12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Fiction!, November 24, 2009
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.
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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
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.
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