The Redemption Factory

May 1, 2006
Twisty, dark, and fetid as a maze of back alleys, this vivid ramble about the fate of a man caught up in the family drama at a slaughterhouse packs a powerful punch. Millar gives his imagination full and disturbing rein, setting the tone with a literal bloodbath inflicted on Paul Goodman as an endurance test when he applies for a job at Shank's abbatoir. Shank's daughter Geordie, one of the most vicious and skillful workers at the slaughterhouse, masterminds Paul's dunking and soon perversely captures his heart, enraging her jealous sister, Violet. Paul is the only physically and mentally hale character in the entire book; Geordie's legs have been crippled since birth, Violet is disfigured from a car accident, Shank himself is psychopathic, and Paul's best friends are the pathetically helpless Lucky and the age-twisted Kennedy, whose dying diabetic wife controls his life with an iron will. Given the misery-ridden cast and setting, the most surreal surprise is the semblance of a happy ending.