This past Friday I finished reading “Dirty Little Angels” by Chris Tusa. This is his debut novel, and he personally sent me the PDF file of the book. He found me (and others) via LibraryThing.Com saying that his book might be something I liked, since there was another book that rated quite well.
For a rundown on the plot, from Chris’ web site:
Set in the slums of New Orleans, among clusters of crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers a string of financial hardships and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con. Fascinated by Moses’s lopsided view of religion, Hailey, and her brother Cyrus, begin spending time down at an abandoned bank that Moses plans to convert into a drive-through church. Gradually, though, Moses’s twisted religious beliefs become increasingly more violent, and Hailey and Cyrus soon find themselves trapped in a world of danger and fear from which there may be no escape.
What I found interesting when looking at the reviews quickly at Amazon, was that a few had compared it to “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It has been too long since I read the classic Harper Lee novel to make a comparison myself. Actually, this did compare somewhat to the book Chris targeted me with, being “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffrey Eugenides. But I think they are rather different.
Chris Tusa
The one thing that “DLA” does is bring in a realistic look at the grimy world. As absurd as on might think things are in novels, you must remember that a lot of times “truth is stranger then fiction.” This book depicted a family that is falling apart, where members are in trouble on various levels, whether with others, or struggling to make ends meet, or the law itself. In a quick, but well produced story, Mr. Tusa tells a chilling tale of life in one of these troubled families. As much as you might cringe reading some of the things the characters do and go through, there are probably many that have gone through very similar circumstances.
The book is rather short. The PDF file that I got was 170 pages, and the font was rather generous in size, as were the margins. But in many respects, this is a good thing. There are too many first time authors out there, especially in some genres (:::cough::: fantasy :::cough:::) that write these 600 page debuts. What is worse, they are only book one of a series. It’s refreshing to see someone just tell a good, if dark and grimy, story, and leave it be. He described what he needed to, in well written prose, but didn’t dwell. No “see-my-writing-chops” passages here. And the characters, for the short time they were there, had enough room to develop their own voice and personality. The story is first person from Hailey, and I personally would have liked to see deeper into her psyche. But given the length of the book, and what seemed to be the goal, her development was certainly good enough.
Even through the issues and many flaws of the characters, I found myself liking them. It comes back to the realism. Hailey’s brother Cyrus comes across as a thug. But given his desire and actions to take care of Hailey, you can see the conflict behind him. All the characters have that effect, even if some are annoying. It’s part of their character and they play a significant role.
I think this is a very good start to what could be a very good career. I am looking forward to Chris’ next novel.
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