The Listener Kindle Edition

Another excellent story from one of the finest authors of our age. But first, I gotta say...It is an absolute travesty that upon its release, a new book by Robert McCammon has only been reviewed fifteen times. This guy has written so many great books, over so many years. However, he had the brass audacity to challenge the publishing world establishment, which resulted in a totally unjust pee-pee slap. He didn’t accept the order from on high to dwell peacefully on the horror novelist reservation. He refused to conform. Even a bestselling, beloved author like McCammon is told that he must accept his assigned pigeonhole, or perish. Instead, he rebelled. McCammon writes whatever he wants to, and his longtime fans know that we are blessed to have found him. Did you know that Barnes and Noble booksellers don’t carry McCammon? Readers roaming their stores will never discover the adventures of Matthew Corbett. How upside down is that? The inflexibility of the publishing industry has spelt its own doom. Deep breath. Please forgive my tangent. The Listener is a great story that entirely pulls you into another place and time. Characters, plot, action? It’s all there. It’s one of those rare books that makes me forget my iPhone addiction. How’s that for high praise? It brought me back to a place in my life where I would pick up a book, and fall into it, and for a day and for a day or two it would consume my world. Sorry, wife, sorry kids. New McCammon. They understand. Great book. Read it. Thank you, Rick McCammon.

Robert McCammon is a gifted storyteller who can turn a simple drive in the country into a life or death journey. He quickly sets the stage and sucks you in with his deep character development and the artistic portrayal of their surroundings, pulling you into the story and strapping you in for a very bumpy ride. His technique kind of reminds me of an old trick used in the Midwest, daring someone to kiss a frozen post in winter -- once he has you he won't let go. A perfect example of this is Mr. McCammon's "Boy's Life", one of my all-time favorites and the winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1992.

This novel is set in the (very) hot and humid summer of Louisiana five years after the start of the Great Depression. While previously successful businessmen were jumping to their deaths from the high windows of big cities the tree frogs in Louisiana were so hot they fell from their perches onto the asphalt below and immediately began to cook. Bonnie and Clyde were big news as was the Lindbergh Kidnapping. People were desperate and some made their living by "flim-flamming" other people. These con artists were also known as "grifters" and their strategy was to prey on the greed (and stupidity) of others.

In "The Listeners" two small town grifters meet by accident and concoct a plot to kidnap the two children of a wealthy shipping magnate. Unbeknownst to them the daughter is a "listener", a telepath who has been communicating with another listener who she's never met in person. Curtis, a young black man who works as a 'redcap' at the New Orleans train station, is on the other end of her telepathic telephone. As each pair of good and bad people get to know each other better, the story begins takes on steam and they embark on a journey that they'll never forget.

Most of the Deep South in the 1930's was a very dangerous place for a young black man to live. Robert McCammon paints a very dark -- and accurate -- picture of the horrible discrimination of the times. Young black workers were expected to be polite and helpful, casting their eyes downward when speaking to white men and calling them "Suh". Young white hooligans at the time often baited black men and brought Hell down on them for some imagined transgression. Curtis barely survives one of these encounters coincidentally when his young white friend needs his help the most. The desire and ability of this fine young black man to help the young white girl in her greatest time of need, regardless of what he just went through, is one of the crowning achievements of this tale.

Mr. McCammon succeeds in taking some casual (and yet unusual) encounters and weaving them into a fascinating and interesting story of good versus evil, complete with crime and mental illness, bad breeding, southern white attitudes, and the eventual life altering meeting of each pair of main characters. Surprising yet logical, painful yet redeeming, Robert McCammon has used his fertile imagination to come up with another winner. Pay special attention to the denouement.

