Back on Track

New reviews coming soon! I'll be importing my work from the past two years, but in the meantime,
I'm reclaiming my small place on the web.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Fiction Review

The Spindrift Frame
by Jim Accardi
ISBN-10: 0595417833
Review by Heather Froeschl

Things aren't always what they seem, and people aren't always what we think they are. Sometimes it takes a painter's eye to really see the truth; and sometimes, that truth is exactly as we pictured it to be. In Jim Accardi's latest book, "The Spindrift Frame," readers get the whole picture, one frame at a time, through Tam Malonee's point of view and acrylic paintings.

Tam is a portrait artist through the desperation of need; he is however, quite talented. His gift comes in handy when he runs out of money and finds himself trading paintings for cash, a monster of a car, and his own sanity during the highest terror of hurricane Gregor as it comes storming at his door. Tam is running from the law and some trouble he created up north, and finds himself making promises to a waitress in Tennessee. She needs to go to Florida, and he's on his way there, so she enlists him in a plan to rescue her daughter who lives down that way with her father. Madison Monroe seems like a desperate mother, wishing to help her daughter, but she is very moody and right away Tam thinks that he should rethink his promise to help. In the meantime there are numerous obstacles, a pauper funeral to attend, a family brawl to assist in, an escaped convict to outmaneuver, and an old man's dying wish to fulfill. Facing a killer hurricane while planning to abduct a young girl from her grandparents' home, painting up a storm to put gas in the car, leaves Tam in one huge predicament. Along the way, Madison lets him know that he is an alcoholic and that he needs to face it. She promises to give up chewing gum. It's a win-win situation, if you look at it in a certain light. Deep revelations are discovered and it seems that Tam is finding out who he really is, all the while, finding out that others in his life really weren't the way he thought they were.

Jim Accardi has a gift for characterization. You wouldn't think characters in a book could have such deep and profound souls, but Tam and Madison do. Even minor roles are portrayed with such human qualities that readers will swear that they've known someone just like that. The story is a twisted little tale of adventure and risk. A little slow to start, it is worth trying to understand what is going on. The picture will become clear as Tam paints it for all to see. Are things what we make of them or is destiny at hand? Do we see what is really going on or only what we wish to believe? "The Spindrift Frame" is a great read that leaves you with something to think about. Well done!

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