Book Review: "Alexander's Song" by Paul F. Olson (2022)
Alexander’s Song Book Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Published by Cemetery Dance Publications
Written by Paul F. Olson
2022, 508 pages, Fiction
Released in September, 2022
Review:
Want to know a surefire way to garner a reviewer’s immediate interest? In the case of your faithful servant here, it was with the phrase, “Alexander's Song got caught in the horror crash of the 90s, and it never found a proper home.” If you know anything about the horror crash of the ‘90s, then it’s all too easy to imagine all the novels, novellas, and short stories that so deserved to be seen but couldn’t escape the black hole that was the waning interest in horror fiction in the 1990s. And while I haven’t much of Paul F. Olson (literally just the wonderful short story “They Came From the Suburbs” from The Definitive Best of The Horror Show), I knew enough of his reputation in horror fiction to jump all over the chance to read what would be only his second novel.
Alexander’s Song is the story of Andy Gillespie, a deeply liberal schoolteacher and a scholar of all things related to Alexander Bassett, the legendary literary figure who died in a flaming car crash in 1969. It’s Andy’s personal obsession, and he’s traveling to Rock Creek, Michigan to research a series of articles on the man’s early life starting where he grew up. However, Andy finds that no one wants to talk about the “commie writer” who became the backwoods burg’s most famous son. His determination doesn’t make him any friends, but it does earn him the tantalizing mystery of a series of brutal deaths and an extremely dark past for one of America’s great authors. Andy falls headfirst into a mystery that gets darker and uglier the deeper he gets. When his only new friend in town (and amateur Bassett scholar), Ginnie Turner, is taken by a mysterious psycho known only as The Gardener, Andy is faced with the choice of cutting and running or having the courage of his convictions and pursuing the truth about Alexander Bassett. He’ll discover that some mysteries don’t want to be solved and some people don’t want to be discovered.
Paul F. Olson writes a novel with the pacing of a pulp thriller and the story beats of a well-constructed (if not formulaic) Hollywood script. Andy Gillespie is a fully-formed, living, breathing protagonist that anyone who’s ever considered themselves an intellectual or a bibliophile will appreciate to the fullest. Alexander’s Song is a novel about obsession. It’s as much about Andy’s obsession as it is about the Gardener’s obsession; the two make a compelling point-counterpoint that keeps the pages turning. Andy is no one’s shiny and heroic hero, either- he’s at times weak and often insecure in his decisions while maintaining a zealot’s passion that won’t let him give up even when he’s on the spike, so to speak?
Is that bravery? Or is that obsession driven to madness? It’s the quandary at the heart of a novel that really should have seen the light of day in the early ‘90s. Alexander’s Song is a damn strong novel that works as well in the literary sense as it would in a cinematic sense thanks to a story that picks up speed like a jacked up diesel engine- slow at first but rumbling before attaining unexpectedly scary speed.
Alexander’s Song also maintains the feel of being a “great American novel” itself by mixing in just enough politics and philosophy with a mystery that thrums along. Olson is a skilled writer with a King-esque eye for detail and making you see all the little things. Andy and Ginnie’s first visit the cabin of the hermit, Ed Hoffer, is a great example; there’s so much to take in that you lose a bit of the forest for the trees. That’s not a bad thing.
The finish of Alexander’s Song sticks the landing with some style points and mirrors the life of Bassett himself in many ways. It’s a surprisingly philosophical and (dare I say?) civilized ending to a story that also involves some serious axe-murder action, a great American ending for a damn fine novel that is finally getting its time in the sun.