Readers unfamiliar with the work of Robert McCammon have been missing out on a modern master. In many ways, McCammon has had two careers. He started as a horror writer producing work that easily rivals and at time surpasses those of Stephen King beginning with Baal (1978), a tale of demonic worship. Other award nominated, and winning titles followed; perhaps one of his most remarkable achievements being Boy's Life (1991), an evocative coming of age story set in the South with some of the most vivid and unforgettable writing and scenes one is likely to encounter. It was also the Winner of the 1991 Bram Stoker Award and the 1992 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Shortly after Boy's Life, McCammon’s pen went silent. In a classic case of writer’s block, being tired of being labeled a “horror writer and being expected to confine himself to that genre,” and feuding with publishers and personal demons, it appeared McCammon’s career had ended. Then in 2002 McCammon was back, with an epic-sized historical mystery and first of a series of six novels, Speaks the Nightbird, and he has been producing one amazing novel or novella after another ever since. His latest novel is a crime thriller (and more) set in the heart of the Great Depression in 1934, The Listener (2018). It begins by tracing the evolution of a two-bit con man, John Partlow, into a monstrous criminal under the mentorship of a cold as death, callous huckster, Ginger LaFrance who has secret, great aspirations.

Ginger LaFrance, who goes by several names but never her real one, is quick to recognize the potential for true evil in John Partlow and needing an accomplice to be able to act upon her long-held desire and plan, Ginger tests and ensnares Partlow in her evil web, convincing him to partner with her in an incredibly inhumane scheme. Unbeknownst to them and to himself, standing between Ginger and John and their most nefarious and outrageous of intentions is a most unlikely candidate: a twenty-year-old African American youth; a redcap for the Union Railroad Station, with an ailing and somewhat pathetic, over-protective, demanding mother. When he looks in the mirror Curtis Mayhew sees a mere “average” youth, but he is far from average. He is a “listener.”

McCammon brings to life the culture and people of New Orleans of 1934 embedding nearly every page with vivid, colorful details of not only the city but the nearby imposing Lake Pontchartrain and its surrounding dark and perilous swamps. McCammon’s inclusion of the then existing stark distinctions between classes and peoples’ ways of life and the rampant racism of the times spills from almost every page as distinctly as do the heat and humidity, the smells, and sounds of the locales in which he places his characters. With knowing and keen authority, McCammon makes note of the desperation of the “have nots” during the Depression and utilizes the relatively contemporary events of the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby and its tragic consequences as well as the ferocious, bullet-ridden deaths of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde to not only add historic atmosphere to the story but to propel it forward, providing motivation for some of his characters’ actions.

The author’s storytelling is perfection with realistic characters and dialogue and suspense that pulls readers into his grasp as surely as mold and mildew enfolds and deteriorates the abandoned places of the novel’s localities.

At first McCammon unfolds two distinctly, separate stories—that of Ginger LaFrance and John Partlow (along with Ginger’s sadistic and unstable brother, Donnie, who she makes a part of their machinations)—and the story of Curtis Mayhew, a youth who, despite a life of hardship wants only to be of help to others just like the knights of legend of which he reads in books. Ultimately, McCammon brings the two story lines together employing a bit of a supernatural twist—Curtis’ remarkable ability to hear and communicate with other “listeners” telepathically—rare as they are—and intended victim and would be rescuer are united; first clairvoyantly and finally face to face.

Once Ginger’s plan is implemented, The Listener becomes a series of increasingly tense and violent incidents. Children and Curtis are forced to rapidly grow up beyond their years and life’s experiences. Partlow descends into a rabid-like creature as Ginger’s “raw… primal and so animalistic” nature surfaces, knowing nothing but the need to succeed and in a very warped and twisted manner avenge a past event in her own sordid life. Hope after hope is dashed and turned into despair as McCammon’s chronicle becomes ever so dark.

The Listener is the work of a master writer and his creative imagination and truly a remarkable accomplishment. The conclusion of the novel and the pages leading up to it are likely to burn in the memory of the reader like a flash in an otherwise dark and starless night for quite some time after reaching the end. Simply put, The Listener is an unforgettable reading experience.