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Sarah Jane
Fugitiva, exsoldado, cocinera y ... policía rural
A los dieciséis años, Sarah Jane Pullman huyó de su hogar familiar antes de que, literalmente, se viniera abajo. Inició entonces una odisea hacia ninguna parte que le llevó a ser soldado tras una condena del juez, esposa desafortunada y cocinera en locales de dudosa categoría.
Hasta que un día, casi sin pretenderlo, se convierte en miembro del cuerpo de policía de Farr, un pequeño pueblo perdido en la inmensidad del sur estadounidense. No mucho después, su jefe desaparece misteriosamente y es ella quien tiene que ponerse al frente de la comisaría e investigar lo que le ha sucedido.
A los dieciséis años, Sarah Jane Pullman huyó de su hogar familiar antes de que, literalmente, se viniera abajo. Inició entonces una odisea hacia ninguna parte que le llevó a ser soldado tras una condena del juez, esposa desafortunada y cocinera en locales de dudosa categoría.
Hasta que un día, casi sin pretenderlo, se convierte en miembro del cuerpo de policía de Farr, un pequeño pueblo perdido en la inmensidad del sur estadounidense. No mucho después, su jefe desaparece misteriosamente y es ella quien tiene que ponerse al frente de la comisaría e investigar lo que le ha sucedido.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2019
222 people are currently reading
2526 people want to read
About the author
James Sallis
188 books396 followersJames Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
July 13, 2019
This book is an ARC (Advanced uncopyedited edition). I purchased this book at a retail outlet. It was not given or sent to me for a review. I wanted to read this book. The publication date is October 2019.
It’s time to celebrate as James Sallis has a new book titled “Sarah Jane”. We follow Sarah Jane Pullman’s life as she ultimately becomes a cop. She has an extremely complicated past. We follow Sarah’s small town chicken farming roots as her parents were raising six thousand chickens in a money making scheme, through her runaway adolescence. She also lost a child at its birth. There is also a court ordered Army stint, (go to jail or join the Army are her choices) and years cooking scrambled eggs and pastry deserts as a short order cook. We get glimpses of the various men (mostly poor choices) she hooked up with. Along the way she is routed into a college education which she grew into. And one would not be far off the mark to call Sarah a keen observer of human kind.
Sarah’s life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of the town which employs her as a police officer. How she even got hired to this position is somewhat of a quandary to her. Sara’s first task as the new sheriff is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she is currently filling. Upon beginning her investigation she discovers the even more mysterious realities of the life he led and was hiding from his own colleagues and even his friends.
So much more than just a character study of small town life. Mr. Sallis can perhaps be called the poet laureate of noir fiction. A new book from him deserves to be celebrated by all who enjoy great / fantastic writing. The book sparkles in every dark and bright detail more so than the best fireworks ever seen. I cannot say enough good things about this book. Like all great books it goes to places least expected with insights and observations that seem oh so rational in hindsight.
Unequivocally highly recommended and five stars just aint enough by a long shot.
It’s time to celebrate as James Sallis has a new book titled “Sarah Jane”. We follow Sarah Jane Pullman’s life as she ultimately becomes a cop. She has an extremely complicated past. We follow Sarah’s small town chicken farming roots as her parents were raising six thousand chickens in a money making scheme, through her runaway adolescence. She also lost a child at its birth. There is also a court ordered Army stint, (go to jail or join the Army are her choices) and years cooking scrambled eggs and pastry deserts as a short order cook. We get glimpses of the various men (mostly poor choices) she hooked up with. Along the way she is routed into a college education which she grew into. And one would not be far off the mark to call Sarah a keen observer of human kind.
Sarah’s life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of the town which employs her as a police officer. How she even got hired to this position is somewhat of a quandary to her. Sara’s first task as the new sheriff is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she is currently filling. Upon beginning her investigation she discovers the even more mysterious realities of the life he led and was hiding from his own colleagues and even his friends.
