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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
one of the primary villains of the novel is a citoyan who burns buildings, kills dogs, and has as a primary goal “the end of the world, [which] he wants to be a part of” (113). There is, ultimately, no attempt to show this brutalized, desperate class with any sensitivity or nuance. Even our protagonists are unable to see the citoyens as people who exist with real feelings, needs, and lives. Perhaps this is why it is Lucas and Orel’s final goal to get Orel to Princeton where he can get out of the South and go to college in the North, what Lucas calls the “last refuge for the young” (60). Ultimately the problems with this novel are less about Jackson’s ability to write and more about sophistication and nuance. In the final, action-packed sequences of the novel, Jackson has the opportunity to make important observations about the nature of a classist system and the problems within our own corporate-affiliated governmental systems, but rather than do so, he paints the lowest classes as brutish and the government as thug-booted jackals. He clearly intends to show the horrors of letting corporations run our government and of letting our environment degrade, and this he does to almost a satiric level. But the sincerity and earnestness of his writing also make it clear that this satirical edge is most likely unintended. Although he is a writer with a story to tell – a story with potential and importance in today’s apocalypse and dystopia obsessed society – the novel fails in the end to deliver the chills of 1984, the feelings of helplessness of The Road, or even the action-oriented entertainment of something like World War Z. n
THE BACKSTORY OF THE WORLD a review by Brianne Holmes Ernie Wood. One Red Thread. Blue Ash, OH: Tyrus Books, 2014.
BRIANNE HOLMES is an MA student at ECU, concentrating in creative writing. She has served on the literary staff of the Ivy Leaves Journal of Literature and Art and as an editorial assistant for the NCLR. Her stories have been published in Burningword Literary Journal, The Journal of Microliterature, The Café Irreal, and the podcast No Extra Words. ERNIE WOOD, recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, is an award-winning author of nonfiction books, documentary film scripts, advertising, and newspaper and magazine journalism. Wood was raised in Chapel Hill, NC, received a BA in English literature from Hamilton College in New York, and has resided in Austin, TX, since 1984, where he was a writer and editor for Southern Living magazine. He has also taught at the Austin Community College. One Red Thread is Wood’s debut novel.
ABOVE RIGHT Ernie Wood talking about his novel on WCHL-FM radio, Chapel Hill, NC, 7 May 2015
Ernie Wood’s debut novel, One Red Thread, is a historicalliterary-science-fiction-mystery of impressive complexity. The novel’s protagonist, middle-aged architect Eddy McBride, has been metaphorically stuck in the past for years, having never truly come to terms with the hit-and-run death of his brother three decades before. As the story opens, two long-lost acquaintances arrive unannounced at Eddy’s door: his childhood friend Libby and his great-aunt’s yardman Walter Lee. Libby’s arrival awakens Eddy’s unease about his family’s tragic past and sends him back in time (literally, not metaphorically), looking for answers. With Walter Lee mysteriously guiding his time travels, Eddy waltzes backward through family history – against the wishes and the better judgement of his wife, Sheila. In terms of plot, Wood’s novel is masterful. As Eddy visits events from his family’s past, these microcosmic moments begin to connect and intersect to form a large and complex tapestry. Seemingly unrelated events and people – a flashflood, a hanging, a welcome home party, a World War II sailor, a mysterious uncle – all converge to shape the lives of Eddy, Libby, and Walter Lee. In this sense, One Red Thread demonstrates a deeper respect for history than many time-travel novels. At first, Eddy feels secure visiting events before his birth; however, he soon discovers that every moment of history is