CANDLEMOTH

A young man sitting on Death Row reflects on the life that brought him to his seemingly sealed fate.

In 1982, 36-year-old Daniel Ford is about a month away from execution for the inexplicable murder of his lifelong friend Nathan Verney. Daniel has supporters in prison, a handful of people determined to save him, both body (earnest warden Clarence Timmins) and soul (chain-smoking Father John Rousseau), as well as one big antagonist: the notorious guard Mr. West, despised by all the inmates for his sadistic abuse. His interactions with them counterpoint Daniel’s first-person flashbacks from childhood up to the fateful day that he’s arrested for brutally killing Nathan. With an incomplete grasp of American idiom that sometimes undercuts credibility, British first-novelist Ellory shows the boys meeting at age six in their rural hometown, Greenleaf, North Carolina. Caucasian Daniel is too young to understand the forbidden nature of his friendship with African-American Nathan, nor does he much care, especially after Nathan saves him from a clutch of bullies. As children, the two find refuge with the local eccentric, Eve Chantry, “the matriarch of Greenleaf.” Notable historic events from the time of their youth—the Kennedy assassination, the burgeoning civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and resulting protest movement, etc.—become both touchstones for Daniel’s growth and the lens (à la Forrest Gump) through which the story is told. As the boys advance through their teens, the war escalates and the prospect of the draft looms ever larger in their thoughts. Nathan receives his notice first, and the pair decides to hit the road, not for Canada as might be expected but for an extended stint as vagabonds around the South. Racism and a shared love figure prominently in Nathan’s death and Daniel’s undoing.

Brooding narrative engages interest, but could use less musing and more plot.