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Tuesday, May 30, 2023
[New post] STARRED Book Review: Weft
IndieBookView posted: " Weft by Kevin Allardice Genre: Literary Fiction / Crime ISBN: 9781960593009 Print Length: 262 pages Publisher: Madrona Books Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner At the intersection of realist literary fiction, surrealism, horror" Independent Book Review
At the intersection of realist literary fiction, surrealism, horror, and crime. Allardice's Weft is not afraid to stretch the reader's imagination. The novel explores the life of Bridget, a con artist on the road with her son, Jake, staying in cheap hotels and wandering the malls of middle America in search of overconfident marks.
About halfway through the book, the story takes a turn from predominantly realistic events to more surreal and creepy imagery, exposing Bridget's past while also forcing her to question her present situation. But even before this shift, Allardice pushes the reader into slightly-off spaces, testing the elasticity of the reader's suspension of disbelief. Ultimately, Allardice's lyrical prose paired with gripping tension and suspense make Weft a strange experience, but also a riveting one.
The world at the beginning of Weft is, in many ways, ideal, but shadows lurk beneath the nostalgic '90s surface. Bridget and Jake scout for their marks in mall food courts or at festivals where wealthy people stomp grapes to make wine. They impersonate casting directors, hoping to fool young boys (and by extension, their parents) into believing they could be the next Anakin Skywalker in the rumored forthcoming Star Wars prequels. Happy families live comfortably, splurging on things they don't need and sending large checks in response to Bridget's scam while this mother and her recently emancipated son live in the squalor of cheap motels, separated from the rest of their kin, always on the run.
The mall, the festival, and even the mansions Bridget talks her way into on the pretense of shooting an audition tape, all feature an idealistic brand of capitalism. One house contains a maze of living rooms and another a dumbwaiter. Her marks are filled with the hope and confidence that money can buy; the same hope and confidence that Bridget both lacks herself and tries to take advantage of in others. Bridget doesn't buy into the happy-go-lucky attitude of the ideal world that Allardice paints around her, but she pretends to. It's not until a con goes awry and she finds herself on Halloween in a mansion-turned-haunted-house that she is forced to come to terms with her own facade.
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