Review Under Two is a segment of The Marinade with Jason Earle podcast where host Jason Earle reviews a work he finds inspiring in under two minutes.
Our Review Under Two for Episode 97 with singer-songwriter AHI focuses on the novel Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.
So many of life’s important conversations are now reduced to shouting at the opposition. If only we all had S.A. Cosby filters to pass through our complicated thoughts, this might cease to be true. Put through the prism of Cosby’s able pen, the nuance of situations can exist and the big issues face reckoning.
The characters in S.A. Cosby’s novel Razorblade Tears come to a place of understanding, but not by shouting about how they are right and others are wrong. They get to a place of compassion, remorse, and recognition by rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty.
Ike , Buddy Lee, and the rest of the ensemble come to life through Cosby’s command of dialogue. The two fathers - Ike and Buddy Lee - are the stars of the show and they have a lot to say to each other. They are ostensible opposites who have a lot more in common that they realize at the outset of the story. Ike is a black man. Buddy Lee is white. Ike runs a successful business. Buddy Lee is barely holding whatever he has left together.
We get to know them through trips to bars and flower shops. Through long drives and mornings at the breakfast table- none of which are particularly conventional given the circumstances of these otherwise pleasant settings. They get to know each other by talking about the gravity of the situation in which they find themselves and the consequences of their actions.
Despite their differences, the two men share a quest for vengeance stemming from the brutal murder of their sons, who were a married couple. Neither father was very good at their jobs while the boys were alive - which is both a function of their own prejudice and the fact that each man found himself in trouble with the law for violent reasons. They are united by a desire to do right this time- to find out who killed their boys and why.
While the fathers dominate the story, every character is treated as a crucial piece of the puzzle. We learn about their insecurities, their strengths. We get to understand their motivations.
Ike and Buddy Lee develop into heroes but the line between hero and villain in this crime thriller remains thin until the end.
The demarcation happens as a result of the choices each character makes. Cosby’s villains are evil not only because they are bigots, but because they are bigots who are unwilling to change.
Ike and Buddy Lee harbored some hate of their own. What sets them apart from the truly nefarious characters in this book is their willingness - albeit a stubborn one - to self-examine. These are guys who could be dismissed as total ass holes on the surface. A pair of ex cons, both homophobes when we meet them. But, forced into action by a system that has left them behind, the two men become friends who help transform each other. It is in these moments that their humanity shines, even as they are committing unspeakable acts.
In Razorblade Tears, there is a hope that people can change. There is an opportunity for redemption, even for middle aged folks who have had life knock them down with its best combinations. S.A. Cosby delivers a knockout punch like one of his protagonists with this novel.