Dove Season (Johnny Shaw)

In the first of (and hopefully a grip of) the “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco’s”, Jimmy is called back to his home town when his father announces he has terminal cancer and no further options. He travels back to the 100+ degree heat to spend time with “Pop” and help get things in order.
Jimmy has been away from the Imperial Valley of California over a decade. He went to college, traveled the world, and planned no further into the future than a week. He was generically content with his life, even if he was not what people would call happy. It doesn’t matter though. Desert folk can move to a city, travel the world , or settle down with a chica up north, but will always have the desert inside them.
Jimmy finds out very quickly that nothing has changed since he left El Centro and the Imperial area. The border is still malleable, Mexicali is still someplace that should cause a grown man to stay out of the shadows, and even though he thought he left his life behind, it was waiting or him when he came back.
As described on the back of the book, things get a bit upside down when Pop asks Jimmy to locate him a Mexicali prostitute by the name of Yolanda. Respecting his privacy on the issue, Veeder does not ask questions. Instead he enlists the help of long time friend Bobby to head south of the boarder and track down Yolanda.. If a dying man wants a prostitute found, you find her, regardless of the specifics… Regardless of the lengths a person must go to or the consequences of ones actions…
Johnny Shaw’s title for this book is fantastically metaphoric. Dove Season is the time of year when small game hunters break out the guns en-masse and kill the universally recognized “bird of peace” by the tens of thousands. Peace is sometimes more like a flying rodent than an innocent (and often naive) ideal. This novel chronicles Veeder’s own “Dove Season” as he re-immerses in desert life and puts the hurt on his inner peace (and a few assholes) for the betterment of himself and everyone he knows.
People who enjoy excellent fight scenes, a reasonable amount of manly introspection, and booze should check this out. It is like being sucker punched in the tentative tequila-queasy stomach while you sit on the back porch having one of those alcohol driven “honest talks” with a best friend.


This review is based on a book kindly provided for free by the publisher or author. Please check my FTC Douche-claimer for details regarding this disclaimer’s existence.

Comments

  1. FNORDincorporated » Q&A w/Johnny Shaw, on Dove Season, future works, and pretty much anything else I could get him to comment onOctober 28, 2011 at 5:04 PM

    [...] here in good ol’ Portland Oregon. Back in September he launched his first Novel, Dove Season (FNORDinc review). He hit the road touring and speaking, stopped by Wordstock 2011, then hit the road [...]

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