Book Review: “Nothing But the Bones” by Brian Panowich
The Crying Game
Brian Panowich’s Nothing But the Bones is kind of what you’d get if you crossed a noir read with a Southern Gothic novel. The noir aspect is hinted at early when you have the main character reading The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. The Southern Gothic element is obvious by the fact that the characters of the novel are populated by rednecks and the entire saga is set in northern Georgia and northern Florida. In the end, the mix is a little like oil and water comingling: noir novels are known to be pulpy, and Southern Gothic novels are more literary. Thus, Nothing But the Bones comes across as being a little uneven, but, having said that, it is great fun too and gets better as it goes along — with a revealing twist here and there that one might not see coming. Nobody is going to mistake this novel for high literature, but if you have the time and the inclination, you could do a lot worse than reading this novel. You just have to get through a bit of a saggy mid-section to get to the good bits, as hackneyed and clichéd as they might seem. If you can put your mind in park, then Nothing But the Bones is entertaining enough.
The book concerns one Nelson “Nails” McKenna, who has been in the back pocket of a local crime boss in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains ever since he was a young boy. One fateful night in 1998, Nails winds up breaking up an altercation in a bar where a young woman is being sexually assaulted and winds up killing her assailant. Given his stature in the local crime community, Nails is given $8,000 to disappear to Jacksonville, Florida, where arrangements will be made for his protection — or will they? In any event, Nails takes to the open road in a muscle car, only to find that the girl he has protected has already hidden herself in it and has come along for the ride. From there, the duo winds up getting into deeper and deeper trouble as they cross paths with the son of a famous television evangelist and end up knocking over a gas station when their cash gets stolen. Meanwhile, the son of said local crime boss hits the road, too, to find out what happened to his friend at the urging of his wife and her best friend — even if that means crossing paths with his “Deddy.” The question then becomes, can this man — Clayton — find Nails before it’s too late and Nails gets knocked off? Or will Nails pull Clayton further into his world of trouble and end up getting all of them killed? Put another way, will everything end in tears? Or worse?
I found that more attention was paid to how Nothing But the Bones ends than the destination it takes to get the reader there. Therefore, I could see some readers becoming frustrated and putting down this book before giving it a chance. The reason is largely in how the book is written: the dialogue comes across as cardboard and the characters are two-dimensional (well, at least until the secret reveal). However, the last third of the book or so is dynamite and crackerjack, as if suddenly the author woke up and realized he was, until then, writing a work of sub-par fiction. The ending of this novel is bittersweet but also quite fetching. So, it’s a little odd that some of this, especially in the open road sections of the book, winds up feeling a little on the wooden side. Certainly, this is not the kind of book that would hold a candle to the best works either in the noir or Southern Gothic traditions. But then, something happens, and the novel suddenly develops a sense of compassion for certain people who were more misunderstood some 30 years ago than they are now. And that’s kind of the surprising thing about this work: it starts off being about a heinous crime and ends up being a touching meditation on what love looks like.
Conclusively, I’m not sure what to make of Nothing But the Bones. I enjoyed it but found the first half or so to be rather lopsided in approach, without giving much to care about when it comes to these characters until the book’s almost done. However, I think that a reader who has read nothing but a steady diet of noir fiction may find something to like here. Possibly the same is true of a reader of Southern Gothic if they can get past the fact that this is no William Faulkner-esque read. Overall, the ending of this left an impression and I’m happy to have read a novel that presents certain people’s sexuality in a positive light. Add to the fact that there’s the odd twist or two to be had here, and there’s something disarming about Nothing But the Bones. (As an aside, I’m not sure why the book is called that, aside from the fact that one character is nicknamed Boner.) You do have to get past the book’s unevenness, but once the action is well situated in Florida, the plot becomes explosive even if it does feel a bit generic. In any event, Nothing But the Bones is a book that does an interesting thing: graft two disparate genres together in marriage. It’s not perfect, but if you’re looking for a mindless piece of mostly fluff, it will do, I suppose. There are worse things out there to read, and the concept is interesting enough. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, in the end, you probably will.
Brian Panowich’s Nothing But the Bones was published by Minotaur Books / St. Martin’s Press on April 16, 2024.
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