Book Review : Joe Clifford – Lamentation (2014)

Pre-Order LAMENTATION here

(also reviewed)
Order CHOICE CUTS here
Order WAKE THE UNDERTAKER here

According to the paper, drug use had become ”a blight and a sourge on the community.” That may’ve been an hyperbole, but it didn’t take much to put the fear of God into God-fearing people.

It’s often difficult for me to review novels that I really love, because it’s hard to explain why a certain novel is fantastic while another one is just enjoyable. Sometimes, the difference is entirely emotional. Sometimes it’s the smallest details that make a novel hit the right wavelength. Joe Clifford‘s upcoming novel LAMENTATION is a great book. Not an above-average crime drama, not a tightly-plotted mystery, it’s a great novel in the literary sense of the word. A novel that pushed my buttons and kept me viscerally involved. Joe Clifford‘s name is going to be on everybody’s lips after the release of LAMENTATION, on October 7. Get on the bandwagon while it’s still cool.

Normal life is a challenge to Jay Porter. It’s been that way since his parents died in a car accident, back when he was a child. His older brother Chris developed a powerful drug habit and their relationship has pretty much dictated Jay’s life since then. It sabotaged his relationship to Jenny, the mother of his child, and affected his capacity and desire to get a decent job. Chris is a regular of local sheriff Pat Sumner‘s holding cells, but when he gets picked up for interrogation in the disappearance case of his junkie business partner, everybody’s life gets a little more complicated. Torn between his desire to move on and his deeply rooted love for his brother, Jay will take one last swan dive into his brother’s problem, hoping to clear his family’s name.

I read a lot of crime novels. One recurring issue that always bugs me is that it always portrays the same crummy bars, cheap motel rooms and war torn urban landscapes. I’ve got this theory that the recurring settings breed the same character over and over again. One of the aspects where LAMENTATION hits a home run is the striking originality and the lifelike realism of its setting. 

I was probably better disposed than some others to enjoy the setting of LAMENTATION because I come from similar town than Ashton, New Hampshire: an isolated, bucolic mountain town with a lingering sense of pride. The level of detail Joe Clifford puts into describing the timeless atmosphere of small towns and the all-consuming winter is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The powerful setting of LAMENTATION helps shaping characters who are devoured by a unique melancholy that will ring true to any reader.

”Sure, sometimes we have a look around. What’s the big deal? They’re throwing things away. What are you getting so pissed off for?”

”Because people are trusting you to do a job. I know that word doesn’t mean anything to you. But it’s how the rest of the world operates. And you are taking advantage of them. Identity theft? That’s what you’re into these days, Chris?”

You’d have to be an idiot to drop off your computer to my brother and his junkie pals.

If I had to compare LAMENTATION to an existing novel, I would not hesitate and compare it to Dennis Lehane‘s MYSTIC RIVER. It’s not a copycat novel or anything like that, but Joe Clifford, like Lehane, is not afraid to slow down the tempo and build atmosphere using details and a character’s inner life to paint what seems to be a rather straightforward mystery into a powerful and original portrait. Clifford takes this objective, borderline banal headline of a junkie’s disappearance and transforms it into a gut wrenching saga of two brothers using Jay Porter‘s soulful and melancholic voice. That’s how the alchemy of great fiction operates: an objective issue seen through the eyes of a fascinating character. Not only Joe Clifford understand and applies this principle in LAMENTATION, but he also illustrates its power clearly.

Every time I review a fantastic novel, it’s the same story: I feel like I’ve failed to explain how good it really is, because there is something about literary greatness that transcends words. Let me tell you what I think is going to happen upon the release of LAMENTATION, then: it’s going to get amazing reviews, national publications are going to show interest, it’s going to sell an obscene amount of copies, maybe become a movie and turn Joe Clifford into a rock star. That’s how good I think the novel is and that’s how high I am on Joe Clifford‘s skills after reading LAMENTATION. I’m a good audience in general, but I don’t go bonkers over a novel that often. It’s a remarkable book. You should hit the pre-order button without thinking twice. You can thank me later.

BADASS

Interview : Joe Clifford

Visit Joe Clifford’s website
Read my review of CHOICE CUTS
Read my review of WAKE THE UNDERTAKER

Hey everyone!

It’s Joe Clifford Week! What is that supposed to mean? It means that all my book review slots for this week are celebrating the same guy! It’s not something I had thoroughly planned out, but it happened and Joe was nice enough, like Tom Pitts, to stop by and do this flash interview thing I’m doing. 

Joe might not be an household name right now, but when his novel LAMENTATION is going to hit the shelves next October, the literary world is going to go crazy for him, so hop on the bandwagon while it’s still cool to do so.

