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Sunday, April 8, 2012

JOE CAFE by JD Mader

Author's Creative Brand
"Joe Cafe"
Genre:  Psychological Crime Noir
Length: 136 pages
Lockjaw Publishing

My 9 Reader 'Hot-Button' Considerations

1. World's Immersion:
The stage is first set by a comforting nostalgia...a simple, ma & pa store kind of small town, Millersville, where the only reality of violence was at a distance, sending their young men away to war.  The first interior Readers will step inside is the Joe Cafe, owned by the Chens.  A family-operated, 'town personality symbol' embodied by the kind of comfort-food atmosphere, where locals could be their own irritating or invisible selves...where truckers en route from elsewhere would make a point of stopping in, off the long road. 

When I read about the underbelly, I like to find myself in the darkened places.  That's part of the fun of reading...going places one might not try to go in reality.  JD takes Readers through the belly of seedy motels where the illicit go to play or hide, a strip club housing the lost and languishing, but also away from the hidden town grit, to a town's dreaming, quiet place.  The rooms we read about house many extreme acts, ludicrous acts, haunting, humiliating...and fascinating.

2. Character/Icons:
CHET MOONEY:  A time-bomb with legs, who walks into Millersville and takes the entire town's innocence hostage.
SARA:  A girl who disappears into a fearful hole, but proves to be many more colors than simply that.
MICHAEL:  Millersville's only rep of the law, the other quit...leaving him to find what he's got inside.
JIMMY THE CAT:  The kind of guy you call when you're in trouble.  He's nimble, he can call in the heavy handed solution, and yet the corridors of his interior world are stranger than appearances.
FRANKIE NO-NAME:  The heavy-handed solution; but beneath the tough suit, this man has his code.
DOGAN:  A misplaced man, operating in the heart of darkness, but looking outward to somewhere else.
THE CHENS: Casualties of a family security...destined to be a town's identity wiped clear off the map.
Past these hinting descriptions, JD's characters will creep circles around Reader expectations...

3. Structural Appointments:
This book is not plot-driven as many thrillers tend to be, because the psychological portraits are the real action.  This story is told in linear time, but does not feel like an archetypal plot-line in that events are less about propelling Readers forward through constant events to the climax, and more about a deeper co-habitation with the book's psychologies...what each character is sorting out. 

There is an inevitable climax where fates are decided, as these combustible events demand it; but for me, I felt when the climax does arrive, it is only after character compasses are re-set by key decisions made.  The structural arcs of each character's journey into rise or demise, is what we are following.

4. "Visuality":
I found "Joe Cafe" to be largely verbal and interior in nature.  With that said, visuals become key when the images express the inner focus of a character's journey.  When details are brought into play by the author, they do enhance the grit of this book's feel.  When violence erupts, depending on who is executing it, there is a visceral attention on those aspects that will stick in the mind like a knife.


5. Thematic/Mythic Appeal:
Redemption is a powerful ingredient during walks through the dark.  JD shows the weakened human condition in various stages, but surprisingly, holds a light aloft in the distance. Readers will explore the deteriorization of the mind, the hard choices we make when freedom is no longer an option, and how intense pressures can sometimes force us to really see what is truly important in all the human detritus.  The inner mirror, in "Joe Cafe," is a dirty one wiped at with a soiled rag, leaving smears of clarity.


6. Story Flow:
JD keeps his pace moving, as he presents his scenes almost in 'snippets.'  The Reader steps into each scene as a character is already in the midst of turmoil, externally or internally, but we almost drop in on these personalities in progress.  We follow them into their private worlds...and the flow of the story is the deepening of our involvement with these characters as they spiral down to their inevitable truths.

The pacing of the story does shift, depending on which state of being, Readers are visiting.  Each character has a tempo to their own scenes.  The tempo shifts up or down, from a soul's ennui to fevered hope, to seeking creature comforts in a cold-world's progression of events...and all points in between.

7. Innovation/Genre-Blend:
"Joe Cafe" with its frame of a despicable homicidal blood-bath, sets the initial tone of a Crime Genre.  Typical characterizations in what is also known as the Hard-Boiled or "Tough Tradition" would be those tormented, desperate, conniving personalities on either side of the law, crawling in the dark corridors of society.  While Readers will get these types in Chet, Sara, Frankie and others, what is fresh here, is that the psychological interiors of these characters go places that are genuinely surprising.

