Guest Post: Benoit Lelievre- Lineage

Benoit Lelievre is one of the most talented young unpublished writers I know. He has a keen mind, and a unique perspective on the world and knows how to verbalize it. His blog, Dead End Follies, is one of the few that I check on a regular basis, because it never fails to be relevant and entertaining.

When I asked Ben if he wanted to do a "guest blog" exchange, I honestly didn't expect that his would be about The Bastard Hand... don't get me wrong, I'm gratified as hell... but I DO feel a bit, what's the word? Self-conscious?

I can deal with self-conscious. If all literary commentary was this well-written, it would be a much better world.

Thanks, Ben, and welcome to Psycho-Noir...

Lineage


"I don’t mean to piss you all off, but I have read The Bastard Hand already. Believe me, it’s going to bruise a lot of sensibilities when it comes out. Right-wing nuts and well-thinkers are going to check-in in the nearby hospitals for third degree burns to their fingertips. But you know what’s awesome? Since I am technically a literature teacher (got the paper, just not the class yet), my word just got infused with wisdom and value. And I can tell the well-thinkers and the Jesus freaks that The Bastard Hand is a product of its time. It’s at the end of a lineage of novels with a precise goal. Destroying your sense of false security.


You can notice influences in Heath’s writing. Because in originality lies the word origin. It’s been a long way to Reverend Childe to happen, but the fruit of Mr. Lowrance’s demented mind bear small resemblance to the dirty south of Flannery O’Connor, the lawless landscapes of James Ellroy and razor thin morality of David Goodis. It lied in the small details, hidden in the cracks, in the middle of the sentences, but it helped me bond with Charlie Wesley, as tainted as he is.


The Bastard Hand, like its predecessors, is a witness to the false truths to which large groups of people live their life by. It’s what would happen if the walls of greed and deceit would come down crashing. Whether you write noir, transgressive or simply crime fiction, your work is to attack the sacred and debunk the human nature under it. It’s exactly what The Bastard Hand is doing. It watches the humans burn as god has went into hiding."