Walk us through your ”I gotta do this” moment, where you sat down and wrote fiction for the first time. 

I’m not sure I have such a moment. I knew very early on that I had to be an … artist. Writing, like music or painting, is an extension of that need to create. Which sounds a little hokey, I know. Need. But I don’t know how else to explain it. There exists, in certain brain-addled, disturbed individuals, this compulsion to take in, interpret, spit back out, make sense of this human condition. Which also sounds a little pretentious. But, fuck, how else do you explain cave drawings or Justin Beiber?

What piece of your own writing are you the most proud of, why is that so and where can we find it?

Y’know, I’ve recorded a couple records, painted a bunch, written several books and stories. Fuck, I made a kid. I mean, my wife helped. But I don’t know if I’ll ever produce something I am more proud of than JUNKIE LOVE. The circumstances alone that went into making that book, which started long before the writing part. I am extremely blessed in my life right now. I am not exactly a “happy” man. But this is the happiest I have ever been. So much so that I can forget just how shitty things were. Not in terms of circumstances, at least not growing up. I had a bastard father, but who doesn’t? I lived in quaint suburbia. But my head was a goddamn mess. And that was way before the drug stuff. JUNKIE LOVE is that literal journey, that path, that connection to finding my place in this world. That was my number #1 goal since forever: find my place in the world. And I found it. (I think.) And that book shares the story how I got there.

What was the single best writing advice you were ever given? What was the worst?

Best: If you are good enough, and keep at it, your work will get out there.

Worst: write just for you.

On that second one, it pisses me off. That advice is such an empty platitude. I’ve seen more would-be writers succumb and fall because they believe it. You write for you and an audience. It’s a give and take, and if your work isn’t being received the way you want, you need to look at reasons why, rather than dig in your heels and “just write for you.” Capitulation and compromise, just like the rest of fucking life, is required. You don’t get to just force your will on the world. Same with writing. 

Who are the five authors you would recommend to someone who wants to familiarize himself with what you do?

Hilary Davidson, Jerry Stahl, Jack Kerouac, Gillian Flynn, Jim Thompson

Hardboiled, Crime, Noir, Gun Porn, Fairies, Whatever. Should genre label matter? Yes or no and why is that so?

It’d be nice to say no here. And in a sense, that’s true. Like Keith Richards said when they asked if he played lead or rhythm guitar. “No, man, it ain’t like that,” he said. “I play guitar.” Except … we, as readers, have expectations. This goes way back, Joseph Campbell’s Hero shit. Hard-wired, lizard brain stories. Genre is a way to fulfill those expectations. I loved my novel WAKE THE UNDERTAKER. But not everyone did, and I’ve come to realize one of the reasons it had the troubles it did is because it violates these precepts. It was the first novel I wrote, and I took all this shit I love—comic books, pulp, SIN CITY, the 1940s, San Francisco, Raymond Chandler, gangsters, ROCKY—and just figured I’d jam those influences in a book. Doesn’t quite work that way. Genre is a set of rules to play by. Yes, rules are meant to be broken. But you pick and choose which ones to break, and when to break them, and if you break too many you have a literary anarchy. Which also can work. (See: Kathy Acker.) BUT know that doing so also makes your job as a writer a lot tougher. There exists a natural reaction on the part of the reader to say, “Whoa!” And I’m talking most readers, most of the time. There are some who like weird for weird sake. But not enough to sustain a career.

What are going currently working on and what can we expect from you in the next year or so?

I will have two novels written this year. I’ve just finished the draft to the first. It’s called OCCAM’S RAZOR, about a former top-flight NFL prospect turned security director who gets lured back his hometown of Miami to investigate a possible wrongful conviction of a longtime family friend. I think it’s the best thing I’ve written. But I think you always feel that way when you finish a book. Otherwise why are you writing? The year’s second book will be the sequel to LAMENTATION. My publisher (Oceanview) has asked to see another installment (publishers do love series!). I was a little leery about writing a sequel to a book that hasn’t been released yet. I did that with WAKE THE UNDERTAKER, and I think it’s better to see if the demand is there. But I have a plot I like, and I love the character of Jay Porter, the protagonist in LAMENTATION. Most importantly, I see room for him to grow, an arc, etc. I mean, there is more of his story still to tell.

Book Review : Joe Clifford – Wake the Undertaker (2013)

Order WAKE THE UNDERTAKER here

(also reviewed)

Order CHOICE CUTS here

”You’re built like a brick house now. What are you doing, lifting trucks for a living?”

”I was in prison.”

That killed the mood.

