In 2026, the denizens of West Florida—10 counties, 180 miles of coast and pineland—are restless. A measure has been introduced in the state legislature to let the region break out from greater Florida, and it will almost certainly lead to warfare. The West Floridians’ goal is a white Christian theocracy ruled by talk-radio host Troy Yarbrough and his uber-religious spouse. Then there’s “the Governor” (just as extreme as Troy and with an arm made of metal); she’s set against Troy, who brainwashed relatives of hers into massacring her family. The Governor’s orphaned young cousin Rally lives with his uncle Rodney, a gunfighter who earns a living fighting state-approved duels; Rally has a girlfriend who drives an ATV and shoots whoever get in her way. Nobody talks to anybody else in this world; guns are simpler. Wascom’s (
The Blood of Heaven) newest isn’t so much a cohesive story as a maniac ramble through a nightmare landscape—Southern grit lit, inspired by Jonathan Swift out of Harry Crews and Flannery O’Connor.
VERDICT This novel won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s savage, funny, and, in these fractious days, doesn’t seem as exaggerated as it might have only 20 years earlier.
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