(Review reprinted from the TayLorTimes, Ltd., April 27, 2008)
Gout, by Thom E. Creeler
Published by H. William Drafting
165 pages, hardback $29.95
Past lives have a way of catching up. Now there’s an original theme (Not!) But, in the hands of Thom E. Creeler, the story that is as old as old can be is made fresh as if it had never been told before.
Ruzer Halloway is at the top of his game when Gout starts and things just get better as the pages turn. His public relations agency is built on connections cultivated from his hometown Orlando neighborhood, through the University of Florida’s MBA program and right down to both sides of Brickell Avenue all the way to Coconut Grove. People he has known his whole life are now the state’s leading politicians and most aggressive and most profitable entrepreneurs, and most all still seek his advice. They’re all at the top and they all got there together. So the obvious question is simply for how long? You know they got to fall.
Gout is one of those great stories that you know just where it’s going, but damned if you know how it’s going to get there. Creeler takes us inside a little known group he calls Aggressive Inlanders, men and women who grew up along the I-4 corridor and up and down the back side, (i.e. the west side) of I-95. These are the grandkids of the mall builders and the sprawl-on crowd.
Ruzer’s eight figure billable hours each year is possible only because even though he can only be in one place at a time, he can be doing many things. No matter where he is, he is connected and can respond immediately, or pretty damn quick. That’s what makes him valuable. Had the Oracle been wireless it would not have had to stay in Delphi.
But for all that connectivity, there was an incident, a simple flaw, the weak link, the straw and camel. When it happened, when everything came together in the wrong way, what happened was simply referred to as The Snap.
Whether it was terrorism or God didn’t matter, it was the act itself. To share the bizarre series of events that lead to The Snap would revel too much of the story’s fuel, but let it suffice to say that they is a lot of fuel and it burns true.
This book is certain to be a major studio film before it is even off the best seller list. Only question is who will play the role of Ruzer, and of course, if the release of a film about a fictitious snap can beat the real thing.