If there’s a theme to the nihilistic, excellent, Cry Father it’s summarized in one succinct sentence: “Most of what you think is your life can be ruptured in an instant.” Patterson Wells writes this to his son, who died as a young child, and would know the truth of the sentiment. The book proves it over and again as lives are ruptured left and right. Patterson has a hand in some of it. An angry meth driver named Junior does his share of rupturing. The “damaged young men” aren’t exactly friends, more like partners in violence, usually at Junior’s instigation.

Grief, loss, hopelessness, drugs, alcoholism, violence, and sometimes love, swirl together in the story. Patterson summarizes: “Nothing ends, nothing heals. Not that I’d have it any other way.” ( )

I received an advance e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I started this book with the knowledge that it would be about father and son relationships. I wasn't expecting to be taken to the darkest corner of mankind wallowing in drugs and unimaginable violence. Actually I have a pretty thick skin around foul language so that didn't stop me from diving into this book with both feet. The cruelty and shallow personalities in this story seem to come at you from all angles.

In the end I wasn't sure if Patterson Wells and Junior were victims or perpetrators in their vicious encounters with the La Familia or drug cartels. They both seem to know that there is a better life available to them but they persist in clinging to the pain in their past. Patterson is unable to accept his son's death and his failure to be a better father when he had the chance. Junior harbors hatred and disgust surrounding his past with his father.

Both men have had the chance to move forward in a loving family relationship but squandered their marriages and have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized behavior.

The story is full of graphic violence and foul language; the faint of heart should be warned. On the other hand, it is a look at depression and revenge/vengence from the perspective of two drowning souls unable to pull themselves out of misery. In the end, the reap what they sowed.
( )

Oh the heartache. Quote from this excellent rendering of two men in parallel trouble: "It's almost impossible to measure the damage that damaged young men can do to themselves". The men, no longer young but still being damaged and creating it, are Patterson, an electrical lineman who lost his young son to a medical error, and Junior, son of an alcoholic rodeo rider, who has a young daughter. Both of their marriages have failed, and though their wives have not given up on them, they are anchorless and rudderless. Patterson drops his sorrow into ongoing letters to his poor dead son Justin. He also intervenes to prevent Junior's extracting revenge upon on his father Henry.

If you've read any of Larry Brown's books, you might see similarities. Brown is also an author who recounts stubborn men misbehaving, but here author Benjamin Whitmer seems to dig deeper to recount innermost thoughts that should translate into outermost actions, but rarely do.

5 stars out of 5. It has already burrowed and found its way into my permanent brain library. ( )

Set in the badlands of Colorado, outside of the city of Denver, Benjamin Whitmer has produced a story as dark, gritty and violent as anything that has been written by Cormac McCarthy or Denis Johnson with Cry Father. The main character, Patterson, living off the grid in the Colorado mountains, narrates the story by way of letters that he writes to his dead son, as a way to deal with his grief. He is entwined with other denizens of the inhospitable wilderness such as Junior, a violent and anti-social drug runner who has issues with his father Henry, who is a friend of Patterson- this triangle will deal heavily with the issues of fatherhood, and desertion throughout the story.

The violence explodes off the page with realistic depictions of death, and the fragility of the human body-there is nothing romantic about death within these pages. Junior and Patterson battle their separate demons on their own terms, and for most of the story they are frequently killing men (and a particularly tough woman), burying bodies, and drinking an extreme amount of alcohol, not to mention cocaine. Everyday, the violence follows them as they are involved in bloody bar brawls, or drug deals gone bad.

The story is more than the intense violence. It mainly deals with sons and their fathers- about the pain and emptiness that goes from one generation to the next, fostering a violent and resentful culture of abuse and abandonment. In the end, Patterson, Henry and Junior proceed down the road that they have built for themselves, culminating in a bizarre showdown that will leave some dead, and others just wishing that they were dead.

Cry Father is one of those books that while extremely dark and gritty, it delivers a coherent tale with a clear moral, as well as some adept psychological investigation of the human psyche. I look forward to following Mr. Whitmer's career, as I am sure he will be producing some of my favorite books of the future. For fans of Cormac McCarthy, Nick Cave and Denis Johnson ( )