I’m sure you’ve had this awkward discussion before, ending with a friend earnestly telling you to watch SIN CITY, that it was the best film noir they’d ever seen. It happened to me several times, with different people. I liked SIN CITY all right, but it was a rather classic hardboiled tale featuring the usual suspects: a femme fatale, a rugged outsider, crooked cops, a conspiracy that unermines an entire city, etc. I liked it, but if you read enough hardboiled fiction, you’re going to read that story over and over again. I’ve always liked the classic hardboiled setting, but I take it in limited doses nowadays. Joe Clifford‘s novel WAKE THE UNDERTAKER was a breath of fresh air in that regard since it mixes classic hardboiled and contemporary themes to create something original. It’s bound to become the missing link between that guy who loved SIN CITY and you. 

Colin Specter once was an up-and-coming singer, bound to bust through Bay City’s scene and into international success. But when Colin falls in love with Zoey, Gabriel Christos, who runs the club he performs at, orders that Colin is dealt with. So Colin is disfigured, has his vocal cords mutilated and takes the fall for a drug bust. Seven years later, he’s become a mountain of muscle and is release from prison into a very different Bay City. Gabriel’s old man, once the head of Bay City’s mob has branched into legitimate business and announced that he’s running for mayor. With his back against the wall, Gabriel turns to Colin for help, but Colin has another agenda in mind: finding Zoey and figuring out what the hell happened during these seven years.

The first name I was remembered when reading WAKE THE UNDERTAKER was James Ellroy. Joe Clifford is not trying to ape Ellroy’s trademark telegraphic style, but his novel crackles with the same dynamic energy than the L.A Quartet. There is also a larger-than-life, deliberately overdrawn aspect to WAKE THE UNDERTAKER that will remind you of comic books. There were these late night cartoons in cable television, back when I was a teenager, that featured the same kind of fearless and energetic approach to displaying a violent underworld. I don’t remember the title of these, but WAKE THE UNDERTAKER triggered the fond memories I have of them. It’s a novel deliberately painted with broad strokes, which is fine because it’s not trying to be sophisticated.

I remembered seeing bums when I was a kid, but nothing like this. Maybe I’d been blind or delusional, the way the mind edits out the unpleasantness as you get older, recalling only novel politicians and honest cops, days when your dad was the srongest man in the world, but it seemed like the divide between the haves and the have-nots grew wider by the day in this town.

So, what does make WAKE THE UNDERTAKER original when it’s built with variables that are borderline cliché? Joe Clifford established a distance from other similar novels by mixing these classic, boderline themes with contemporary ones. WAKE THE UNDERTAKER is a classic hardboiled novel with a contemporary point of view. The character are iconic and easily recognizable and relatable, yet the relationship between them are way more complicated than the boring crooked-cops-and-romantic-robbers dynamic that you usually find in classic hardboiled. Zoey, for example, stands in for the femme fatale, but she’s way more complex than that. She’s that beautiful, selfless woman who had to make difficult choices and turn her back to people she loved and her choices defined the lives of several characters around them.

WAKE THE UNDERTAKER is a gateway novel into the world of hardboiled fiction. It’s accessible, straightfroward and it has a strong, visual style. It was a refreshing experience for me to fall in love again with that underworld that dragged me down the rabbit hole several years ago. The Bay City of WAKE THE UNDERTAKER is a timeless place in our collective consciousness, not unlike the mid-century Los Angeles of James Ellroy, except it’s not bound by the shackles of reality. It’s not an emotional experience, but it’s not a novel that’s trying to be. WAKE THE UNDERTAKER is meant to be enjoyed as a quirky love-letter to classic hardboiled and as another trip to that underworld/netherworld of the lost souls we’ve been fascinated by for a century. Whether you’re feeling nostalgic or you’re trying to turn someone to the dark side of fiction, WAKE THE UNDERTAKER is the novel you need. 

Trouble in the Heartland

Uh oh! Look at this baby!

Crime fiction stories inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen, by the likes of Hilary Davidson, Peter Farris, Chris F. Holm, Chuck Wendig, Les Edgerton, Todd Robinson, James R. Tuck and….and…Dennis freakin’ Lehane ! The reason why I’m deliriously happy about this isn’t that one of my literary heroes has a story in this…at least, not completely. See, I ALSO HAVE A STORY IN THIS COLLECTION! That’s right, I am sharing the pages with the very man who inspired me to start writing, all these years ago. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is fucking cool! I’m not sure exactly when the collection is coming out, but keep an eye on editor Joe Clifford’s blog for more info. Thanks to Zelmer Pulp‘s head honcho Ryan Sayles for inviting me to pitch in!