Book Review by Robert Wiersema by Greg Iles Seven years ago, I raved in these pages about the Natchez Burning trilogy by Mississippi writer Greg Iles. In that review, I referred to those books as “an unforgettable reading experience,” and time has proven just how true this sentiment remains: the Natchez Burning trilogy is still one of my favourite reads, a work steeped in the history and complexities of the southern U.S. which sprints along with the pacing of an action thriller. Imagine my pleasure, then, when Iles announced the publication, earlier this year, of Southern Man, his new novel featuring the return of Penn Cage, the central character of the Natchez Burning trilogy and other Iles novels. When readers first met Cage, he was a former Houston-based prosecutor turned novelist who returned to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi with his daughter in the wake of his wife’s death. In the ensuing books – there are six Penn Cage novels including the trilogy – Cage was drawn deeper and deeper into the secrets of his hometown, of the south and of his family. In the process, he crossed members of the KKK, an offshoot white supremacist group, corrupt public officials and the landed gentry of the modern south. Along the way, he became something of a hero, as well as mayor of Natchez – even as much of it burned around him. The Cage we meet in the opening pages of Southern Man, however, has significantly changed. Fifteen years after the events of the trilogy, not only is Cage older, he is also facing the looming death of his mother and acknowledging – to both readers and to himself – that he suffers from the same condition (multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer) which is killing her. With that ticking clock inside himself he has grown bitter and dark, tired in every sense of the word. Everything he has fought for, it seems, has turned to dust. (Iles revealed, prior to the novel’s publication, that he is currently fighting multiple myeloma himself. He was diagnosed in 1996, but the disease “smouldered” for more than two decades before it “switched on” two years ago; Iles wrote the bulk of Southern Man while undergoing chemotherapy, pushing stem cell treatment until the novel was out in the world.) When racial violence rises in Natchez and neighbouring Bienville (where Cage now lives), however, Cage is drawn back into the fight, and readers are pulled back into the dark corners of the modern south. We are also introduced to Robert E. Lee “Bobby” White, a war hero and popular radio host who plans to capitalize on this violence and tension to propel his third party bid toward the presidency. While Cage and White are Southern Man longtime friends, it’s clear from the start where the novel’s major conflict is going to rise. Like the novels of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Southern Man is a powerful, compelling read on every level, a masterful examination of contemporary politics and social structures, history and the lies we tell ourselves about the past. It is also a novel rooted in anger and frustration, a thousand pages of powerful storytelling from one of the finest contemporary American writers. It’s absolutely galvanizing, and feels like a gift. CSANews | FALL 2024 | 39
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