Cadillac Orpheus: A Novel

Inspired by Carl Hiaasen and Victor D. LaValle in equal measure Solon Timothy Woodward mines the nether regions of Florida in search of high drama and raucous comedy. Full of sex death and humor this bawdy brilliant debut introduces us to three generations of a family in the boisterous unholy uncompromising landscape that is the South of today. Nowhere are the careless vagaries of fate more evident than in a town called Johnsonville on the northern Florida coast where a family called the Toaks have pushed every possible social boundary to its logical extreme for three generations. Feddy Toak in his forties is a medical school dropout recovering alcohol and cocaine addict and former handyman. He lives marginally in cheap rental properties owned by his father Teo one of Johnsonvilles most prosperous bail bondsmen slumlord and idol to a diminishing old guard of hustlers and con men who frequent such dives as the He Aint Here Lounge. Jesmond Toak Feddys son haunted by his fathers violent past and current failures is turning toward the low road. The entire city seethes with schemes and intrigue and the plot builds as monies are reaped from a black youth falsely arrested for the murder of a white cop insurance scams involving poor residents stricken with cancer and AIDS and nefarious land deals involving cemeteries and real-estate scam artists. Suicides and murders infidelities and violence mount and converge with shattering precision on the eve of a hurricane forcing the entire community to struggle with its demons -- and search for some chance at redemption. Chronicling a slice of American landscape and culture with rare levels of depth and originality Cadillac Orpheus defies categorization: it is by turns exuberant terrifying hilarious brave brazen and above all wondrous.