A review by knitter22
Fall Back Down When I Die by Joe Wilkins

4.0

Joe Wilkins is a skilled poet, and it shows in his debut novel, Fall Back Down When I Die. Set in eastern Montana's Bull Mountains, his writing captures the essence of the setting and the importance of land, loyalty, and revenge. Fall Back Down When I Die is the simple story of Wendell Newman, a 24-year-old ranch hand who is trying to do the best that he can after the suicide of his mother and becoming the caretaker of his cousin's son, Rowdy. Chapters from other characters like Wendell's father Verl, vice principal Gillian Houlton, and her daughter Maddy give the reader a fuller picture of why trying to do the best you can may still not be enough.

Was she saying he’d already somehow let Rowdy down? That no matter what he did it wouldn’t be enough? That people like him — his mother, his father, Lacy, him — simply didn’t have it in them? He felt his jaw tighten. He tried to let it go, but the world burned now at the limits of his vision. That same old shame, that fear and rage at being examined, judged, found wanting.

This is a sad and tragic story, but one so beautifully written that it is well worth reading.