That's How I Roll: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Andrew Vachss (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 20, 2012

Around here, even dying can be hard. Horribly hard. Only death itself comes easy. By easy, I mean frequent. Death happens so often that people regard it pretty much the same as the never-ending rain.
   
When life itself is hard, you have to be hard to live. Even a bitch will cull one of her own pups if she doesn't think he's going to be tough enough--she knows she's only got but so much milk, and there's none to waste.

Survival isn't some skill we learned--it's in all our genes. Nobody needed to be told to step aside when they saw the Beast coming. But not everyone stepped fast enough.
   
There's rock slides. Floods, too. Those are natural phenomena. You live here, you expect them. But just because a man's found under tons of rock, or floating in the river, doesn't mean his death was due to natural causes.

Folks drink a lot. Wives get beaten something fierce. Some of those wives can shoot pretty good. And some of their husbands never think it can happen to them, even when they're sleeping off a drunk.

There's supposed to be good and bad in everyone. Probably is. But here, it's the bad in you that's more often the most useful.

Like the difference between climate and weather. Most folks around here don't view a killing as good or bad--just something that happens, like a flood or a fire.

That's why a whole lot of bodies never get viewed at all.

For a man like me, this is a good part of the country to do my work. I take pride in the quality of my work, but I never deceive myself that every death at my hands is justified, never mind righteous or noble.

I never saw myself as ... much of anything, really. Just a crippled, cornered rat, trying to protect my little brother with whatever I can.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's brutal, grindhouse and poetic. Vachss nails reality to the walls of truth, using fiction to portray his hard-chewed philosophy of life ... a writer to admire, one that does not shun from showing a world with all of its ugly flaws." - LitReactor

"One can count on Vachss being grim whether writing one of his Burke novels or a stand-alone like The Weight, but this ... is grimmer than most. ... Crafty, strong-willed [narrator Esau Till] combines courtly manners, deadly paybacks, and ruthless singularity of purpose in this chilling tour de force." - Publishers Weekly

"In his latest stand-alone, Vachss, master of hard-boiled fiction, delivers one of his grimmest novels yet." -Booklist

"An absolutely brilliant novel. It reads like a bullet." -Joe R. Lansdale

"That's How I Roll is a noir masterpiece." --Ian O'Doherty, The (Irish) Independent

"This novel could easily be mistaken for a memoir. ... both chilling and realistic." --Laura Schultz, New York Journal of Books 

"Classic, gritty Vachss, who writes prose you can strike a match on." -Mike Ripley, Shots

"Strikingly original ... a sort of loose, episodic confessional that builds the story stone by stone, strewing the landscape with bodies and dispensing folksy wisdom ... A smart, cynical glimpse into the human condition." -Kirkus

“Combines [Vachss’s] trademark black humor with his longstanding concern for children and their well-being. . . . A smart, cynical glimpse into the human condition.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Crafty, strong-willed Esau combines courtly manners, deadly paybacks, and ruthless singularity of purpose in this chilling tour de force.”
 —Publishers Weekly

"Born of a supremely abusive father and his own sister, Esau Till is trouble from day one—a hired killer who ends up on death row. This book unfolds as Esau's effort to tell his life story in a bid to protect Tory after his own death. Vachss writes raw, eye-opening works that deserve our attention."
—Library Journal

PRAISE FOR ANDREW VACHSS:
“Many writers try to cover the same ground as Vachss. A handful are as good. None are better.”
—People
 
“Writing in a style so sleekly engineered that it purrs when you pop the hood, Vachss gives us such a smooth ride that it’s easy to forget someone is driving this thing.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Vachss’s stories . . . burn with righteous rage and transfer a degree of that rage to the reader.”
—The Washington Post Book World
 
“A contemporary master . . . Decidedly hard-boiled, his prose is lean, tough-edged, and brittle.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“Vachss’s tough-guy writing style grabs you by the hair and jerks you to attention.”
—Detroit Free Press
 
“Vachss writes hypnotically violent prose made up of equal parts broken concrete blocks and razor wire.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

From the Inside Flap

Andrew Vachss returns with a deeply revealing new novel about a master assassin whose love forced him to kill his own conscience.

Esau Till's race is almost run. After pleading guilty to a series of homicides, he sits on death row, awaiting lethal injection. And writing his life story. But his memoir is no case study in tragedy--it's his one last chance to protect his brother Tory after he's gone. And, as too many have learned, when it comes to protecting his baby brother, Esau Till is a man without boundaries.

Esau's father was a widely feared beast who waited until his first girl child was "old enough to bleed" before killing his wife. In Esau's words: "When you're birthed out of your own sister--when her father is your father too--you know you're not going to come out right. Not you, not your life, not nothing."

When the genetic cards were dealt. Esau drew a genius IQ and a horribly crippled body. His brother Tory drew a "slow" mind and almost super-human strength. Very early on, Esau learned that the only way to guarantee his baby brother's safety was to make himself indispensable to certain people. A self-taught explosives expert, he became the top assassin for two rival local mobs. When a third mob attempted to recruit his brother, Esau took them all out, unaware that one of them was an undercover FBI agent.

Execution looms, but no prison can hold Esau's mind. Or his love. As the State prepares to take his life, Esau plots going all-in on the last and most deadly hand he will ever play.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (March 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307379949
• ISBN-13: 978-0307379948
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for "aggressive-violent" youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, three collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, and many other forums. His books have been awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, the Falcon Award, Deutschen Krimi Preis, Die Jury des Bochumer Krimi Archivs and the Raymond Chandler Award (per Giurìa a Noir in Festival, Courmayeur, Italy). Andrew Vachss' latest books are Mortal Lock (Vintage, May 2013) and Aftershock (Pantheon, June 2013). The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is vachss.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a wonderful read March 30, 2012

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

Esau Till never really had a chance. His mother was an unwilling victim, his father was meaner than a dogfight, and his brother was a beautiful, hapless child who desperately needed protection. While Esau came with brains, he also came with spina bifida. Confined to a wheelchair, you wouldn't think he would be too effective against a habitual drunk who liked to hurt people just because he could.

