Badbadbad by Jesus Angel GarciaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
JAG is a great writer and this is a great story. He really understands the world of the "Dirty South" and the people that inhabit it. Conservative, born-again Christians, and the "fallen angels" and rebels that live outside the white (man) picket fences. He also deeply understands the violence of men and the isolation men feel without the centre (wife, children, family) of "decent" society. The protaganist lives in three worlds: the "society/work/outer-appearance" world of the evangelical, "Born-again" First Church of the Church Before Church ("decent" society), the "underworld" of the fallenangels fetish/hook-up internet club, and his "real/inner" world as a man that has destroyed his marriage and is in a battle to be allowed to participate in his son's life.**
Anyone with an interest in the deviant sexual life of Christian South would especially like this. And music lovers will enjoy the playlist and the characters musings on music and musicians.
I recommend this to everyone but people that think Reagan was a good President, or that think sex is something you only do with the opposite gender when you are in love.
** SPOILER ALERT ** The story and storyline is built on this inner arc. If this were a mass market and not a noir/pulp/indie, an obvious climax would have occured within the two outer worlds-- a public scandal that would have exposed his involvement in both the church and fallenangels website. A Hollywood screenwriter would (probably will) be able to re-work the story to fit into the predictable American 3-act formula. I was expecting that too, until the last two chapters. That nothing is resolved in the outer world also gave the book a dose of realism that only really good fiction (a la Jim Thompson) can provide.
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