Review
“That technique like you coat hanger the guy, you hammer them!” - Ian A fifteen year old Ian has fallen under the spell of Alpha, a self important guru at Ian's school who thinks he has all the answers, and who runs a gang of worshippers. Ian needs something as his mother is domineering and seeks to control every aspect of his life. Alpha espouses theories about manliness and getting away from the material mundane nature of society, something most fifteen year olds can associate with, well unless it impacts their latest Apple gizmo purchase. Gary enters Ian's life and offers maybe a chance to focus on something more constructive than Alpha's nihilism. Gary has just returned from Japan where he learnt the spiritual and technical aspects of a martial art, but was also exposed to the cynicism of a Sensai going through the motions simply to make a living. Initially Ian, and later his crew, are entranced by Gary's apparent devotion to bushido, but quickly Alpha deduces that Gary isn't the spiritual warrior they supposed him to be. Alpha and by extension his believers think Gary must pay for his crimes, and they set about planning retribution for a perceived wrong. Here I am reviewing for a simple site that only seeks to document the depth and breadth of the dark genre downunder and someone tosses me a book to review that demands I look deeper into what it is trying to say, rather than simply reporting on the rampage going down between the covers. While Forsaken Blossoms builds throughout towards an expected shattering climax, what we get amply nails the subtext by the way, the novel demands closer scrutiny to the actual themes than a mere review of the plot or writing style would allow. On any other day I would have hidden this one under the review pile and gone on with something slightly less demanding intellectually. Of course than it would eventually re-emerge like a 1980s slasher antagonist to bite me on the arse, so guess it's best I put a stake through the novel's heart here and now. Central to the novel is the young Ian, a high school student who lacks a male role model on the home front. While Ian is demonstratively intelligent he is also fertile ground for anyone who can adopt a leadership role. Beatrice, Ian's mother, is overly clingy and you have to say has a few Roos loose in the top paddock. She refers to Ian, even in social settings, as “Bub” in a clear attempt to have Ian somehow morph into a Peter Pan like person. Ian naturally gravitates toward Alpha, a self proclaimed guru who hates the commercial hypocrisy of the adult world, and well everything else really in a nihilistic pseudo philosophy that resonants with a sort of perverted version of Nietzsche's superman. Gary, supposedly steeped in Oriental martial spiritualism, offers Ian a way out of his enclosed and dominated world. After all with Alpha Ian is simply replacing one source of tyrannical rule with another, and in both cases his opinion is of very little importance, Beatrice and Alpha have their own ways of subduing any independent streak Ian might display. Gary on the other hand offers Ian a way toward self awareness, even though that might be slightly flawed as well. Turning our attention to Alpha briefly, how many of us have ran across a character like this at our own high school. Anti social, sure of their own views, and looking down their noses at those of us just trying to survive the maelstrom that is secondary education. Normally they ended up being victimised, so my belief here, Glenn Cannon doesn't say, is Alpha keeps well under the radar of the jocks and other belligerent elements in the school yard. Considering his gang of anti social warriors isn't the most intelligent of candidates for chaos, you have to say that Alpha is a bit of a dick. The actual conclusion of the novel bares fruit on this, as the best laid plans look to be far beyond Alpha's abilities. Ian needed an elder brother to pull him aside and ask why he was hanging with Alpha's crew of losers, but since he doesn't have one there's no one to drag him back from the looming abyss. Finally Gary is the embodiment of everything Alpha is banging on about, the spiritual warrior that has reclaimed his masculinity and who shuns the materialistic hypocrisy around him. Except Gary isn't, while he clearly is influenced by his time in Japan and the spiritual nature of things, he is more in tune with the martial arts as being a philosophy rather than a means to an end. Probably doesn't help that Gary is unsure where he is going back in the Western world, or the exposure he had to Japanese masters who were more cynical about their world than television likes to portray. Gary is the thinking man that Ian needs to develop his own independence, but since Ian has never had a chance to be a free thinker he doesn't realise the opportunities before him. Like most high school students, things like clearing a swimming pool have more immediate importance than philosophy. Strangely it's through the character of Sally that things take a dark turn down the local martial arts training center. At least in Alpha and hence Ian's minds. While you could make a biblical connection here, Eve and original sin, I think Author Cannon is just pointing out that in the warped philosophy of Alpha there is no room for the feminine, and perhaps Cannon is also pointing to the need Gary has to re-attach to his Western roots. Big gasp here after all that, Cannon writes with an eye toward his resolution and I must admit I was expecting something shattering. That nothing goes quite how you expect it to, is one of the strengths of the novel in my opinion, and a worthy conclusion to the narrative. Cannon offers no answers for the malaise his characters find themselves in, he simply presents a dysfunctional view of comfortable Australian society. 'm not entirely sure if Forsaken Blossoms is a book that you can say you enjoyed, it's not even a safe read in horror terms, but it's certainly well written and has something to say. I was happy that I got a chance to be exposed to the ideas and writing style, and would recommend this one to those wanting something slightly deeper on their reading lists. Give it a go, every now and then it's good to step beyond the simply dark and into more murky waters. I would certainly be up for reading some more from Glenn Cannon. Forsaken Blossoms is available in a volume that also includes Cannon's excellent haunted house tale Hicky Knocky, all for the excellent price of $20 AUD. You can pick up the book online right here.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Simply an excellent exploration of the social mix
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