Blue Flame

by Michael C. Schmidt

Wade Capp is a twenty-year-old college student who has sworn never to return to Carvel Ohio or to Arthur, the father he hasn’t seen since his mother’s fatal car accident. When Arthur’s attempted suicide leaves him in a coma, Wade learns that he has the sole legal authority to remove his father’s life support. Wade returns to Ohio with Jeanine, his closest friend and occasional lover, where they encounter Matilda, the only person in Carvel who cares if Arthur lives or dies. Intercut with Arthur’s own chilling memories, Blue Flame is a hopeful tale of forgiveness and redemption.

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2014

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author MC Schmidt writes great dialog, but better than that, he knows that “true conversation” is often “had in the faces,” and he writes great conversations in this warmly odd and supremely compelling book. Sixty-one year old Arthur works for a thirty-six year old boss. In a world of empty malls and failed bookstores, the “cockroaches of American industry” thrive, while the down and out struggle to survive. And Arthur, despite a good woman’s concern, is surely heading down and out.

Enter Arthur’s estranged son, strange friendships, a broken future, and fractured memories of an equally broken past. The pieces come together convincingly. A character’s sense of self and identity changes in a literary moment, sent off course by unexpected events, emotions, or even memory. Then space is left for the true self to be seen. Perhaps facing up to who we are truly does become the key to who might be.

Love and death, life and dreams, even what constitutes family, all are smoothly fluid in a novel that examines betrayal, neglect, and love with equal aplomb, through multiple, convincing viewpoints, and a wonderful touch of hope. I loved this book and could hardly put it down.

Disclosure: I was given a free ecopy and I offer my honest review.