Here's an interesting book from a new Arizona author that I picked up at Phoenix Fan Fusion early last month. It's a novel, but I get the impression that it's not entirely fictional. I have no idea how much of Jonathan T. Cross's life is between these pages, but the bio in the back highlights that he went through something in this vein as a former addict who's got clean. Kudos to him for finding a way out of that and for finding a way to channel that experience into words.

Cross may or may not be Zeke, our lead character, but Zeke isn't Zeke for long. He starts out young and naïve. He has a daughter, Sadie, who's in a stroller as the book begins. He loves her very much, even though his relationship with her mother, Eva, ended pretty much as soon as she was born. It's pretty clear that they hooked up, had some fun and Sadie's the result. And, as is so often the case, the mother gets the say in most things. He doesn't get custody of Sadie. He doesn't get a fair deal in organising visitation rights. And he's screwed when he plays what cards he believes that he has poorly and is promptly served for nonexistent abuse.

So, he makes a change. He moves out of his brother Levi's place and into a house with Jay, a work friend who needs a roommate. The catch is that Levi cares about Zeke but Jay only cares about the parties that he throws. He cares so much that he throws one for Jay when he moves in and that's a turning point because it's where Zeke takes his first ecstasy tablet. And, for the first time in a long while, he's happy, blissfully happy in fact, which ought to point the way forward to where this novel is going to go. Take a wild stab in the dark how long before he finds himself doing something more than ecstasy and something more than that.

The best aspect to this book is how effortless it seems. I don't mean the prose, because, as much as I enjoyed it, it's not too much of a surprise, especially early on, to know that this is Cross's debut. I mean the downward spiral that Zeke consistently takes, driven by bad decisions, constantly trying to get out of his hole by digging deeper. There are ways out that show up every once in a while, but he manages to avoid every one of them and believably too. He even recognises some of them but a word here or an action there is enough to skew him into a different course.

Another strong aspect is how realistic it all feels. I'm English and of an age that remembers how a large proportion of social activities happened down at the pub. At times, I certainly drank more than I should have done, not enough to be a problem but enough to know that it could have been. Drugs to me are a distant thing, something I see in movies or read about in books like this one. However, this plays out so honestly that I feel like it's about as realistic as it gets. Even though he really had no interest in taking that first ecstasy tablet, it works a charm for Zeke. He has a lot of good times on drugs. Until he doesn't.

And, by that point, he's not Zeke any more. He's X. He's lost his crappy job so starts dealing to find a way to pay for his own habit. He finds a girl, who gets him onto hard stuff. And harder stuff. And a little while later, he screws up, very possibly because he's meant to, and has to start doing a whole bunch of stuff that he might not have chosen to do because he owes people. And so it goes.

Cross is honest about how good drugs can be, especially at a tough time in a young person's life, as he's at his lowest, but also how bad they can be too when they start to own him. The highs aren't as high and they don't last as long. He's honest about how good the drug life can be as well, how easy some things can feel, such as women and money, but also how bad they can be when they get their hooks in and the options vanish. It all feels acutely realistic and it gives me even more respect for Cross who was able to find a way out.

This honesty extends to the characters. There are certainly some bad dudes in this book, don't get me wrong, but most of them are people like Zeke who have found their way into the scene and are now doing what they can to survive. Some are starting out, while others are established, dealing a few drugs here and there or running an operation. However, they're all victims of the system, even if they don't know it yet and even if they're doing well out of it. There are sympathetic characters I had absolutely no expectation of feeling sympathy for and unsympathetic characters who I felt for initially. Our perception of anyone starts with an introduction and introductions need context that we don't necessarily have because Zeke or whoever else doesn't necessarily have it.

If there's a worst aspect to the book, it might be how relentlessly chronological it is. I certainly felt that early on, before I got sucked into the story the way that Zeke got sucked into the scene, but it changes. Partway through, I realised that it had to be chronological because that's the honest way to do it. Cross isn't trying to glamourise anything and he's not wallowing in the slime for effect. He introduces his lead character and sets him in motion. When Zeke needs to make a decision, he does so and, a hundred and eighty pages later, he ends up where he ends up. Different perspectives are irrelevant. Flashbacks wouldn't help. So Cross keeps it simple, meaning that the worst aspect isn't a worst aspect at all, even if we think it might be early on.

I hope this book finds an audience. It has a power to it that comes from not flexing muscles. It's not glitzy and flash and deliberately deep. It's honest and the depths come from that honesty. Maybe it might find its way into the hands of someone early enough into Zeke's journey that they can see a parallel and change their course, even if they picked it up because of its hip title and its promise of sex, drugs and, well, a banana. Oh yes, there's a banana and it has a very good reason to be in a book about sex and drugs. Anyway, if just one person like that learns from 'Valley of the Spun', it's done its job. It has the potential to do it often and I wish it all the best. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by Jonathon T Cross click here