James Anderson (27)

You know you are in for something different when a novel is dedicated in memoriam to five authors who created characters that James Anderson, author of The Never-Open Desert Diner, counts among his best friends. With that in mind, expect to pick up a new friend in Ben Jones, seemingly a low-key average Joe but in reality an erstwhile hero in waiting. The novel casts a very peculiar bunch of characters from all stripes of life, starting with Jones, a truck driver and orphan who is possibly show more half Jewish (mom) and Navajo Indian (dad), maybe. He is mostly easy-going and likable. As a trucker, he is often viewed as a loner-loser type. He shrugs it off. People like to form opinions, but that doesn’t mean he has to accept them. Jones has yet to find his place in society and isn’t sure he wants to, finding it more comfortable living his life in his truck’s cab. He has Huck Finn traits in a grown man's body. As with Huck and his raft in the Mississippi, bad and strange things happen when Jones leaves his truck and the highway. He is prone to musing and is humorous in a plain-spoken way. He reflects, "I knew from experience that if you're about to do something you probably shouldn't do, the best advice you can give yourself is not to think about it too long. It ruins the surprise when the worst happens.” Jones has a set of rules for himself, and he knows they are good ones, but life offers temptation. It’s not every day a fellow meets a nude, air-cello playing woman. Jones’ unwitting adventures in trying to rescue people, including himself, make for a great read. I received a galley copy for an honest review.

As the story begins, Jones’ commitment to his clients and his loyalty to the desert road are strained by the bad economy and ill-wishers. Even Fed Ex and UPS can’t make a profit and aren’t willing to tangle with the dangers of Highway 117, so they abandon this route to Jones. The plot moves along as Ben drives down the highway making deliveries, with each stop introducing progressively odder characters. They range from two awkward and withdrawn brothers, living in a pair of train cars somehow settled in the sand, to Walt, the proprietor of the nick-named "Never Open" Desert Diner. To say Walt is surly and uncommunicative would be understatement. But he possesses a strange charisma despite his seeming hardness. Any sentence he utters captures attention. In the midst of all this is Ginny, a pregnant teenager determined to break the cycle of failure and stereotype.

The Utah desert is a living presence that becomes a character of sorts. The heat and sun come into emotional play. The refracting, turbulent air mirrors Ben’s emotional state. While the cover blurb focuses on the crimes that take place in the novel, the novel has more than plot interest. Intriguing and well-developed, the characters’ revelations will surprise, even stun. Their survival tactics, both physical and emotional, are in tune with the desert’s own existence. And Ben Jones? He would make a good friend. show less

"The really big mysteries in life never troubled me much." (pg. 4)

I've been fortunate in my years of reading to have come across many five-star reads, but not many of them make it onto my 'favourites' list. Whereas a star rating is an indicator of quality, or at least the reader's appraisal of it, and therefore something approaching objectivity, tagging a book as a favourite is something more subjective, something more personal and indefinable. One of the ways in which you can recognise if a show more book is a favourite is if you are truly enjoying the moment of reading. Not analysing the themes or maintaining the discipline to read a challenging book, but being in a moment where you don't want to be doing anything else.

The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anderson is, in my opinion, a five-star read. Sure, you could magnify some of its minor holes such as the cello MacGuffin or the plot denouement, which seemed too quickly wrapped up even though it works. The book is five-star because it ticks all the boxes: central idea, setting, character, plot, dialogue, and so on. It is also that rarest and most wonderful of things: a thriller that doesn't chain itself to a formula, but does its own thing without trickery or shortcuts or spoon-fed fillips to the slowest kid in the class. This is even more notable, and therefore cherishable, because Anderson is a product of MFA workshops and therefore at greater risk of blundering into such traps. I've seen novels and writers impaled on the punji sticks of Creative Writing so often that I usually avoid those burnished with that hateful certificate entirely. But thankfully, I made an exception for The Never-Open Desert Diner. While it is a five-star read, what is more important and rewarding for me is that I'm willing to tag the book as one of my favourites.

