Southern Cross the Dog

Starred review from March 18, 2013
Charged with a swampy sense of foreboding, Cheng’s debut novel is set in the early 20th century, in a mythic South populated by leather-clad backwoodsmen, a kind madam, and a barrelhouse piano player with a “mojo bag.” Robert Lee Chatham, survivor of a massive flood, grows up working in a brothel. A fall off a roof brings him into contact with bluesman Eli Cutter, who warns, “Bad and trouble is set to follow you through this earth.” As an adult, Robert works on a swamp “dig crew” until the day he impulsively jumps into a river and is swept away. He’s rescued by a family of feral swamp trappers, only to be abused until he nearly dies. Eventually he’s able to slit the throat of one of his captors and flee, ending up in a small town where he reunites with childhood friends Dora and G.D. The three form a happy family of sorts, yet Robert still feels himself slipping into “that place of lost and losing.” With its evocative settings and rich McCarthyesque language, this Southern gothic packs a punch like a mean drunk. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Aragi Inc.

December 1, 2012

Even before the library marketers at HarperCollins talked up this novel, I was intrigued by the story--twentyish Robert Chatham manages to survive the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 but still thinks he's cursed. Cheng is being called a rising literary star, and rumor has it that his feel for the Old South is extraordinary--never mind that he's not been below the Mason-Dixon Line. For folks who love Wiley Cash, Ron Rash, and Amanda Coplin's recently published The Orchardist.

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