The Good I Stand On
David Tucholski
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
A debut publication of a new author is always a
cause for
festivity and joy. The dream of writing is one that haunts many but few
can
claim to have attained. But when the novelist also understand the
writing
craft, the power of the written word and the strength of a story it is
an
occasion to celebrate. David Tucholski’s first novel, The Good I Stand
On, is
one of those moments.
Ben is the good boy, the big brother every boy would love to
have, the little brother grown boys want to have. He has a quiet life
in the
his corner of rural Virginia, never straying far from
home, accepting the world around him as he
has always known it. But when he and his
brother Christopher begin to explore farther and farther with their new
friend
Martin, all that changes. Martin is a lonely boy, living with only his
remote
mother after his father dies. He encourages the boys to explore farther
and
farther in areas the boys have never been. It is on one of those
adventures
that Ben’s life explodes into a nightmare of mammoth dimensions.
It is not only that strong story line that moves this story.
Tucholski has interwoven the plot fabric of a child’s lost innocence
with
threads of loss of father’s love, betrayal and loves thwarted. Not only
Ben
loses his innocence by the end of the book, but an entire village is
tossed
into the upheaval. In a stunning, unexpected waves of disclosures rock
the
village and the pace of the novel, the reader is drawn into the demise
of peace
in small town America.
The characters that inhabit this novel become very real for
the reader. While some of them are sharply detailed, others wander
through out
the novel, not a large part of the story but on the periphery. A
fascinating
example is the deputy who dogs Ben’s heels, causes the final outcomes
but is
never clearly described. But it is these
peripheral characters that ultimately come into focus by the end, that
affect
the turn of events, just as they do in real life. It is the people who
wander
on the edges of our daily life who can often have the most dramatic
effect on
our futures. Tucholski understands and portray this in a forceful
explosion of
an ending.
In this age of developing publishing resources where the
larger publishing houses no longer control the market, The Good I Stand
On is a
shining example of the power of the smaller presses. iUniverse deserves
applause for recognizing and supporting this talented newcomer. Other
publishers will lament not obtaining the talents of this up and coming
author.
Now we just await his next work.