So much more than just a character study of small town life. Mr. Sallis can perhaps be called the poet laureate of noir fiction. A new book from him deserves to be celebrated by all who enjoy great / fantastic writing. The book sparkles in every dark and bright detail more so than the best fireworks ever seen. I cannot say enough good things about this book. Like all great books it goes to places least expected with insights and observations that seem oh so rational in hindsight.
Unequivocally highly recommended and five stars just aint enough by a long shot.
September 14, 2020
Sarah Jane is a mesmerizing journey through bleakness, angst, and really just getting on with life. She explains in her narration: "I’d tell you the news but there isn’t any, we all just go on like we always have, sinking slowly into the ground." Think David Goodis at his most despairing coupled with the philosophical wit of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
It is a crime fiction story but told in fits and starts and much more so a biographical sketch of Sarah Jane, a wanderer across America. She explains that: "What happens is, you get down toward the end and you hope your life, though you can’t see this however hard a look you take, you hope your life had some shape to it. Not meaning or a purpose, that brand of bullcrap. Just that it had a shape, wasn’t some glob of stuff slapped on a plate.”
There are places in the novel with prose so stark, so fresh, that you gasp with the irony. The opening lines are: "My name is Pretty, but I’m not. Haven’t been, won’t be. And that’s not really my name, either, just what Daddy calls me. Beauty’s only skin deep, he used to say, so when I was six I scratched my arm open looking for it. Scar’s still there. And I guess it’s like everyone saying if you dig deep enough you’ll find China. All I got from that was blisters."
There's this woman, Sarah Jane, who thinks back on her life and its fits and starts and how she ended up on the road that took her here to be the Sheriff of this small town for no other reason than she stopped here and it fit. She tells us: "However hard you stare at maps and plan, you rarely get where you think you’re going."
Yes, there is a story here, but to me it was always secondary to the feel, the weight, the agony, that Sarah Jane reveals as she recounts her travels through life and how nothing really was planned. She just did what worked best.
A short, concise novel, but a blast worth returning to time and again because there is so much in here worth reading about and worth thinking about.
It is a crime fiction story but told in fits and starts and much more so a biographical sketch of Sarah Jane, a wanderer across America. She explains that: "What happens is, you get down toward the end and you hope your life, though you can’t see this however hard a look you take, you hope your life had some shape to it. Not meaning or a purpose, that brand of bullcrap. Just that it had a shape, wasn’t some glob of stuff slapped on a plate.”
There are places in the novel with prose so stark, so fresh, that you gasp with the irony. The opening lines are: "My name is Pretty, but I’m not. Haven’t been, won’t be. And that’s not really my name, either, just what Daddy calls me. Beauty’s only skin deep, he used to say, so when I was six I scratched my arm open looking for it. Scar’s still there. And I guess it’s like everyone saying if you dig deep enough you’ll find China. All I got from that was blisters."
There's this woman, Sarah Jane, who thinks back on her life and its fits and starts and how she ended up on the road that took her here to be the Sheriff of this small town for no other reason than she stopped here and it fit. She tells us: "However hard you stare at maps and plan, you rarely get where you think you’re going."
Yes, there is a story here, but to me it was always secondary to the feel, the weight, the agony, that Sarah Jane reveals as she recounts her travels through life and how nothing really was planned. She just did what worked best.
A short, concise novel, but a blast worth returning to time and again because there is so much in here worth reading about and worth thinking about.
November 12, 2020
Sarah Jane has had a difficult and complex life to date. Born in the American South to poor parents whose relationship was dysfunctional, she had a troubled childhood. Her adolescence was tumultuous and ended with a court-ordered stint in the military. She was 'in country' and came back with many invisible, indelible scars. Once again on American soil, she works as a cook in everything from greasy spoons to high end restaurants. She goes from man to man, from love to love, and from loss to loss...
Almost by accident, she finds herself working at the sheriff's office of a small, rural town. This is ironic in that her father once said to her: "We're from good hillbilly stock, Pretty. We don't call police."
Calvin Phillips, the sheriff of a small town called Farr, takes her under his wing and teaches her on the job, much like an apprentice. With no formal police training, (often not required in some states), Cal teaches her everything he knows. When Cal goes missing, Sarah is appointed acting sheriff and it is her job to discover what happened to Cal and why he left...