This psychological exploration is why I placed "Psychological" in front of the Genre designation of Crime Thriller...because in my estimate of this book, the reality was less about the hard facts, and clearly more about the internal facts.  This is JD's reimagination of what kind of people find themselves on the lower rungs of society.  People who, despite appearances and desolate conditions, still have souls, dreams, intense fears, and yes...desperation too...to find a way out of the cracks they fell into.


8. Author's Voice/Language:
JD's language is direct, terse, and spare...sometimes...depending on which head he is inside and what moment.  The author's voice ranges liberally into the heads of the various characters in this ensemble.  This direction is key, because the action of this book largely happens within the colorful diversity of its denizens, and their ranging depth of emotional and psychological differences. 

Part of the author's vision in "Joe Cafe," this first independently published book with Lockjaw, is JD's interest in dropping Readers directly into difficult and challenging mind-sets.  Whether one wants to inhabit the minds of the mentally insane, the hardened of heart, the soul-sick, or determined survivalist...read this book and these are the places one can expect to follow the author's voice; but it's not all doom here.  JD invests a beating heart of hopefulness into this dark mix, but Readers will have to roam deep into the darkness to find it.

Something I particularly enjoyed about the author voice, is that there is a lot of character dialogue, and at many points, it felt to me like I was listening to character performances on a stage, in a play. 


9. The After Resonance:
For my first post on indie books, I was looking for something gritty that gets under the skin, and takes some chances with Readers' perceptions.  JD's story presented a cast of characters that on the surface expectation, would be difficult to empathize with.  This was actually one of the reasons I chose the book.  I wanted to see what this author could do to illuminate their hard conditions. 

What was tasty about the after resonance of this book, is that tough-skin melted into recognizable humanity.  I believe it is that humanizing effect that makes "Joe Cafe" a fascinating peeling back of intriguing layers.  I wanted to get at the heart of what these people were, at their core.  JD didn't disappoint me, because as a writer, he made creative choices, exploding hard archetypes leaving only very human traces behind.

"Joe Cafe" by JD Mader, with Lockjaw Publishing, may be further discovered at:
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Caf%C3%A9-ebook/dp/B004ZG8KRK

10 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great review. Wow, very in depth and you definitely got what I was going for. Cheers!

    JD
    www.jdmader.com

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    Replies
    1. You're so welcome, JD. It was a compelling draw for me to analyze a book like yours, which steps into strange minds and stranger situations. If you pick up this thread, I'd like to ask you: What was the pivotal sparking notion which tipped you a vision of writing this, your first full-length novel?

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  2. I decided to start with just one event, the murder, no plan for the novel. The characters presented themselves-I quickly became interested in Chet and annoyed with Michael - and intrigued by the ways 'good' and 'evil' are perceived and what role society plays in determining whether we are good or evil. Or if there is such thing as good or evil. That idea kind of took over the novel. And you are very right, the book is character and psychologically focused. The psychology guides the novel and the changes in the character move the plot.

    Thanks again, and I'd be happy to answer any Q's you have.

    JD
    www.jdmader.com

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  3. A highly intelligent structured review of a writer I enjoy enormously and am watching out for. JD Mader has written an excellent piece of Noir in Joe Cafe.
    Richard Godwin. author of Apostle Rising
    http://www.amazon.com/Apostle-Rising-Richard-Godwin/dp/0956711308/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334519468&sr=1-1
    Mr. Glamour
    http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Glamour-Richard-Godwin/dp/0956711332

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  4. Fantastic to have another hitter from the noir angle, leave some resonance behind. Thanks Richard ~ will check into "Apostle Rising" in future.

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  5. We'll take this up a little with JD in a follow-up post. I ought to mention, JD has published his second full-length novel, "The Biker." No spoilers on "Joe Cafe," though I will say ~ the Michael character may have frustrated JD, but I found him to be among the more surprising in the cast, as to what I expected.

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  6. Just purchased 'Joe Cafe' on Kindle for PC based on this review. Will definitely be checking back for more indie recommendations!

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  7. I appreciate your discerning interest, franman. The more, avid Readers and Writers pick-up the dialogue on intriguing indie authors, the more relevance will be brought to appreciating The Book :)

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  8. I made every other reference to this Genre, but Richard put his finger on it...it applies to this book's effect. "Noir."
    I believe an adjustment to the Brand Genre above, will be made shortly ;) Dre

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  9. Thanks all for their interest. It means a lot to me and my imaginary people. :)

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