Fathoms by Jack Cady (Book Review)

Fathoms
By Jack Cady
Published by Underland Press, 2016
Ebook Price: $5.49

I had never heard of Jack Cady until I read a review of this book in Locus Magazine a couple of months back. Since it was only around $5 I decided to give it a shot. Apparently, Cady is pretty respected in multiple genres, not just those of fantasy and horror. Lots of "mainstream" writers sing his praises. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be adding my name to a list of his fans.

There's no clear delineation in the table of contents of this book saying which pieces are fiction, which are essays, and which are short memoirs. I took them all as one until I read the the piece about gardening called "Wintering" which was just a rumination on the passing of the seasons and writing and gardening with his wife. There's even a short piece of literary criticism about military fiction. To me, the strongest parts of the book were the fiction stories.

Cady's fiction to me is a mix between Jack Kerouac's sense of wonder and wandering, Marquez's magical realism, and Ray Bradbury's nostalgia for the past. The problem is, at least to me, that instead of feeling original, Cady seems like a watered down version of those writers instead of doing something powerful and visionary.

The most successful story is the longest, "The Night We Buried Road Dog" about some young dudes driving in the Pacific Northwest and inventing all kinds of rituals and rites of manhood while dealing with ghosts and mythic drivers running the roads. It was great but like so many of the stories in this book, Cady usually ruins it in the last pages explaining the end and trying to tie up all the loose ends instead of leaving a bit of mystery, almost like a Scooby Doo cartoon. It's almost like the narrator has to rationalize to himself how the supernatural occurrences happened.

In the end, Cady came off as a poor man's Bradbury. Trying to do what Bradbury did, but with less talent. Don't get me wrong. He's worth reading but after finishing the book, you'll probably forget most of what you read. But when he's at his best, he's good.

My Grade: C