MY THOUGHTS
Confession time... this is my first James Sallis novel. Perhaps I was living under a rock?
Sarah Jane Pullman is an unforgettable character. Resilient to all that life throws at her, she perseveres in her own unique way and wears her many scars with composure. She has secrets, but she shares them with no one.
To say that this novel is well written is an understatement. The prose is spare, yet it speaks volumes. I found myself highlighting many quotes to save for rereading later. For me, that is always the sign of a good book.
I did find it hard to get into at first. Sarah Jane's memories and anecdotes of her life before we meet her were confusing at first. Then, when I got a few chapters in, I didn't want to put the book down.
To this reader the overall theme was empathy with philosophical observations on the human condition thrown in for good measure. Yes, it was noir. Yes it could be classified as a mystery. Yet it was so much more. A brilliant character study, I would call it a literary mystery. The ending wasn't neatly tied up - Sarah Jane's secrets remain with her. It makes you think and draw your own conclusions.
Would I read another James Sallis novel? Most definitely!
Almost by accident, she finds herself working at the sheriff's office of a small, rural town. This is ironic in that her father once said to her: "We're from good hillbilly stock, Pretty. We don't call police."
Calvin Phillips, the sheriff of a small town called Farr, takes her under his wing and teaches her on the job, much like an apprentice. With no formal police training, (often not required in some states), Cal teaches her everything he knows. When Cal goes missing, Sarah is appointed acting sheriff and it is her job to discover what happened to Cal and why he left...
MY THOUGHTS
Confession time... this is my first James Sallis novel. Perhaps I was living under a rock?
Sarah Jane Pullman is an unforgettable character. Resilient to all that life throws at her, she perseveres in her own unique way and wears her many scars with composure. She has secrets, but she shares them with no one.
To say that this novel is well written is an understatement. The prose is spare, yet it speaks volumes. I found myself highlighting many quotes to save for rereading later. For me, that is always the sign of a good book.
I did find it hard to get into at first. Sarah Jane's memories and anecdotes of her life before we meet her were confusing at first. Then, when I got a few chapters in, I didn't want to put the book down.
To this reader the overall theme was empathy with philosophical observations on the human condition thrown in for good measure. Yes, it was noir. Yes it could be classified as a mystery. Yet it was so much more. A brilliant character study, I would call it a literary mystery. The ending wasn't neatly tied up - Sarah Jane's secrets remain with her. It makes you think and draw your own conclusions.
Would I read another James Sallis novel? Most definitely!
October 27, 2019
Slick and shifty writing! James Sallis has a tangy quality unique style. At first it seemed so abrupt and fragmentary that I felt as if I was almost reading a "beat" kind of dialect. It's also crusty in spots but regardless of tensing- it's also seated nearly entirely in the exact moment of "now".
Others seem to classify it as noir. Having never read him before despite his age and piles of output! Well, I guess I'll need to read more of the others.
At first I thought it was hard going despite the brevity- but once arrived at no more than 28 pages into the story-I was mesmerized. I nearly and for most of the copy would have given it a five stars for the next 100 pages of the read. The writing focus to point of identity and 100's of components in the past that exist NOW for Sarah are that good. But then I got to the last 30 or so pages, and my enthralling enthusiasm just kind of withered. Not all the way to indifference, but to lessening caused by a nihilistic kind of ever expressed cognition reaction to her piles and piles of baggage bad.
Not a happy book. But rather wise as much as sorrowful and holding more than a few poignant truths. Truths not just for Sarah and her town of Farr. Truth as it used to be defined- which was on a far more universal tract than it seats presently.
As much as I loved the skill and bull's eye hit so splendidly for Sarah Jane and her history- I could also categorize this particular window into my "Life is Shit and then you DIE" category book shelf at the same time. Therefore within all the mountains of senselessness and fate fodder, I just can't give it 5 stars. Too little joy realized in all those mountains- despite the excellent foodie peaks.
