Publisher:
Resource Publications (CA)

Publication Date:
02/28/2024

Copyright Date:
N/A

ISBN:
979-8-3852-0878-4(paperback)979-8-3852-0880-7 ebook

Binding:
Paperback

U.S. SRP:
16.00

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ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN

By James Varga

IR_Star-black
IR Rating:
4.7
A quirky blend of hog hysteria, grave-robbing intrigue, and existential courtroom drama, James Varga’s ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN is a vibrant mosaic of small-town life.
IR Approved
An enigmatic drifter upends a sleepy Midwestern hamlet full of oddball characters.

In ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN, James Varga returns to the sleepy hamlet of Greens Point, Illinois, the setting of his debut novel, Tombs of Little Egypt. This time around, the town faces a new existential threat: a sounder of feral swine that sends Sheriff Hank Turner and his bumbling deputy, Butch, on a hog-wild chase. Amidst the chaos of the Boar War, a stranger blows into town: Atticus Shaw, a haunted, hard-luck drifter hired to run the hog baron’s pig factory. After his friend and coworker Duke dies in a gruesome waste pond accident, Atticus finds solace in a budding romance with Mary, the co-owner of the local watering hole, Tucker’s Bar and Grill. However, his newfound domestic bliss is shattered when he finds himself in the crosshairs of Sheriff Turner, who is convinced that Atticus is actually Lou Vitale, a man convicted of a series of notorious grave robberies a decade earlier.

ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN skillfully combines folksy humor with poignant insights into the human condition. The novel’s unhurried plotting and whimsical digressions give it a loose, anecdotal feel that perfectly suits its setting and subject. Varga’s obvious affection for his colorful cast of small-town oddballs—from the cantankerous old-timers at Herman’s barbershop (who engage in endless debates about everything from the nature of reality to the logistics of the town’s ridiculous Boar War statue) to the town’s resident prophet, “Dizzy” Platte, who spouts cryptic utterances like “the sun and water become one”—lends the story a genuine warmth.

Despite a third-act pileup of plot (the book crams a Boar War memorial, a farcical fingerprint analysis, and a courtroom climax into its final pages) and slow-burn pacing that may not be for everyone, ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN emerges as a poignant fable of redemption and a loving, bemused tribute to small-town Midwestern life. “The only thing that matters in life is found in a relationship with another person,” Atticus’s spiritual mentor, Reverend Betts, tells him—summing up the messy, roundabout journey our hero has taken to find his place in the world. Equal parts Preston Sturges and Flannery O’Connor, ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN is an offbeat charmer that wears its slightly cracked heart on its sleeve.

A quirky blend of hog hysteria, grave-robbing intrigue, and existential courtroom drama, James Varga’s ATTICUS FROM SHAWNEETOWN is a vibrant mosaic of small-town life.

~Edward Sung for IndieReader

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