Review: A sprawling epic
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2014
As many other reviewers have commented, Lazarus has Oedipal connections (not to mention Oedipal problems), but more than a Southern Gothic exploration of the themes of the Oedipus trilogy, the sprawling epic feels like a reimagining of Faulkner rather than Sophocles. As I read the novel with its changing view points, mobile first person narratives, and tangled and unseemly family connections, all shrouded in family secrets and shadows, I kept thinking about the Snopes and the multigenerational sagas where history is not just rippling into the future but pulsing under it and creating the now. Perhaps all authors writing about historic secrets and lies in the South fall under the shadow of Faulkner, and that can’t be easy. Jason Akley is, however, an ambitious, thoughtful writer, and he goes for it. He’s not even afraid to nod to Faulkner with his included genealogy at the end, and when I reached it, I realized I had missed a lot of what was actually happening throughout the novel. I’m not sure if it was Akley or me however. I think it’s a novel a lot of readers, particularly fans of Southern Gothic will enjoy, but in the end I wish it had all been a bit tighter. However, tightening it up would undoubtedly take away from some of the book's atmospheric and interconnected charms.