Sallis is older than I am which surprised me. And then after more than 1/2 the read, it didn't. A much younger man would emote Sarah differently, IMHO. Regardless, he is a 6 star writer. Love, love, love the pith nuggets encapsulated in 5 or 7 word sentences. Or fragments not sentences. Masterful, heavy and also revealing of depression, IMHO.
Others seem to classify it as noir. Having never read him before despite his age and piles of output! Well, I guess I'll need to read more of the others.
At first I thought it was hard going despite the brevity- but once arrived at no more than 28 pages into the story-I was mesmerized. I nearly and for most of the copy would have given it a five stars for the next 100 pages of the read. The writing focus to point of identity and 100's of components in the past that exist NOW for Sarah are that good. But then I got to the last 30 or so pages, and my enthralling enthusiasm just kind of withered. Not all the way to indifference, but to lessening caused by a nihilistic kind of ever expressed cognition reaction to her piles and piles of baggage bad.
Not a happy book. But rather wise as much as sorrowful and holding more than a few poignant truths. Truths not just for Sarah and her town of Farr. Truth as it used to be defined- which was on a far more universal tract than it seats presently.
As much as I loved the skill and bull's eye hit so splendidly for Sarah Jane and her history- I could also categorize this particular window into my "Life is Shit and then you DIE" category book shelf at the same time. Therefore within all the mountains of senselessness and fate fodder, I just can't give it 5 stars. Too little joy realized in all those mountains- despite the excellent foodie peaks.
Sallis is older than I am which surprised me. And then after more than 1/2 the read, it didn't. A much younger man would emote Sarah differently, IMHO. Regardless, he is a 6 star writer. Love, love, love the pith nuggets encapsulated in 5 or 7 word sentences. Or fragments not sentences. Masterful, heavy and also revealing of depression, IMHO.
December 24, 2019
All stories are ghost stories, about things lost, people, memories, home, passion, youth, about things struggling to be seen, to be accepted, by the living.
First of all, Merry Christmas from New Zealand! And secondly, Merry Christmas to me, because in my urge to get that reading challenge completed, I've managed to come across one of my favourite books of all time.
It's hard to say why I liked this so much, because frankly, James Sallis' writing has intimidated the bejeezus out of me, and now everything I have to say feels inadequate. Still, that's the beauty of Goodreads - we're all free to express our opinions here, well-written or otherwise, and no pesky publishers to stand in our way! The story itself isn't much to go on - we follow Sarah Jane's life, and her various incarnations as she stumbles her way through it, and there is some plot but it's decidedly secondary to the settings and the people we meet along the way. This is my first Sallis, so I've no way of knowing if it's a particular strength of his, but there's not one character here that doesn't have depth, and preferences, and a clearly defined personality. And each moment of reading had me one hundred percent engrossed - I sat down, meaning to get at least a few minutes of reading in before I got distracted again, and I woke up at the end of the book with genuinely no idea how much time had passed.
Usually I'm not a big fan of what feels like almost an aimless book - there's no clear thrust towards an ending resolution, no drive to wrap up loose ends and put the story neatly away in a box. But something about this book got right under my skin, and I loved every minute. It's relatively short, too, so if you think anything of what I've described might work for you - give it a shot. At the worst you'll be in for some objectively incredible writing - at best, maybe you'll fall in love too.
First of all, Merry Christmas from New Zealand! And secondly, Merry Christmas to me, because in my urge to get that reading challenge completed, I've managed to come across one of my favourite books of all time.
It's hard to say why I liked this so much, because frankly, James Sallis' writing has intimidated the bejeezus out of me, and now everything I have to say feels inadequate. Still, that's the beauty of Goodreads - we're all free to express our opinions here, well-written or otherwise, and no pesky publishers to stand in our way! The story itself isn't much to go on - we follow Sarah Jane's life, and her various incarnations as she stumbles her way through it, and there is some plot but it's decidedly secondary to the settings and the people we meet along the way. This is my first Sallis, so I've no way of knowing if it's a particular strength of his, but there's not one character here that doesn't have depth, and preferences, and a clearly defined personality. And each moment of reading had me one hundred percent engrossed - I sat down, meaning to get at least a few minutes of reading in before I got distracted again, and I woke up at the end of the book with genuinely no idea how much time had passed.
