Order WORM here
(also reviewed)
Order TO THE DEVIL, MY REGARDS here
Order PSYCHOSOMATIC here
Order THE DRUMMER here
Order YELLOW MEDICINE here
Order HOGDOGGIN' here
Order CHOKE ON YOUR LIES here
Order ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS here
Order THE BADDEST ASS here
He watches the Giants lose, thought of Muslim women begging for mercy, and jacked off.
A quirk of being a semi-successful book reviewer is being asked by everybody you know what to read and who's your best kept secret author. When I tell people about Anthony Neil Smith, they have one of the two reactions: they become loyal and enthusiastic readers like me or they never speak to me again. There's no in-between with that guy's fiction, maybe it's why I like it so much. He's got a powerful, vivid way of making the bad and the ugly more interesting than the few good people left in this world. His latest novel WORM is a tremendous achievement in the portrayal duplicity and greed in the oil boom. Smith hasn't lost his fastball and he's aiming it right at the reader's head again, the way it should always be.
Ferret is the new guy on the oil rig. A ''worm'', as they like to call them in the business. He's a simple guy with an anxious wife and a baby girl at home, and he wants to secure a comfortable living for them more than anything in the world. It's why he moved far away to North Dakota to get a foothold in the oil boom and that's why he's looking to make extra dough by any means necessary over there. His boss, an mysterious mustachioed oilman named Pancrazio is looking for extra income too, and takes interest in Ferret's overpowering desire to please and undying loyalty. There's always a way to make more money in a boom town. It's a sweet loophole if you're willing to do the work. Only problem is that if your way of making money interferes with someone else's way of making money, things can get ugly quite quick.
The oil boom is the new American Far West. It's an industry that attracts people who want to change lives, make their dreams a reality and become another person altogether. Someone they could be proud of. Several characters in WORM have two names, two lives and some even have another self they're hiding to their colleagues. In a boom town, you can be whoever you want to be, but you can't run away from who you really are. No matter how duplicitous the characters in WORM can be, their nature always put them at each other's throats. Money's a tiresome plot device in several hardboiled novels, but it doesn't feel cliché in WORM. It's the bottomless pit of greed that drives the characters. The concept of always needing more and leaving nothing for others organically creates spectacular confrontations and desperate situations that reveal the characters' true natures.
The characters of Anthony Neil Smith often are the memorable aspect of his fiction. WORM doesn't have a standout protagonist, but it has a third degree black belt villain. Pancrazio is the Barack Obama of being an asshole. He's a difficult boss, has an terrifying, abstract personal life and is haunted by inexplicable memories that fuel his erratic behavior. Ferret represents another fascinating aspect of Anthony Neil Smith's fiction he often uses his protagonist as a vehicle for: human being's refusal to take responsibility for their own desires. He's more of a typical character than a memorable one, but Smith masters this type of character so well that he keeps you in an uneasy balance between righteous frustration and empathy. It's an uncomfortable place to be it as a reader, but if Anthony Neil Smith's fiction was a smooth ride, it wouldn't be as much fun.
WORM isn't Anthony Neil Smith's best novel (I would give that title belt to the Billy Lafitte trilogy, or to CHOKE ON YOUR LIES), but it's a solid addition to his curriculum that's on par with some of his strong books like THE DRUMMER or TO THE DEVIL, MY REGARDS. I thought the cast was a little too crowded at times. There are multiple points of view that keep Pancrazio or Ferret (the two most interesting characters) from having the necessary breathing room to take over the narrative the way Billy Lafitte or Octavia VanDerPlaats would've. If you don't know who Anthony Neil Smith is, WORM is a great starting point. It's not as intense or nihilistic as some of his standout work, but it's got a vivid setting and his typical grimy cast of satisfying interlopers on a collision course. Smith still got it.
Ferret is the new guy on the oil rig. A ''worm'', as they like to call them in the business. He's a simple guy with an anxious wife and a baby girl at home, and he wants to secure a comfortable living for them more than anything in the world. It's why he moved far away to North Dakota to get a foothold in the oil boom and that's why he's looking to make extra dough by any means necessary over there. His boss, an mysterious mustachioed oilman named Pancrazio is looking for extra income too, and takes interest in Ferret's overpowering desire to please and undying loyalty. There's always a way to make more money in a boom town. It's a sweet loophole if you're willing to do the work. Only problem is that if your way of making money interferes with someone else's way of making money, things can get ugly quite quick.
The oil boom is the new American Far West. It's an industry that attracts people who want to change lives, make their dreams a reality and become another person altogether. Someone they could be proud of. Several characters in WORM have two names, two lives and some even have another self they're hiding to their colleagues. In a boom town, you can be whoever you want to be, but you can't run away from who you really are. No matter how duplicitous the characters in WORM can be, their nature always put them at each other's throats. Money's a tiresome plot device in several hardboiled novels, but it doesn't feel cliché in WORM. It's the bottomless pit of greed that drives the characters. The concept of always needing more and leaving nothing for others organically creates spectacular confrontations and desperate situations that reveal the characters' true natures.
The characters of Anthony Neil Smith often are the memorable aspect of his fiction. WORM doesn't have a standout protagonist, but it has a third degree black belt villain. Pancrazio is the Barack Obama of being an asshole. He's a difficult boss, has an terrifying, abstract personal life and is haunted by inexplicable memories that fuel his erratic behavior. Ferret represents another fascinating aspect of Anthony Neil Smith's fiction he often uses his protagonist as a vehicle for: human being's refusal to take responsibility for their own desires. He's more of a typical character than a memorable one, but Smith masters this type of character so well that he keeps you in an uneasy balance between righteous frustration and empathy. It's an uncomfortable place to be it as a reader, but if Anthony Neil Smith's fiction was a smooth ride, it wouldn't be as much fun.
WORM isn't Anthony Neil Smith's best novel (I would give that title belt to the Billy Lafitte trilogy, or to CHOKE ON YOUR LIES), but it's a solid addition to his curriculum that's on par with some of his strong books like THE DRUMMER or TO THE DEVIL, MY REGARDS. I thought the cast was a little too crowded at times. There are multiple points of view that keep Pancrazio or Ferret (the two most interesting characters) from having the necessary breathing room to take over the narrative the way Billy Lafitte or Octavia VanDerPlaats would've. If you don't know who Anthony Neil Smith is, WORM is a great starting point. It's not as intense or nihilistic as some of his standout work, but it's got a vivid setting and his typical grimy cast of satisfying interlopers on a collision course. Smith still got it.