Somebody Else’s Troubles, J.A. English. Union Lake, MI: Zimbell House Publishing, 2020.
Summary: Several troubled individuals find their way to Mabuhay, a tiny Caribbean Island, and find in the troubles of others the possibility of the redemption of their own.
Five individual stories intersect on the tiny Caribbean island of Mabuhay. They come from Chicago, New York, and Athens, Ohio.
Travers Landeman inherited a family business, in a gradual declined propped up by government subsidies and transformed by the extra personnel these subsidies require. He is married to a shrew, Corinne, who shrewdly recognized that he’d be able to fund the lifestyle she coveted. Things come to a head when a nephew, sexually abused by a priest, commits suicide after reaching out in vain for help from Travers. A night with a prostitute leads to extortion, the decision to take flight to Mabuhay, and then to faking his own death. Albert Sidney McNab is a plodding but relentless insurance/private investigator who is convinced that Landeman never really died and is determined to find him. Apart from his sleuthing, he lives a lonely life.
The others in this tale are: Joe Rogers, whose best friend is a Vodka bottle. His former wife sets him up in a bookstore, complete with live-in help, Zero. The Yellow Harp gets off to a rocky start as a women’s group remembering the women’s history of the place (a former brothel) ends up starting a small fire, the damages from which turn out to be uninsured. A chance to fill in for an archaeologist on a dig in Mabuhay offers respite from it all. An accidental fall results in a near fatal ankle break, and the discovery of a singular ritual mask. Father Chester O’Reilly started out as a parish priest in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago where he grew up under a power-grasping monsignor. The parish is declining due to white flight, and Father Chester is too honest about issues of race and justice to be farmed out to the suburbs. A bequest providing for an Austin priest to provide spiritual care to the natives of Mabuhay offers a way out, and as he embraces the ways of the island, they embrace him. Marguerite departs from her love, Schugay, to pursue nursing studies in Chicago, being connected to hosts in the Austin neighborhood by Father Chester. She’s mugged, and then after pursuing charges, raped by her mugger. Chicago is nothing but a series of losses for Marguerite, including the loss of Schugay. Heartbroken, Marguerite returns to Mabuhay.
The narrative moves back and forth between the individuals, tracing their paths to Mabuhay. Along the way, they become voices for the corruption and sexual abuse scandals of the Catholic Church, the dynamics of white flight to the suburbs in Chicago, the war on drugs that made the careers of politicians and made neighborhoods like Austin the targets of drug busts, and the weasly practices of insurance companies and government funding programs. The story of Travers’ nephew is one of homosexual attraction when it couldn’t be spoken of, the intensity of his sexual experiences alternating with struggles with shame, compounded by a predatory priest. The confluence of these characters on Mabuhay opens up new choices for them in a new culture, for how they will live, and whether they will engage the troubles of “somebody else.”
It is interesting that the discussion guide for this novel raises the question of an authorial voice that editorializes at various places. I personally felt that the plot and characters were interesting enough and got at the issues explored in the editorial passages of the novel. I suspect the author, who continues to reside at least part of the time in the Austin neighborhood that is one of the settings of this novel, has strongly formed and important opinions for which this novel serves as a vehicle. I personally felt that he could have trusted the story to say these things for him. It did for me.
Top international reviews
Stuart Aken
5.0 out of 5 stars Literary Fiction at its Best: Honest, Intriguing, Engaging.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2020
All serious works of fiction should carry at least one underlying message. Some manage this with such subtlety it barely makes a conscious impression on those not seeking it, others blare it out loudly, covering their story with a condescending layer of preaching. Many lie somewhere in between; a reasonable balance of theme and story. In this extraordinary tale of human relationships, deceit, corruption, faith, betrayal, love, and death, Joe English has pretty well managed that difficult balance.
This is primarily a story, for all its exposure of the sordid reality of the war on drugs, corruption in high places, and the suppurating sore of the continued reliance on faith by so many people. It’s the story of one man’s struggle with his conscience, of one woman’s fight against injustice, of another man’s conversion from dedicated bloodhound to a more thoughtful mode, of the betrayal of trust by men who purport to care about truth, and of so much more.
The characters here are complex, real, engaging and, in some instances, foul specimens who demonstrate that existence for survival alone is an inadequate way of life for any person. These are fully developed people, though they are mostly unusual individuals; archetypes rather than stereotypes. I was hooked from the start. I cared what happened to these adventurers. I also cared that those who deserved retribution would receive it.
I’ve long been of the opinion that the war on drugs is not only a waste of time, money and other valuable resources, but a shield actively defending the crooks who live off the profits of such trade. The action, and a descriptive passage, in this book perfectly illustrate the corrupt fallacy that is the continuing hypocrisy surrounding the various, selective, and discriminatory attitudes to addiction. All those who promote the war on drugs should read it, and consider the reality of this futile, unwinnable and destructive series of pointless battles.
There’s humor here as well, to relieve the reader from those passages that tell of grief, violence, injustice, and the hypocrisy of religious faith. There’s also tenderness, love, desire and sex.
I’ve found so often in books written by Americans, an unconscious assumption that the world fully understands the customs, traditions, acronyms, and institutions of the USA. It often comes across as a sort of arrogance, unfortunately. As a secular humanist from the UK, much of the religious stance is alien to me, lacking any sort of logic and incapable of answering even the most basic scrutiny and analysis. Also, the political structure, which gives the impression of a scheme devised by the wealthy and power-hungry to maintain their elite status, appears unjust, inherently corrupt, and not fit for purpose. But this, of course, is not the fault of the author. The unfortunate and unintended consequence of these assumptions, however, mean certain aspects of American life are incomprehensible to the rest of the world. There’s a difficult balance to be achieved by authors from all parts of the world to provide enough information about such native norms to allow foreign readers to understand them, while not overburdening the home population with details they fully comprehend. For the most part, this book manages that balance well, failing only in isolated passages.
The presentation is unusual here. We hear from various narrators, in a mix of first and third person and in voices that capture the individual mannerisms and colloquialisms of the origin and environment of their locale. Understandably, some short passages require a little more dedication from the reader to interpret meaning from the sometimes rambling styles. But this all comes across as authentic and adds to the enjoyment and appreciation of the book rather than detracting from it.
This is a novel that asks important, universal questions in a narrative that engages and entertains. It’s a book worthy of recommendation, a book merging the thought-provoking with an emotional content that will satisfy the romantic while allowing the thriller reader enough action to keep the pages turning. I’m delighted I read it.
I am an avid reader. I seldom--just about never--read contemporary fiction. The characters and plots are unrealistic; the writing, flat. I stick to nonfiction and read, read, read. A friend of mine demanded that I give SOMEBODY ELSE'S TROUBLES a try. A fascinating work! Compelling characters, interesting stories, well-written words. If I find myself thinking about a work weeks after it's finished, I feel confident enough to recommend it to others, and I do so now. TROUBLES is the perfect beach book, the book to take with you to the airport. You won't want to put it down.
Paul Godlewski
Beautifully written. Characters, all very different, escape unfulfilled, quite dismal lives and find redemption on a Caribbean Island. The characters all have very different voices & aren't prosaic. Tough book to put down.
J. H.
The latest novel from author J.A. English is a delight. It explores the crazy goings on of a memorable cast of characters in the city, in the ghetto, and in the Caribbean. An excellent read for your beach vacation
Robert Bryant