Usually I'm not a big fan of what feels like almost an aimless book - there's no clear thrust towards an ending resolution, no drive to wrap up loose ends and put the story neatly away in a box. But something about this book got right under my skin, and I loved every minute. It's relatively short, too, so if you think anything of what I've described might work for you - give it a shot. At the worst you'll be in for some objectively incredible writing - at best, maybe you'll fall in love too.
January 15, 2020
A wonderful character study written in such spare, lean prose, often encapsulating everything the reader needed to know about a character’s behaviour or motivation in a sentence. I kept rereading sentences, just for the pleasure of how much was said with so little.
There was a mystery in this story, but, honestly, the prose, and the portrait of Sarah Jane Pullman and her troubled path to the town of Farr was more interesting. This was my first book by James Sallis, and it won’t be my last.
There was a mystery in this story, but, honestly, the prose, and the portrait of Sarah Jane Pullman and her troubled path to the town of Farr was more interesting. This was my first book by James Sallis, and it won’t be my last.
April 10, 2023
Lyric meets crime and unfortunately mostly comes across as pretentious.
March 10, 2021
This is a writers' novel. I've made two score or more highlights on my Kindle. And it makes me wonder, with people calling him a genius and not actually reading him as much as they ought to, if Sallis is that thing called "a writers' writer". I'd surely have loved to have him as a teacher.
For those coming to this one thinking they'd get a pacy crime novel: don't. For those coming to it to follow a firm plot: don't. This one is a study in sentences, not just of a character but a milieu, and an exercise in giving form to the seepage of life. In the latter, it shows itself as an old writer's book, which may not be everyone's cup of tea.
As good as any of the great American novels I've read.
For those coming to this one thinking they'd get a pacy crime novel: don't. For those coming to it to follow a firm plot: don't. This one is a study in sentences, not just of a character but a milieu, and an exercise in giving form to the seepage of life. In the latter, it shows itself as an old writer's book, which may not be everyone's cup of tea.
As good as any of the great American novels I've read.
October 9, 2019
I'm going to have to admit that I didn't know who James Sallis was, but I've since learned that he has written many books and was one was turned into that famous Gosling movie, Drive (that I haven't watched). It's nice to come out of my cave every now and then and hang out ... the air is fresh :)
I requested this ARC on a whim and have no idea how to describe it, but its raw and tender humanity gripped me. Poetic, existential noir minus a conventional crime plot. Vivid characters--Sarah Jane is such a voice--and a fine slice of small-town America. Class and gender and subtly-woven in radical politics. Superbly written.
I requested this ARC on a whim and have no idea how to describe it, but its raw and tender humanity gripped me. Poetic, existential noir minus a conventional crime plot. Vivid characters--Sarah Jane is such a voice--and a fine slice of small-town America. Class and gender and subtly-woven in radical politics. Superbly written.
March 26, 2022
Aburrido.
October 5, 2019
A character study really, rather than a mystery or a crime novel, though there are elements of both here. Sarah Jane has at last fallen on her feet, slotting into a role she seems ideally suited to with her blend of toughness and empathy, that of sheriff of a small town.
Sarah Jane’s narration is brilliantly done - snapshots from her colourful earlier life woven with vignettes of everyday life as a police officer in a small town, the omissions becoming clear and telling as the strands unravel. This is a terrific story, so unpredictable and had me questioning my instinctive responses all the way through.
Great writing, too, not a word too many or misplaced. A couple of examples:
Some guy from uptown arrived with a gaggle of fleshly echoes tiptoeing in his wake.
By then I was living in Farr, the kind of place that has period gingerbread houses shouldered up against modern cookie-cutters, where hardware stores and gas-and-livebait shops cling to town’s edge, where you hear the whisper of old-country vowels in local speech. Legend had it that there’d once been twin towns but Nearr had up and moved away.