Sometimes a book just fits you like a glove. Among my idiosyncrasies as a reader are: a fondness for small-town Americana and the conceptual mental freedom of the open road; for crowd-pleasers with a spine of intelligence, even philosophy; and for world-weary everymen who navigate difficult situations with integrity and a stoic rebuff of the superficial money-driven people who try to make them play their game. The Never-Open Desert Diner touches all of these buttons, and much else besides. When I say the book fits me like a glove, I mean it's like a shopworn Smokey and the Bandit for depressives.

The book follows a truck driver, Ben, who travels a regular beat along a forgotten highway in Utah, trying to do the decent thing even after life didn't turn out the way he hoped. He gets reluctantly drawn into a mystery that unfolds leisurely in Anderson's hands but is never lacking for pace. Ben's a good character and protagonist and narrator; a curmudgeon in utero who is starting to feel the effects of some of the punches he's been stoically taking for so long. How he reacts to the unfolding events is quietly a delight, and watching him navigate the story and the people that approach his patch of turf reminded me a bit of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men (Josh Brolin's character in the film version), another everyman who is in over his head in the desert. The main difference is that The Never-Open Desert Diner is more fun – or rather, more casually rewarding – and not light but certainly less caustic, than Cormac McCarthy's dark and violent novel. It's not on that same level of writing or achievement (I guess even my 5-star ratings are fickle and subjective), but I stand by the comparison.

I was deeply happy to roll around in this scenario with Ben, and with James Anderson as he made it all happen. Anderson has fun with the mystery (at one point, Ben ponders the identity of the person who is following him based on all the interesting characters he has already met in the story, concluding that "variety being the spice of life, I hoped for someone new" (pg. 127)), but he also allows a casual but quietly profound philosophy to soak in to his story. It's a subtle element like a pinch of salt added to a soup, and it pays dividends in the book's final line.

The author also achieves good dialogue for his characters – it's entertaining but stays naturalistic, with Anderson not making the common mistake of turning everyone into a sharp, wise-cracking comedian. His supporting characters are as well-drawn as his protagonist, with the strength of this character work perhaps best exampled by the sheriff's deputy Andy, a minor character who is introduced towards the end in order to help the story reach its conclusion, and yet whose boots feel lived in. Even the larger-than-life characters like Walt and Claire and Ginny fit into this relaxed, charming desert world Anderson has created.

I fit into it too – as I said, like a glove. Deep down, I know The Never-Open Desert Diner isn't on the same level as some of the other books I've tagged as favourites. Perhaps in the long-run the memory of it will fade and I'll re-assess that tag. But all I can think in the hours since I put it down is that, well, I had been reading the book for more than a week – which is a long time by my standards. And I took that long not because it was a slog or because of other things I had to do, but simply because I didn't want to let it go. show less

This takes an interesting route (no pun intended). Ben Jones is a trucker who's still somewhat emotionally frozen by the losses in his life. His feelings, or lack thereof match the harsh and changeable weather on the route he plies regularly in a remote part of Utah. That weather is as much a character as are the cast of hardscrabble survivors the he knows, most of whom have secrets filling their past.
This is as much a composite of their realities as it is his. It's immersive, intriguing show more and ends like the reader has a handful of puzzle pieces they need to assemble in a way that makes sense to them. show less

The Never-Open Desert Diner
By: James Anderson
Published By: Crown Publishers
Copy Courtesy of librarything early reviewers giveaway
Reviewed By: tk

A truck driver, Ben Jones drives in the Utah Desert to delivery anything and everything to the people who want nothing but to be left alone.

That being said I can move on.

Have you ever read a book that no matter what the teasers, reviews, explanations of what this story is about just doesn’t ring true to what you just read? This is one of those show more stories.
Ben Jones is so much more…The people he comes in contacts with are so deep in emotions and memories and their very survival in the desert. How they live, why they choose to live the way that they do is an immense barren environment and thrive.

James Anderson takes you into the secret lives of these people. Astonishing insight, and incredible characters carry this tale to conclusion that requires you as the reader, to want to keep the secrets, heart ache, loss and magic quiet. To hold their privacy close and be thankful they allowed you to share in their lives for a little while. I know I am talking about fictional characters here. It changes nothing. Anderson’s craft will take you there, inside the cover and lead you through the pages that for a short time will become an altered reality. I am a fast and true fan!

Brilliant! 5/5 show less