This is storytelling as anxiety dream, a bruising conflagration where best-laid plans meet worst-case scenarios again and again. Thankfully, it’s also a great, galloping read, pointed and provocative; the kind of book you might call a good bad time ... Dimechkie, a nimble social satirist and crack observer of the masks that people wear, is cutting but not unkind to his polyglot cast of characters ... The culmination comes in the final pages of the novel, which introduce a neat, startling twist, though its sleight of hand also bears the sticky fingerprints of authorial intent.
There is so much stress and discomfort in this book, which is also its strength, making the reader complicit in assumptions before blowing them out of the water. It would make a great book discussion book.
Tense ... Dimechkie’s morality tale asks tough questions about the role of self-interest in conflicts fueled by class and race divisions. It’s sure to start conversations.