Another author to add to my favourites list. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Oldcastle Books/No Exit Press via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
Sarah Jane’s narration is brilliantly done - snapshots from her colourful earlier life woven with vignettes of everyday life as a police officer in a small town, the omissions becoming clear and telling as the strands unravel. This is a terrific story, so unpredictable and had me questioning my instinctive responses all the way through.
Great writing, too, not a word too many or misplaced. A couple of examples:
Some guy from uptown arrived with a gaggle of fleshly echoes tiptoeing in his wake.
By then I was living in Farr, the kind of place that has period gingerbread houses shouldered up against modern cookie-cutters, where hardware stores and gas-and-livebait shops cling to town’s edge, where you hear the whisper of old-country vowels in local speech. Legend had it that there’d once been twin towns but Nearr had up and moved away.
Another author to add to my favourites list. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Oldcastle Books/No Exit Press via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
December 8, 2019
Dishes and laundry accumulate, dust is undusted, Xmas lights, cards, shopping - ha. Who cares if I get anything done? I’m reading! Sunset was 4:17 today. Might need to put up those holiday lights.
Better than expected,this book...sort of hillbilly philosopher noir?
Overall, it worked. Smarter than average small town cop story.
Better than expected,this book...sort of hillbilly philosopher noir?
Overall, it worked. Smarter than average small town cop story.
September 4, 2019
I thought Sarah Jane was excellent. James Sallis is a very fine writer and his spare style is quite riveting here.
It’s a hard book to describe. Narrated by the eponymous Sarah Jane Pullman, we get the story of how she ends up as a cop in a small town, a job which she didn’t expect to be in but which she’s very good at. The thing is, we don’t get quite the full story as the narrative unfolds and events in Sarah Jane’s past eventually begin to catch up with her – the faintest shadows at first, which begin to build to something more substantial. It’s a humane, thoughtful story which I found utterly gripping as Sallis builds a picture often through the recounting of small, relatively mundane events which are full of insight and compassion but where the sense of looming, growing threat is always present.
It’s beautifully written as Sallis creates his people and places almost like a brilliant artist can with a few lines in a charcoal sketch, with just a few, seemingly simple lines capturing the subject perfectly. It also has the immense merit of brevity at just over 200 pages; nothing is wasted and there’s absolutely no padding. I was completely gripped throughout and I can recommend this very warmly indeed.
(My thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
It’s a hard book to describe. Narrated by the eponymous Sarah Jane Pullman, we get the story of how she ends up as a cop in a small town, a job which she didn’t expect to be in but which she’s very good at. The thing is, we don’t get quite the full story as the narrative unfolds and events in Sarah Jane’s past eventually begin to catch up with her – the faintest shadows at first, which begin to build to something more substantial. It’s a humane, thoughtful story which I found utterly gripping as Sallis builds a picture often through the recounting of small, relatively mundane events which are full of insight and compassion but where the sense of looming, growing threat is always present.
It’s beautifully written as Sallis creates his people and places almost like a brilliant artist can with a few lines in a charcoal sketch, with just a few, seemingly simple lines capturing the subject perfectly. It also has the immense merit of brevity at just over 200 pages; nothing is wasted and there’s absolutely no padding. I was completely gripped throughout and I can recommend this very warmly indeed.
(My thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
October 18, 2019
After reading “Willnot” by James Sallis, I decided his writing was not to my liking. While reading the crime section by Maryland Stasio in the New York Times and her review of this book I took a chance. After the first part of the book my mind had not changed as the author is hard to follow as he jumps all over the place with a lack of focus. I almost stopped but in a way I was glad I did not as the story got interesting and started to flow in more of a direct course. Do not get me wrong, Mr. Sallis loses focus and does not complete a thread. Example: the main character is eating lunch and halfway through the meal they are called away. The character asks the waitress to hold the meal and you never find out what happens to the rest of the meal as it is never mention again. I will not return to this author as I have a hard time with his style.
