A Savage Wisdom [Kindle Edition]

Norman German (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Norman German’s novel follows the hard life and heinous crimes of Toni Jo Henry, the only woman to die in Louisiana's infamous portable electric chair, "Little Sizzler." The novel meets this bone-chilling story head-on, and it leaves the reader burning with the heartless brutality of the tale. Read A Savage Wisdom to see the darkness and comprehend its cold light. Dayne Sherman, author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise

Here is a powerful, page-turning account of crime and punishment, told in terms of the literary tradition of true crime stories that includes Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. Norman German has created a worthy companion to and version of this all-American genre. George Garrett, novelist and poet laureate of Virginia

Product Description

An imaginative reconstruction of the life of the only woman executed in Louisiana's electric chair.

A work of alternative history, A Savage Wisdom changes the story of Toni Jo Henry into a redemptive parable—a study in deception and personality transformation.

The novel also dramatizes rumors surrounding the young beauty’s deathrow dalliance with a handsome young sheriff.

In this treatment, Toni Jo escapes the Great Depression and moves toward a world full of promise, only to be dragged into the alluring but dangerous underworld of New Orleans.

These maneuvers place the novel in company with In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s book that launched the genre of “faction,” fiction based on fact.




"Here is a powerful, page-turning account of crime and punishment, told in terms of the literary tradition of true crime stories that includes Capote’s In Cold Blood and Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. Norman German has created a worthy companion to and version of this all-American genre." George Garrett, novelist and poet laureate of Virginia

"Norman German’s novel follows the hard life and heinous crimes of Toni Jo Henry, the first and only woman to die in Louisiana’s infamous electric chair. The novel meets this bone-chilling story head-on, and it leaves the reader burning with the heartless brutality of the tale. Read A Savage Wisdom to see the darkness and comprehend its cold light." Dayne Sherman, author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 484 KB
• Publisher: Norman German (April 30, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0028AD3C2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Dr. Norman German is an English professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he is the fiction editor of Louisiana Literature. His short stories about fishing, track and field, and baseball appear in literary and commercial magazines, including Shenandoah, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Sport Fishing, Gray's Sporting Journal, and Salt Water Sportsman, which also published his essay "Rehabilitating Hemingway."

Norman is married to artist Raejean Clark. They live on the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with their dog, The Pupster (see photos). In the first photo, Norman sits on a cypress stump that washed over their fence during the 7-foot storm surge of Hurricane Ike. Now, he no longer gets writer's block; he gets stumped!

Norman has three award-winning novels and is [no longer!] seeking a publisher for his baseball novel Switch-Pitchers, in which Hemingway smuggles twin Cuban pitchers to the United States for a shot at major-league fame. The novel's first chapter was published in Elysian Fields Quarterly as a short story titled "The Havana Home Run." BlueWater Press published the novel in February 2010; it has reached #26 in the Sports category on Amazon.com.

Norman's novel A Savage Wisdom, based on the life of the only woman executed in Louisiana's electric chair (for a 1940 Valentine's Day murder), has reached #5 in the competitive Amazon.com category "Murder & Mayhem."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Fiction!, November 24, 2009

By 

Jeanette (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Savage Wisdom (Kindle Edition)

A riveting read, full of evocative imagery and shocking secrets. Fine pacing and narrative flow make this one hard to put down.

I loved the liberal use of historical details throughout the story. I was especially captivated by the depiction of 1930s New Orleans. The architecture, food, music, dance, clothing, slang, and street people of the era are all brought to life. And the seamier side of the city is there as well, with the burlesque shows and illegal doings and well-known shady characters. Delicious!

A Savage Wisdom is an imaginative reconstruction of the legend of Toni Jo Henry. She murdered a man on Valentine's Day 1940, and was executed in 1942 in Louisiana's traveling electric chair known as "Little Sizzler".

The book begins with the murder. Toni Jo shoots "Harold Nevers" in a Louisiana rice field. Then the story goes back in time to 1938, and the events that led to the crime.

In 1938, Toni Jo Henry is a bored small-town waitress. Harold Nevers is a predatory charmer with an eye for beautiful women and a nose for exploitable weaknesses. Before long he sweeps Toni Jo off to New Orleans with promises of adventure and unimaginable fortunes. Things start off well enough. Harold shows her a New Orleans-style good time, and she works hard in his new restaurant. She enjoys the excitement and novelty of her new life and is hopelessly in love with Harold. As the months go by, however, Toni Jo's dream life begins to crumble.

Harold gradually, sneakily starts making her over into the sort of lady he wants her to be. Playing on her eagerness to please him, he begins with small demands, changing her name to "Annie Beatrice" and asking her to alter her appearance. As time goes on, he begins using "Annie" in increasingly demeaning ways, often without her knowledge. He makes use of everything he knows about her to break her down and transform her into his commodity. She is addicted to Harold, but she mistakes that addiction for love, with tragic consequences.
The characterization of Harold Nevers is one of the great strengths of the book. He's a convincing liar and a professional manipulator. He uses a combination of badgering, withholding, and salesmanship to keep Toni Jo under his control and convince her that she really wants to fulfill his humiliating plans for her.

Eventually, Toni Jo escapes Harold's clutches and begins a new life. But she unexpectedly encounters him many months later, and commits the murder for which she becomes notorious. When the murder is recounted at this point, it looks completely different than it did at the start of the book. Toni Jo's rage now seems justified, and her temporary loss of control is understandable.

During her murder trials and jail time, it becomes clear that Toni Jo Henry has learned a thing or two from Harold Nevers about lies and manipulation. She has become a hardened woman, out to serve only her own needs. She has a date with death and nothing left to lose. Even after she's long dead, there are reverberations and shattering revelations for those left behind.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Savage Wisdom, August 7, 2009

By 

Phyliss Bounds (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Savage Wisdom (Kindle Edition)

This is one of those "cant-wait-to-turn-the-page", even take it to the bathroom with you kind of books. The author painted the characters on a canvas that prompts one to examine and ponder all the details and then take another look and question what part of each character could be extracted from your own personality under any given circumstance. It prompts one to look at human nature in its raw and exposed state and find that propinquity that one dares owning up to. A Savage Wisdom

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put this one down, not even to eat!, August 7, 2009

By 

Iva Grimes - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Savage Wisdom (Kindle Edition)

From the moment a hitchhiker accepts a ride from a man and his sleeping wife on a February evening in 1940 until a young woman accepts her connection to murder and deception in 1963, it is impossible to put this book down.
Norman German took me on Toni Jo's wild ride and I was right there with her, unable to warn the naive beauty away from her dangerous, seductive suitor.