Title: The Rage
Author: Temujin Hu
Publisher: Badlander Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-578-10800-1
Pages: 294, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Action/Crime
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
A dark morality tale. Two young men whose lives are doomed by circumstance are driven to rebellious and sometimes nihilistic rage with murderous results. As the product of a terribly broken home, Roland feels forced into a life of crime; more out of existential frustration than economic necessity. As Roland begins his rampage, Nicholas is one of his first victims. Although having survived the ordeal, Nicholas loses much more than his life. He becomes like Roland: desperate and dangerous. As both men channel their energies toward destruction (Roland ) and vengeance (Nicholas), they both follow similar mental paths: from wild rage to focused criminal acts to spiritually conflicted dilemmas. It is the latter stage that is the undercurrent for this novel. As much as this novel is about crime and vengeance, it is more about seemingly impossible redemption.Following tragic falls, Roland and Nicholas embark on systematic training programs to become professional criminal and professional vigilante respectively. Their dedication and professionalism is described with admiration at times; perhaps even romanticized. However, this apparent praise of their violent efficiencies is to create two examples of people quite far down destructive paths, thus making any possibility of redemption less likely, but not impossible; therefore, making them unlikable but underdogs just the same. Surrounded by a cast of hopelessly downtrodden cohorts and a few hopelessly hopeful supporters, this morality tale moves first subtly and then overtly to a kind of magical realism where angels and demons eventual play out Roland’s and Nicholas’s battles between good and evil. The suggestions of possible repentance and/or redemption for these two men give them just enough underdog status. The effect is that the reader is given the choice of whether to root for their redemption or to cast them off as hopeless. A difficult choice.
The Rage is entertaining and well written. The point of the book is to suggest that no one is beyond spiritual redemption. The hopelessly hopeful faith of some supporting characters is almost too naive to be believed. However, this is the point. The “men of action and women of intuition” duality is present, and although that is an outdated or traditional portrayal of gender roles, it doesn’t really dominate the narrative. The novel is dominated by the dualities of violence and spirituality, perdition and redemption. The blending of spiritual providence and human agency is done relatively well. The brutally destructive events never do sway those faithful few who believe Roland and Nicholas can still be saved. That either man may be redeemed in life is perhaps too much to ask. But again, that is the point. The supposition is not so much that anyone can move a mountain but that anyone can be crushed by it and still somehow dig his and her way to the top.