May 16, 2019
A tense pulp noir without a single wasted word. We follow the titular Sarah Jane through good and bad until she somehow ends up as a small town Sheriff.
Not your typical Hollywood cop journey, this is all about character.
Not your typical Hollywood cop journey, this is all about character.
November 8, 2019
Lately I've taken to doing jigsaw puzzles at times for a distraction from national and international news. There's a great deal of satisfaction to getting all those almost unidentifiable pieces put together to finally form the big picture. It makes me feel as if something is going right around me.
Well, in this book Sarah Jane, our unreliable, enigmatic narrator, throws me many pieces of the puzzle that is her life, in no particular order and completely unsorted, and I had the devil of a time trying to figure her out. By the end of the book, the reader has formed a picture and idea of Sarah Jane and her life, but it's rather incomplete, as if she kept back many puzzle pieces that would allow one to make a complete, informed decision about her. I'm not usually happy with that grey area in books, but it works very well in Sallis's new novel.
So what's the book about? It's a mystery. It's also a spotty memoir by a troubled woman with an unhappy past. A woman who was given the choice finally of prison or military service. A war veteran who comes back to civilian life, becomes a cook, lives a peripatetic life, and finally settles down in a small town as deputy sheriff. But the plot's not really the thing.
It's the writing that's the big draw. The wry, insightful observations about life and the human condition. The secondary characters that Sarah Jane interacts with. The humor and the poignancy and sadness of those interactions. This book hit me right in the solar plexus. I don't usually reread books but this is one that could use a reread or two. Some of those missing puzzle pieces may very well be found on a closer look.
This is my first Sallis novel. His books weren't even on my radar, even though I have seen the Ryan Gosling movie DRIVE that was based on one of them. Now I'm going to look for that one to read. If it has the emotional impact and the excellent writing to be found in SARAH JANE, it's definitely worth the read.
How can you not admire a book with observations such as the following:
"The days march by and extraordinary things happen all around us. Small miracles, haphazard events, bursts of joy, revelations...We hunker down in our daily lives, in the shelter of routines and assumptions. We miss so much."
"The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the examined life, any examined life at all, is for damn sure going to surprise, confound and disturb you."
"...some documents bolster what we know and believe, some fly in the face of it...each document is a small revolution, tearing into the one before...reshaping it."
" walking away rarely makes you lighter; ...instead, step by step, it weighs you down. History has its teeth in you, regardless."
This appears to be a book you either admire greatly or one you dislike, based on the reviews I've read of it. Put me in the first category. It really deserves the description "tour de force" that I read on the back cover of this paperback edition.
Well, in this book Sarah Jane, our unreliable, enigmatic narrator, throws me many pieces of the puzzle that is her life, in no particular order and completely unsorted, and I had the devil of a time trying to figure her out. By the end of the book, the reader has formed a picture and idea of Sarah Jane and her life, but it's rather incomplete, as if she kept back many puzzle pieces that would allow one to make a complete, informed decision about her. I'm not usually happy with that grey area in books, but it works very well in Sallis's new novel.
So what's the book about? It's a mystery. It's also a spotty memoir by a troubled woman with an unhappy past. A woman who was given the choice finally of prison or military service. A war veteran who comes back to civilian life, becomes a cook, lives a peripatetic life, and finally settles down in a small town as deputy sheriff. But the plot's not really the thing.
It's the writing that's the big draw. The wry, insightful observations about life and the human condition. The secondary characters that Sarah Jane interacts with. The humor and the poignancy and sadness of those interactions. This book hit me right in the solar plexus. I don't usually reread books but this is one that could use a reread or two. Some of those missing puzzle pieces may very well be found on a closer look.
This is my first Sallis novel. His books weren't even on my radar, even though I have seen the Ryan Gosling movie DRIVE that was based on one of them. Now I'm going to look for that one to read. If it has the emotional impact and the excellent writing to be found in SARAH JANE, it's definitely worth the read.
How can you not admire a book with observations such as the following:
"The days march by and extraordinary things happen all around us. Small miracles, haphazard events, bursts of joy, revelations...We hunker down in our daily lives, in the shelter of routines and assumptions. We miss so much."
