REVIEW and GIVEAWAY
The Occult Persuasion
and the Anarchist’s Solution
and the Anarchist’s Solution
by Lisa de Nikolits
The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution by Lisa de Nikolits is currently on tour with Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for my review, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
For more books by this author, please check out my blog post on The Nearly Girl, my blog post on No Fury Like That, and my blog post on Rotten Peaches.
Description
The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution is about a couple experiencing a crisis. The husband, Lyndon, loses his job as editor of a financial magazine. Neither are happy with aging. Lyndon has gotten by with charm and frozen emotions. The wife, Margaux, has no idea how angry she is with him for his detachment. It is her idea to sell the house and just travel. But he is not coping well with retirement, so he simply walks off a ferry in Australia and leaves her. He steals a cat (well, he steals an expensive SUV that happens to have a cat onboard) and he flees Sydney, ending up in Apollo Bay, a few hours south-west of Melbourne, where he falls in with a group of anarchists and punk rockers in a tattoo parlour, planning revolution.
Meanwhile, Margaux sits tight in Sydney with no idea of where her husband might be or what happened. She moves into the red-light Kings Cross area, befriending the owner of the hostel, a seventy-year-old ex-cop drag queen from Saint John, New Brunswick, and waits to hear from her husband.
When she learns that her husband is fine, she is consumed by wrath and she invokes the angry spirit of an evil nurse, a key player in the terrible Chelmsworth sleep therapy in which many patients died (historical fact). While Lyndon gets in touch with his original career ambition to become an artist and wrestles with anarchism versus capitalism, Margaux learns to deal with her rage.
A serio-comedic thriller about a couple who embark on an unintentionally life-changing around-the-world adventure, The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution is about the meaning of life, healing from old wounds, romantic love at all ages, and how love and passion can make a difference, at any age.
Excerpt
1. MARGAUX
“MY HUSBAND HAS FALLEN OVERBOARD.” I kept repeating that to anyone to who would listen, but everyone looked at me as though I were deranged. I was certain he had fallen into the black sea of the Sydney Harbour. Panic stopped my breath as if a cork had been shoved down my throat. I ran from one side of the ferry to the other and back, but, just like the last time I checked, he was not there.
It was close to midnight and the Sydney Harbour was a tar pit of roiling waves, churning and chopping. I leaned over the railing, trying to see him in the water, searching for an outstretched arm, but the ferry was moving too quickly. Half a dozen people onboard looked at me curiously, and I could see them thinking, Nuts, she’s nuts, don’t make eye contact. I started panting like a dog, making horrible sounds.
I grabbed the deckhand by the arm. I tried to form words but I could hardly talk. All I could say was, “Husband. Gone. Must have fallen overboard.” I pointed to the water, thick like molasses.
The deckhand was kind. He didn’t call me a raving lunatic. He helped me check the ferry from stern to bow, starboard to port, not once but twice. He asked for my husband’s cellphone number, and he dialled it on speaker. It went straight to voicemail. I had already tried, with the same response. Hiya. Lyndon here. Do the necessary or forever hold your peace.
“He’s fallen overboard,” I said. “We have to find him.”
Praise for the Book
“... this one should be on everybody’s must-read list.” ~ Dietrich Kalteis, author of Zero Avenue
“... a masterpiece that firmly places her as one of the best Canadian writers of our time.” ~ Brenda Clews, author of A Fugue in Green
“... a taut, tight thriller involving domestic disputes, death and a wonderfully jarring book title.” ~ Nate Hendley, True-Crime Writer, Author of The Boy on the Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto
“Thought-provoking, this novel has a story that will interest discussion groups and create quite interesting and unique questions and answers.” ~ Fran Lewis, Just Reviews
“De Nikolits grabs the reader by the scruff of their neck and pulls them along, willingly, for a wild, unexpected, and zany ride.” ~ Myna Wallin, author of Anatomy of an Injury
My Review
By Lynda Dickson
While on a vacation to Sydney, Australia, Lyndon abruptly leaves Margaux, his wife of thirty-five years, stealing a car and the Maine Coon cat in the back seat. He travels down the coast of Australia, destination unknown, meeting a bunch of quirky characters along the way, the main one being Jason, “a six-foot-five, tattoo-headed bundle of lean muscle and coiled-up energy.” Together, they plan a non-violent anarchists’ protest involving a sh*t-load of toilet paper.
Meanwhile, Margaux moves into a hostel run by eccentric drag queen Tim and meets her own share of personalities. Her anger at Lyndon inadvertently leads her to summon the ghost of an evil psychiatric patient, thereby necessitating an exorcism with the help of her new friends.
In essence, Lyndon is running away from Margaux as well as himself, while Margaux is searching for Lyndon but might just end up finding herself. It will be a holiday that will change them both. And, while it will tear them apart, it will also bring them closer together.
The story is told from the points-of-view of Margaux and Lyndon in alternating chapters, with their disparate story lines eventually joining up. I found it hard to keep up with all the characters, as I read the book over a two-week period and kept forgetting who’s who. Some of the dialogue is stilted and unnatural due to the lack of use of contractions. In addition, the infidelity is off-putting, and the accident at the end feels contrived and unnecessary.
Still, the story is fun, as well as serious, and it’s interesting to read about places I’ve been and incidents based on fact. The toilet paper discussion is particularly amusing given the current situation in Australia with said commodity.
I don’t like this book as much as the author’s previous offerings, but it’s still a worthwhile and thought-provoking read.
Warnings: sex scenes, infidelity, suicide.
Some of My Favorite Lines
“… no one wanted to feel irrelevant and now, with social media providing a reality TV platform for the intimacies of our daily lives, we were all celebrity stars in our docudramas.”
“When he talked, I got lost in the melody of his words and forgot to listen to the lyrics.”
“I hadn’t realized how depressing getting old had been, that there had been nothing ground-breaking or new to look forward to, that there was nothing that hadn’t been tried. Everything was the same old same old, literally.”
“Classic mid-life crisis,” Tim said. “And look at the opportunities it afforded you. You met us, were possessed by a demon, had a surprise visit from your son, banished the demon, fell in love, got a tattoo, and soon, you will be part of a revolutionary protest hosted by a bunch of anarchists who are flying in from all around the world.”
About the Author
Lisa de Nikolits is the internationally-acclaimed, award-winning author of nine novels: The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, AGlittering Chaos, Witchdoctor’s Bones, Between The Cracks She Fell, The Nearly Girl, No Fury Like That, Rotten Peaches, and The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution (all Inanna). No Fury Like That was published in Italian in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine under the title Una furia dell’altro mondo. Her short fiction and poetry have also been published in various anthologies and journals across the country. She is a member of the Mesdames of Mayhem, the Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the International Thriller Writers. Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits came to Canada in 2000. She lives and writes in Toronto.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a one of two $15 Amazon gift cards or one of two print copies of The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution by Lisa de Nikolits (US only).
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