Poor Jumbo

This Rock by Robert Morgan. I cannot give a proper book review yet because for one, I'm not finished reading, and two, my Mom hasn't read it yet and will kill me if I give away the plot. She turned me on to Robert Morgan's books and I've already devoured Gap Creek and The Truest Pleasure. Well, she and Eighth Day Books turned me on to Morgan's books, I should say. Robert Morgan is a splendid writer; I was convinced immediately upon reading Gap Creek.

Tonight I read a passage from This Rock which was starkly macabre. I sat in our silent, dimly-lit living room in utter horror as I read of North Carolina folk hanging an elephant by means of train crane. When that didn't work they began shooting the poor creature in the head which they should have done first instead of torturing Jumbo (he crushed a man). My visual imagination could see every detail as realistically as if it were FOX News footage. I felt nauseous, livid, depressed, and near ready to sign up for PETA. I slammed the book shut, completely despondent. I said to Johnny, I just read the most horrible thing. I told him the story and he sympathized, "That is horrible! What country?" I said, North Carolina in the early 1900s, in that novel I'm reading. He said, "Honey, that's just fiction, you know." I stated defiantly, I know! Then I thought, Damn. What a great writer. I love to read! After I recover and remember what a sham PETA is, I'll keep reading with merlot in hand, and pray for pleasant dreams instead of nightmares.