cormac, Woodrell, Joy, Ron Rash, William Gay, Pollock and Larry Brown.
Will wait impatiently for the next one, and in the meantime, Pike is at arm length.
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