A novel about a trucker...
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Alan N. Webber
REVIEW
REVENGE ON THE LAWYERS?
Review by Phil Angelo
Kankakee Daily Journal
What constitutes a "hero" changes in our society.
At one point, television was overrun with Westerns. Not so much anymore. There was also the medical phase of hero worship. There are still some doctor shows on television, but not with the adulation of "Marcus Welby, MD," "Dr. Kildare" or "Ben Casey."
Now we have police shows, and twenty-something folks trying to make their relationships work.
So why not a truck-driving hero?
A truck driver is the main character of Alan Webber's "Whipping Post," 289 pages, $18.95 Weaving Dreams Publsihing, 2010. The book is Webber's first, although it was years in the making. He started several books and wove them together into his first novel.
He kicked off the book with a book signing two months ago at Kankakee Community College. The book is a project of Weaving Dreams Publishing, put together by local author, now publisher, L. Sue Durkin.
Some Perspective: The book does two things.
First, it gives ordinary readers a good glimpse of what life is like as a truck driver. Webber, from Clifton, with 37 years in the trucking business, vividly describes life on the road. There's harrassment by the cops, speed traps in Kankakee County and a love-hate relationship with the freeway ahead. It's a life of independence, and also of lonliness.
Webber makes the point, both in person and on the dust jacket, that he's a truck driver writing a novel, not a novelist trying to find out what truck driving is like. So his prose resonates with authority.
Second, Webber puts together a pretty good story here. A number of conflicts weave throughout the story. Hero-trucker Tim Harrison enjoys driving. It's the only life he knows and one handed down by his father. But his many hours and days away from home foul up his marriage. This leads to the second ongoing dilemna: Should Harrison change his job to do a better job raising his kids?
Webber's book has a real solid beginning - told as a flashback. Harrisons wife Amy tosses him out and takes up with a complete loser, a dope user who abuses the kids while being high. Women, as well as men, can often make very, very bad decisions.
The doper, one Andy Barnes, severely beats Harrison's young son Jeremy and gets brought up on charges. A clever lawyer, Graham Crane, frees him on a technicality.
So as the book begins, Harrison kidnaps the lawyer, planning to drag him along to witness his personal revenge. The kidnap section of the book in an absolute page-turner. Will Crane escape? Your sympathy floats back and forth between Harrison and Crane, but if you have ever wished for a life's revenge on lawyers, this is your book.
After the kidnapping, the book picks up speed - maybe too much speed. There are a lot of plot twists, with quite a lot of new characters. To Webber's credit, none are one-dimensional. There are moments of hesitation, and self-realization, with the best and the worst.
Webber does a good job with action scenes. His use of description and dialogue is also first-rate.
The ending comes a bit too quickly. I found myself wishing for more, but Webber also left the door open for a sequel. Nonetheless, this is a quick read and a good beginning for a new novelist