I bought 4 used novels for a total of $6 last month while I was buying a used bookshelf to hold more trade paperbacks. There was no book jacket for this one, so I didn't know what to expect, but hoped for a "Most Dangerous Game" type thriller.
This is absolutely not that. Set in the 1930s along the Gulf Coast, it's about Ned Ingles, who returns to the family plantation after years teaching at college in New Orleans. Ned tries to pick up life in the country as though he never left, including reestablishing a relationship with Laurence, the illegitimate, mixed-race son he's abandoned for the boy's entire life.
That goes poorly, as Laurence unsurprisingly has little time or interest in his father, or in Ned's plans for Laurence to inherit the farm. Although few of Ned's plans really go as he expects, which seems to be in no small part due to him. He's massively self-centered, but with a martyr complex. So that he sacrifices so much for Laurence's sake - without bothering to ask Laurence if he wants what Ned's offering - but has to make sure everyone knows about it.
He'll bring an old flame to stay in his house because she is sure she can talk Laurence out of entering the church, and yes, he'll marry her daughter that's Laurence's age (so 30 years Ned's junior), but he'll make certain everyone knows what a sacrifice it is. When he's not black-out drunk, that is. Morgan will use this approach of having Ned declare he's done drinking, or that he's going to do something, then have a chapter break and pick up an indeterminate time later. Whereupon we learn Ned hasn't stopped drinking, or hasn't done whatever he said he would.
Ned certainly seems, even early in the book, like he wants to die. His focus on preparing Laurence to run the farm and his frequent reveries about his parents or his childhood. He visits the family cemetery often, and muses how unfortunate it is that he shows no signs of age or infirmity as he nears 50. The book mentions a few times that Ned served in World War I, that there was a point he had orders to transfer to a frontline infantry unit, but the only two officers that knew died in an artillery barrage. Ned destroyed the orders and stayed in the rear. He never outright expresses guilt, but it seems like that moment where he ran from duty hangs over him. Or maybe that's his essential character. Claims to be handling everything, but really he falls apart and leaves it to others to take care of.
The problem with the book remaining fixated on Ned, it presents such a limited view of everything, because he's so wrapped up in himself. We never get Laurence's thoughts on his father or his own life, except through Anna describing her conversations with him to Ned, and those are likely extremely edited. But Ned's a very tiring character to deal with. I kept waiting for him to either pull out of the tailspin or hurry up and off himself so Morgan could focus on someone else.
'Annabella changed her position, moving towards him slightly, and then crossed her legs. "Do you know why that is?" she inquired tentatively.
"Why what is? I don't want to know; knowing doesn't help. If I were you, young lady, I wouldn't be too free with my questions or advice. I like a lot of space around my head."'
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