THE ANGELS’ SHARE

Fiction


Baby shoes and bourbon

THE ANGELS’ SHARE
By James Markert
320 pp. Thomas Nelson

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

A reviewer never really knows to what to expect from a book until he starts reading it, and even then he often finds himself surprised when he reaches the end. Such was the case with James Markert’s second novel.

Thomas Nelson is the Christian publishing division of Harper Collins. The copyright page mentions scriptural quotations from the New International Version of the Bible and discussion questions that were not included in this advance reviewer’s copy. I’d never read Christian fiction, but I believe in the old adage about never judging a book by its cover – or by its copyright page. 

The tale opens in Kentucky, circa 1934. Old Sam, perhaps the finest bourbon in the country, was made in the town of Twisted Tree. (The title refers to the quantity of alcohol that burns away during the distillation process.) The distillery, owned and operated by the McFee family, was also the lifeblood of the town.

Then the Volstead Act ushered in Prohibition and Old Sam was no more, the distillery shut down with ruthless efficiency by government agents. Now, nearly fifteen years later, Prohibition has finally ended, but patriarch Barley McFee has no interest in reopening the distillery.

His oldest son, twenty-year-old William, an aspiring writer, would love to see the family business founded by his grandfather open again, if only to give the townspeople work during the Great Depression.

The McFees are still grieving the loss of their youngest, Henry, recently killed in a car accident at the age of four. Then one night, Barley and William see something strange – some kind of prayer service taking place on Potter’s Field, an open field near the distillery.

The next day, William finds a grave marker on the field. A man named Asher Keating has been buried there. It’s hardly a surprise, considering the scores of itinerants passing through as they roam the country looking for work. Having no money for funerals or proper burials, they bury their dead in open fields and hold impromptu services.

But William and Barley are both surprised by what they find inside the old distillery building – a group of squatters. These twelve people – ten white, two black, and a few women among them – claim that Asher Keating was the second coming of Christ, and that he’ll rise again.

One of the “apostles” is a beautiful young redhead named Pauline, but known by her nickname, Polly. Not your typical apostle, Polly enjoys a good belt from her trusty flask. It’s love at first sight for William.

Fascinated with the man who has become known as the Potter’s Field Christ, William decides to write a story about him. Is Keating the second coming of Christ, or are his followers just desperate people searching for a ray of hope in the dark days of the Depression? William McFee isn’t sure. Then the miracles begin.

First, William’s spunky little sister Annie wakes up to find her crippled legs healed, and their brother Johnny confesses that the night before, he went out to Asher Keating’s grave and prayed to him, asking him to make Annie’s legs work again. Then their baby brother Henry’s shoes, which had disappeared at the time of his death, mysteriously reappear.

Determined to find out who Asher Keating really was, William embarks on a search for the truth. He learns about Keating’s past as a highly decorated but shell-shocked World War I veteran who turned to opium to deal with his post traumatic stress and became an addict. Then he had a religious epiphany, kicked the habit, and devoted his life to helping the poor. William also learns that Keating’s schizophrenic mother is a patient at the nearby asylum.

When his story on Asher Keating is published by the local paper, William’s father reacts to the news by punching him in the face. Barley reveals that he did some bootlegging during Prohibition and was forced to help put away gangster Tommy “The Bat” Borduchi, a vicious psychopath, in order to save himself. Borduchi recently escaped from prison. That’s why Barley hesitated to reopen the distillery – he didn’t want to attract Borduchi’s attention.

Meanwhile, William’s article attracts scores of believers to Asher Keating’s gravesite – and protesters who accuse them and William of blasphemy. Still not sure about the enigmatic Keating, William could use some more miracles, especially when the Ku Klux Klan shows up to join the protesters and Tommy Borduchi shows up to take revenge…

The Angels’ Share is a haunting supernatural mystery you won’t soon forget. Did it make a born-again Christian out of me? Of course not, but you don’t have to be religious to appreciate this deeply moving story that hooks you right away and keeps you guessing to the end. Who or what was Asher Keating? The ambiguous yet satisfying ending leaves it to the reader to decide.

Free of stereotypes and proselytizing, the novel succeeds thanks to Markert’s talent for creating unforgettable characters and his meticulous attention to period detail. His descriptions of the bourbon-making process will make your mouth water. Highly recommended!

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com