There is an overwhelming feeling of oppression and corruption that brings to mind questions of not only how society defines masculinity but also how our choices define our course in life and our eventual legacy.Īll Things Left Wild has a slow-burn plot that highlights Mr.

I felt I was riding along with the characters because the author’s descriptions are so picturesque. It is a sweeping saga set in historic, southwest Texas. His stories are both visceral and intellectual.Īll Things Left Wild is told from the point of view of a teen and an older man. His writing is crisp yet poetic, concise yet highly descriptive. I read James Wade’s debut novel, All Things Left Wild, after reading his second novel. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul. Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice.

With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill. After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century.

All things left wild review