I have been dying to post the review for The Wheel's Final Turn, the sequel to Monica Brinkman's metaphysical novel The Turn of the Karmic Wheel.
Synopsis:
In The Wheel's Final Turn, the sequel to The Turn of The Karmic Wheel, Angela, Euclid, and Karman once again find themselves thrust front and center into the battle between good and evil. One man finds pleasure in torturing animals; another fights the demons of past hate crimes. From the governor's mansion to the highly competitive beauty industry to the hidden closets of memory, no one is safe from the grasp of the darkness that wants to take over the world. Can the forces of Light find the inner strength to save humanity, or will the world fall eternal victim to evil as the karmic wheel makes its final turn?
My thoughts:
I would like to comment on the author's literary style. Subtle horror, in the tradition of Southern Gothic. Brinkman's eloquent, polyphonic narrative echoes of Faulkner. The diction is both gritty and sublime. I imagine, the author has read her fair share of Latin American novels in the magical realism genre. That would explain her appreciation for sensuous micro-detail. I also see the melancholic traces of Philip Roth. If I understand the author's outlook on life correctly, evil is not always overt and in-your-face. Nor does it take over your soul overnight. It's a gradual, clandestine process, like cancer. Any one of us can become a channel of evil. Sometimes something as seemingly minor as a childhood slight or a conflict with a parent can open up a wound that will fester. There are several story lines in her novel, all being intertwined by the same sinister puppet master.
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