A review by wentingthings
Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng
3.0
the writing here is a true work of beauty - the words drip with humidity, mud, blood, life. it's so super evocative, i almost don't care about accuracy (which i can't judge, a stranger to the south), and i swallowed event after unlikely, mystical event. it was just too satisfying to not keep on, every single scene a crystalline & perfectly formed image. i'm a huge fan of elliptical tellings, and the spare, disordered way things are laid out (with lots of detours into side characters who eventually loop back into robert chatham's story) was an excellent trail of crumbs. which made the section that featured feel like an unwelcome disvaluing of the reader's ability to read between the lines. and that ending i think was just a step too far for me into his vision.