That man, called The Beast, was Esau and Tory-boy's father. The only use The Beast had for his kids was the money the government paid him for their disabilities. Tory-boy looked good on the surface, but his mind was as crippled as Esau's body. And that's what made Esau fiercely protective of his brother. So protective, in fact, that he devoted his life to keeping Tory-boy safe, a plan that should work even after his own death.

And Esau knows his own death is coming soon, because he is sitting on Death Row right now, writing his memoir --- which doubles as insurance in case someone tries to betray him --- unafraid of dying and unapologetic for how he got there. He still has to take care of Tory-boy, and his plan is almost finished.

Esau Till has to be about the most unique killer-for-hire ever invented. Rolling around in his wheelchair, brilliant, polite, possessed of a natural knowledge of right and wrong, good and bad, he does what he believes he has to do to take care of his little brother. "Esau Till might be a crippled man, but he was a man of his word. And he was not only a for-real outlaw --- he was smart. Real smart."

From the time Tory-boy was born, Esau began plotting. He had already learned how to stay alive himself, but Tory-boy was slow, innocent, and much too trusting. Just getting through each day at home was tough enough. And the streets offered no better, for folks in that part of the country feared The Beast and wouldn't dare lift a hand against him. Oh, yes, they knew what went on in that house, but were too scared to do anything about it. So Esau did what he felt he needed to do to make things better for Tory-boy. And he did some very bad things. One thing you could always say, though: Esau Till was plain-faced honest and committed.

When dealing with Esau, law enforcement tended to look the other way, since he was prone to killing people who mostly needed to be done away with. They effected an attitude of Why not focus on real problems? And that way of thinking worked quite well, right up until the night an FBI agent unwittingly got in the way. The Feds never quit when one of their own is killed. So this is what led Esau to Death Row. And that's okay with him.

THAT'S HOW I ROLL doesn't present a pretty picture. The story is raw and the characters are more so. But Esau Till is a great character study of a man with a mission, despite overwhelming odds. His survival instincts and matter-of-fact philosophies promise to remain unrivaled for quite some time. He will be remembered long after they put that needle in his arm. Andrew Vachss's latest is simply a wonderful read.

Reviewed by Kate Ayers

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great story by Vachss March 25, 2012

By Bordeaux Dogue

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Telling us about the life of Esau Till, a contract killer and, in spite of that, a person filled with a wondrous love for his younger brother whom he does everything to protect and keep safe.

The book, superbly written, is typically Vachss, as is the dreary, hopeless world his characters live in.

When I read a book by Vachss , and i have read them all, I feel amazed at the meanness this Man has seen and observed in his professional life, therefater so expertly conveyed to paper.

What an ugly world there is, out there, all around us.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars VACHSS ROLLS OUT ONE OF HIS BEST March 20, 2012

By wayne d. dundee

Format:Hardcover

The story of Esau Till will shock you. It will sadden and anger you. It will disturb, perhaps even frighten you. But as you are reading it and experiencing these emotions, you will not be able to put the book down. And after you've finished it, when you do put it down, it will stay with you.
That is the power of Andrew Vachss's writing.
It is there in all of his work, but has seldom been displayed better or with greater impact than in THAT'S HOW I ROLL.
The novel is set within the frame of Esau telling his life story from Death Row. He makes it clear that this is neither a confession nor apology, simply a statement of facts recounting the events that brought him to this point. It is also a statement geared--as so much in his life has been--toward protecting his younger brother Tory.
Both Esau and Tory are the product of a forced incestuous relationship between their father--an abusive monster who Esau refers to as the Beast--and older sister. As Esau puts it, "When your sister is your mother, too, you know you're not going to come out right. Not you, not your life, not nothing."
Initial evidence of this comes in the form of Esau being born with spina bifida, paralyzed from the waist down; Tory is physically flawless but mentally slow. The one advantage Esau does have, however, is a genius IQ. It is this that he puts to work with laser-focused intensity to makes things better for Tory and him and, above all, to prepare Tory for life after Esau is gone. To do this, once they are free of the Beast after he's been executed for killing their sister, Esau channels his intellect into becoming a highly sophisticated explosives expert working for the two crime bosses who split control of the surrounding territory.
Esau shrewdly plays both sides against the middle with the crime bosses and, ultimately, with the law--all for the sake of maintaining his all-consuming commitment to protect and make a better life for Tory. Although spawned from depraved evil and forced by circumstances to become cold and ruthless in most other aspects of his life, the true, pure love that Esau feels for his brother is the driving force and solid central core to this complex, intricately plotted novel.
The rural setting--an unnamed coal mining community, presumably in the southeast--is an interesting change from Vachss's usual urban backgrounds. He captures it masterfully with his trademark spare descriptive prose and peoples it with memorable, convincing, fully realized characters ... many of whom you would never want to meet, yet nevertheless will be mesmerized to read about.
Respect, honor, and loyalty are recurring themes in Vachss's work. Combined with the warning that if we fail to protect the most innocent victims of our society--the children--we risk failing to protect ourselves from those who may become increasingly more violent victimizers.
THAT'S HOW I ROLL is one of Andrew Vachss's best books yet--and that's saying a lot. In Esau Till, he has created one of his most fascinating characters. You will have to decide for yourself whether Esau is a victim or victimizer--or perhaps both. Either way, I guarantee you will not soon forget him or his story.
Strongly recommended.