Castle by J. Robert Lennon Reviewed by Scott Bowen ISBN: 978-I-55597-522-7
In his latest novel, Castle, J. Robert Lennon offers a tale presented by a hero of John Wayne-like masculinity, the likes of which are often absent from today’s metrosexual male protagonists. “In the late winter of 2006, I returned to my hometown and bought 612 acres of land on the far western edge of the county.” The hero, Eric Loesch, goes on to observe: “The land, and the farmhouse that stood on it, were forgotten.” So begins a mystery with a Heart of Darkness flavor that will take Eric Loesch into his lifeless, prodigious forest and force him to confront a past he and the declining community around him have painfully strived to repress. If a weakness exists in Lennon’s Castle, it’s his hero’s tendency to get carried away with interior monologue in statements such as: “It was unclear to me whether these muddled thoughts were the result of my uncharacteristic musings upon the past which I had indulged in the previous day, or if they indicated a general ailment of which yesterday’s thoughts were also a part.” Offering latitude to the fact that the protagonist is narrating this piece, I’m inclined to let characterization dictate a long-winded nature. Except that Eric Loesch, upon brutal indoctrination as a child, explains how stoic he is trained to be: “His instructor insists: ‘You are never to answer a question with more information than was requested,’ to which the young Eric fearfully obeys.” An adult Eric Loesch obviously forgets the lessons of brevity and conservatism taught by his master, which he must soon bring to bear if he is to survive his journey. Castle is a formidable marriage between plot-driven mystery noir and the careful storytelling strategy of literary fiction. Lennon deftly renders a scene to support the mood of the action, as shown in the following excerpt, with an ostensibly innocent observation: “Three benches faces the memorial, empty now save for an abandoned fast food bag which a large black crow listlessly pecked.” With Castle, Lennon effectively captures with the loose hand of a mature artist the essence of fear that drives both man and nation to madness. Through his protagonist, it is apparent just how easily one can slip into degradation when attempting to inoculate the horrors of war or the savagery of survival with a philosophy that justifies the means with the end. Lennon’s greatest asset is his ability to unearth the mundane and partially-buried aspects of our consciousness or society and expose them to the air. This interest in the subliminal expresses itself in previous novels, including Mailman and On the Night Plain, as well as his work in photography.
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Mr. Bowen currently resides in eastern North Carolina. He occupies his time writing both novel length and short fiction concerning a prophet of his own design, playing house husband, and taking a stab at Native American crafts. He is currently working on his B.A. degree in English at East Carolina University.
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