I am very pleased to announce the release of my second novel, "Blood Rust Chains." It is available on Amazon in both eBook and Paperback editions.
No writer is an island unto himself, nor is any novel. As with my first novel, I have been fortunate enough to receive a great deal of help during the writing process. I am honoured and grateful to have had the support of my Beta-Reader Dark Army. Bless them every one!
Elena
Deem, PhD, is one of the people I am most indebted to. She most graciously agreed to review an advance copy of my novel, and provided invaluable insight and comments. I wish to publicly thank her for taking the time to read and review my work. Ms Deem received an ARC of the novel prior to publication.
Elena Deem has earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington in 2008. She works as a freelance literary and art critic.
Blood Rust Chains by Marco Etheridge
Review by Elena
Deem, PhD
Blood Rust Chains, Etheridge’s second book, is an
inconspicuously powerful account of a struggle for inner peace in situations of
conflict and loss of control. As its main character, Quinn, sweeps through the
streets of Portland and faces his nemesis, the novella unfolds to deliver a
strong, yet subtly forged message of redemption through self-reflection and honest
ownership of one’s mistakes.
Revenge and redemption,
inherent particularly to popular US fiction, are here reworked with a near
Zen-Buddhist take that lifts the narrative out of recognizable genres, and deconstructs
the possibility of a predictable ending. This makes for an exciting read that
is simultaneously soothing and jagging as the author explores a range of
popular genres (pop heroic fiction, detective story, love story), but skillfully
pulls the rug from under the reader at the very moment she expects a familiar
denouement.
Etheridge is a
keen observer of all levels of social interactions, and a skilled writer who
knows how to seamlessly join form with content to orchestrate authentic
experience that also somehow stretches the boundaries of a relevant genre. He
smoothly moves from one scene of social interaction to another, and from one
genre to the next, citing historical accounts as well as WhatsApp messages. The
story is brought to socially diverse yet quotidian contexts, digging deep into
situations whose significance is never entirely predictable, and which force
Quinn to see his own predisposition to conflict and violence.
At first, Quinn seems
like an ordinary, freelance journalist. But Quinn has something street-and-working-class
about him, and shows undue restraint when forced into a conflict. Yet, after his
journalistic interest in the recent “genealogy craze” brings about an
unexpected confrontation with the violent past of his own family, Quinn
responds, which unleashes the ghosts from his own past.
Killing and
death loom close once Quinn allows the Wild West family stories get under his
skin, and he starts musing over the apparent differences between murder
committed in revenge and in self-defense. In spite of himself, Quinn reacts to
his belligerent neighbor, whose mission in life it is to provoke conflict. When
the neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Quinn becomes the main
suspect.
Confrontation
and conflict, both literal and metaphoric, and their ethical ramifications,
forge the central stage for the story. Unwillingly, Quinn is thrown into the
ring to fight for his dignity and serenity through a series of precarious
rounds of confrontation with different characters (the neighbor, police
detectives, a mobster), that gradually increase in intensity. As in all good
stories, the fight ultimately proves to be a matter of the character’s mind,
rather than an act of physical violence unleashed onto the other (though Quinn does
have a slip in the end); of taming the beast within with principle, courage,
self-reflection, and guidance.
Blood Rust Chains
foregrounds the premise
that if there is anything like control over external situations, it is a matter
of trained self-reflection; change can only happen from within. When Quinn
loses his self-reflective defenses and slips, he immediately finds himself in a
situation of immanent danger. This, of course, is a storyline well-known from
the AA, and indeed, it turns out that Quinn is in a long-term recovery.
Underpinning Quinn’s current situation is therefore another narrative that
seems simpler and more solid: that of working the program. Etheridge’s writing
is inherently clear-eyed; at times caustic and at others compassionate, he nevertheless
presents a structure that ultimately disallows Quinn to be anything but
brutally honest with himself.
Interestingly,
this narrative setup causes that nearly all the characters in the novella, and
Quinn’s interactions with them, serve as what might be called “Quinn’s truth
posts.” Forefronted by Quinn’s partner—a lawyer whose ability to thoroughly
examine and confront any gray areas in Quinn’ s honesty department is much
needed—they help Quinn navigate and grow through his terrifying situation.
In the course, Quinn
is forced to answer key questions that address the mechanisms of his perception
of reality, and acknowledge his own responsibility to constantly check the
truth of his states of being. After all, reality in the novella may be just
that: whereas the exterior circumstances are beyond Quinn’s control, Quinn’s
internal setup can be known—and so modified—by his acute awareness of his
motives and triggers. This, in turn, may affect Quinn’s responses; a change in
the usual behavioral pattern might prompt a minuscule shift in the direction of
the unfolding events, which may be enough for Quinn to survive.
Blood Rust Chains is truly a story of a personal quest for
redemption and inner peace, for removing what might be the “chains” of
misperception and dishonesty that tie Quinn to his past. As the process
concludes, Quinn feels that while this freedom might be temporary, the
mechanisms of self-confrontation he has learnt are not. He is “ready for what
comes. And if he felt those chains again, the chains of fear and anger, he
would be ready for them as well.”
