A blitzkrieg of bazaar bonds within the realms of twisted and damaged individuals dwell in the novel "High Crime Area Tales of Darkness and Dread."
"The Home at Craigmillnar," the first of eight stories kicks off the short book "High Crime Area" in sup-par fashion. The story line contains some delicious deceits which seize the readers attention, but the lack of character intrigue cascades the story into the void.
Eau Claire, an elderly care facility in the fist story illustrates the dark side of orphanages. Sister Mary Alphonsus, an intestate, someone who dies without a will was the director at the Craigmillnar Home for Children, a catholic run orphanage with more than 300 children. Time eventually took away Alphonsus's job of more than 20 years at Craigmillnar and sent her to Eau Claire where she eventually became another victim of time.
Craigmillnar, the orphanage punished children as young as 2 and 3-years-old who where bed wetters. The toddlers were forced to be wrapped in their pee laden sheets and stay outside in the cold till they passed out. Nothing like old fashioned Christian tough love to modify the natural acts of young children. Many children were also beaten at the orphanage for running away by the police, than by the Christian folk who ran the place when the police brought them back. This book's author, Joyce Carol Oates shares the twisted imagination of the likes of Stephen King and John Saul.
"High," the second story was about as enticing as watching paint dry. The third story, "Toad-Baby" was almost as uninteresting as "High." An 11-year-old girl, the sister of the infant Toad-Baby is the child's only hope for survival. The child's mother purposely drops the infant down a flight of stairs and shakes the baby. "High Crime Area" may be a book on what not to do when angry with a child or children.
The fourth tale of terrible is "Demon." Jethro, the demon boy (alleged) is a not so handsome dwarf who is frequently teased at school. The entire story from start to finish is nothing more than a collaboration of crap.
"Lorelei," the 5th story has it's moments of marvel, but like all the other sorry saga's within the book, it lacks love or loathing for any of the characters. Lorelei is the name of the young women in this yarn and she confronts her own personal demons as whether to acquire a soul mate or commit suicide.
The 6th allegory, "The Rescuer" has all the ingredients for a fascinating yarn, but Harvey, the main character and his sister are too damaged to root for or even hate in this tale of greed, rape and excessive drug use.
"The Last Man of Letters, the 7th piece to "High Crime Area" falls just short of pornography when a 73-year-old celebrated writer, a man known as X is relieved of his sin sauce by a few young women in his hotel room. Definitely not a children's book, and left me to ponder the stories intention with one word; Why?
The last narrative, "High Crime Area" focuses on 26-year-old Mz. McIntyre, aka Mz. Mc'tyre, a college professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. McIntyre carries a snub nosed nickel plated .22 caliber sterling arms semiautomatic in her purse because she is frequently followed to her car while leaving the university throughout the story. By the time it arose for whether or not she would have to use the pistol, the yarn had completely dwindled into a disastrous debacles of disarray.
Using a .22 on ones own head may have been a better alternative than reading this novel spawned in April; one star rating.
