fiction

Twelve Trees – Opposing Views

J.D. Carpenter’s first literary fiction novel Twelve Trees has been receiving positive and even glowing reviews so it was with dismay that I read Margaret Cannon’s lukewarm review in which she writes that

“[Priam] Harvey, unemployed, bar habitué, gambler and storyteller is a terrific character. He can carry a novel on his own but this one, alas, defeats him. The problem is that this isn’t really the kind of well-organized mystery that Carpenter writes for Campbell Young. This is a stream-of-consciousness, man-discovering-himself-in-others novel that excellent crime authors often write believing they must write a “literary” work … It’s not bad. Carpenter is too talented for that. It’s just another novel on an overworked theme.”

After reading the review again, more slowly, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a case of ‘you get what you expect’. If you’re expecting a mystery – don’t look here. Bruce Grossman of bookgasm.com put it best when he wrote “if you’re expecting some glorious bank robbery or shootout, go elsewhere. It’s really about a man reflecting on his life as he tries to win a few bucks to last the day and pay back his lady friend from whom he ‘borrowed some money’.” So if you’re looking for a well-written, engaging, character driven novel then Twelve Trees is for you. And if you enjoyed the Priam Harvey character in Carpenter’s previous novels 74 Miles and Bright’s Kill then Twelve Trees is definitely for you. And there are plenty of critics who feel that Twelve Trees is worth your reading time, here are a few of them:

“Priam, a figure right out of a Damon Runyon story, has seen 70,000 horse races in his life, so many ‘that I can tell when a horse in the middle of the pack is starting to lag by the way his head begins to bob or his tail begins to swish’ … J.D. Carpenter has written a novel filled with hard-boiled prose combined with the lore of horse racing. Charging out of the gate like a ’seven-furlong’ race for three year olds, Twelve Trees races along to a satisfying conclusion. The tale of one man’s coming to terms with his life, it is best read with a pint of Creemore and two fingers of Bushmills.” – Andrew Armitage, The Owen Sound Sun Times

“Carpenter does a nice job of keeping the narrative light and snappy, easily drawing the reader into Harvey’s world with its cast of crazy barflies and down-and-outers. As a whole … his portrait of one man’s struggle to square his disillusionment and addictions with his ethics is impressively done.” – Gavin Babstock, Quill and Quire

And hot off today’s blog presses comes bookgasm.com’s review in which reviewer Bruce Grossman writes:

“… it will suck the reader in as though you are hanging out with Harvey as his day progresses … With Carpenter’s depictions, you get the sense that you are there, witnessing the goings-on yourself, never feeling like an outsider looking in. All the characters are three-dimensional, rather than just some cutouts used to dress up the atmosphere … This novel will probably slip though the cracks of most readers, but it shouldn’t since Carpenter has created the gambler’s equivalent to other books of reminiscing men. One hopes that Harvey will actually go through what he plans on doing at the end of this fascinating look at lives that normally don’t get their say in literature of this type.” – Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm.com

So what do you think readers? Weigh in on this debate by posting your reviews of Twelve Trees at definingcanada.ca/tell-your-story. I look forward to reading what you have to say.

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