Grade: A-

Centering a novel’s or a movie’s action around a mentally challenged person is inherently dangerous territory. The story quickly turns into Radio or something similar, that is to say overly simplistic sentimental bullshit meant to pull on heart strings and manipulate its way into relevancy. The lesson is, you see, that this “slow” human being is really the wisest sage among us and exists for the sole reason of teaching us all valuable lessons on life and allows us a glimpse, for once, into our own humanity. These selfless beings are our guardian angels, not actual, fully realized people with their own fears and ambitions and dreams and desires. Nope, the mentally challenged are normally relegated to the same proverbial corner that the Magical Negro has been stuck in since, well forever more or less. I bring this up because Magnificent Joe by James Wheatley, refreshingly, doesn’t do that. Joe is a fifty year old man with learning difficulties and that’s who he stays as for the entire book. He doesn’t suddenly break out of character to deliver key advice at a crucial time. He’s stuck in his own rut, that is in the process of being destroyed, the same as all the other characters in the novel. They’re all of them limited in life, Joe’s just another number among them.

The narrator, with the exception of a few chapters told in the third person, is Jim. Jim spent most of his teenage years and the first few of his adult years locked up for killing another kid in a fight. It wasn’t an intentional thing, just a lucky, or unlucky, punch that he landed. When he gets out he goes back to the same small town he grew up in, his family all dead, and is taken in by his old friends. With no options for an ex-con, he goes to work in construction with his buddies and ekes out a meager existence. In some vain attempt to atone for his sins, he takes up his father’s old role of caring for Mrs. Joe, an old widow and the mother of the title character. He lives basically in squalor, spending all his available cash on booze and spends most of his free time at the pub with his friends, Barry and Geoff. Through carefully guarded secrets, betrayal of friends, and an impactful death, the small town becomes even smaller, more restrictive and far more dangerous. The story exists for Jim to be redeemed, more or less, but it doesn’t let him off easy. Wheatley is perfectly content dragging this man through every gutter he can find, destroying him physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, until Jim is a broken man and has a chance to be rebuilt.

Written in stripped down, unpretentious language, Magnificent Joe feels authentic. Wheatley’s ear for dialogue is damn near pitch-perfect and his prose doesn’t waste time on flowery descriptions or rambling, abstract interior monologues. The only real flaw in this novel is that the end feels a bit rushed. It’s not exactly easy, but it wraps everything up very quickly. I greatly appreciate short novels and find the longer ones to be a little off-putting, but these characters are complex and enjoyable enough to warrant spending another 20 pages or so with them. The last chapter in particular feels very much tacked on just so we can get some semblance of a happy ending. In a novel that avoids the cliché very well throughout, for it to succumb to a tried and true, and a bit trite, image to end on was a bit insulting. Still, this is a very solid debut and worthy of a read. Wheatley’s a strong new voice and a talent that should definitely be watched.

Buy this book!