"The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the examined life, any examined life at all, is for damn sure going to surprise, confound and disturb you."
"...some documents bolster what we know and believe, some fly in the face of it...each document is a small revolution, tearing into the one before...reshaping it."
" walking away rarely makes you lighter; ...instead, step by step, it weighs you down. History has its teeth in you, regardless."
This appears to be a book you either admire greatly or one you dislike, based on the reviews I've read of it. Put me in the first category. It really deserves the description "tour de force" that I read on the back cover of this paperback edition.
May 29, 2025
This is more of a character study than any type of mystery or police novel. The writing contains a great deal of poetic nuance, in some vague and undoubtedly unintentional way, reminiscent of that of Boston Teran. Unlike most murder-mystery style novels, this is a slowly developing experience, one that requires patience from the reader. That patience will be rewarded in time, but not in the usual way. No big reveal, no major final twist.
Instead, a rather lugubrious character sort of fades into her own self-imposed exile. Sarah Jane Pullman is a complicated individual, with a backstory filled with conflict, attempts to escape the consequences of bad decisions and just plain bad luck. She begins in a small town and winds up settling in another.
Sarah Jane transitions from working as a cook to that of a deputy, only to wind up appointed as sheriff when her boss, the small town's actual sheriff, goes missing. His disappearance occupies about a quarter of the book, but strangely, isn't really the central point, nor does it carry the majority of the plot. To state what that actually is, however, is more difficult. This is the kind of novel from which one can draw any number of meanings, making it a thought provoking story for those so inclined.
Instead, a rather lugubrious character sort of fades into her own self-imposed exile. Sarah Jane Pullman is a complicated individual, with a backstory filled with conflict, attempts to escape the consequences of bad decisions and just plain bad luck. She begins in a small town and winds up settling in another.
Sarah Jane transitions from working as a cook to that of a deputy, only to wind up appointed as sheriff when her boss, the small town's actual sheriff, goes missing. His disappearance occupies about a quarter of the book, but strangely, isn't really the central point, nor does it carry the majority of the plot. To state what that actually is, however, is more difficult. This is the kind of novel from which one can draw any number of meanings, making it a thought provoking story for those so inclined.
November 2, 2019
A poetic book of literary fiction.
The publisher of Sarah Jane by James Sallis suggests that this is a crime novel. It is not. What it is, is a collection of colorful descriptions told in the first person by the main character, Sarah Jane Pullman.
Sarah Jane is and has always been a bit off. She tells her story, jumping around from event to event, back in forth in time, mostly elaborating on the details of the small things in her life. She bumps around, living on the bottom of society, cooking and serving in a variety of establishments, baking mostly, ending up preferring to cook for homeless people down on their luck in flophouses and those doomed to assisted living as they live out the final days of their lives.
The milieu is Southern, Louisiana mostly, and Sarah Jane fits in with the lowlifes and oddballs that populate the novel. Her low self-esteem causes her to make self-destructive choices in her life. She’s filled with self-loathing but also a strong sense of self-preservation, having learned to protect herself while serving in the military in Iraq. She confesses to having probably murdered an abusive boyfriend earlier on.
After the first fifty pages or so, Sarah Jane announces that the real story begins here. By now she’s taken a job with the local sheriff’s department and takes over as the de facto sheriff when her mentor, the real sheriff, disappears.
People who pick this up expecting a crime thriller are going to be disappointed. This is literary fiction, more concerned with descriptive minutia than narrative. Every small thing is described in exquisite detail with many inventive allegories that serve to give the writing emotional depth and a certain sense of illumination.
It’s hard to follow the story at times because of the importance given to so many ultimately insignificant things. People of a certain literary bent will enjoy Sallis’s writing. Others will find it distracting, effectively killing the development of any sort of narrative. But I suppose this was the author’s intent in writing the book. Time bounces around in Sarah’s mind as though in a dreamlike haze as she recounts memories from childhood, her war experiences, the different people she’s known and the things she’s done. Many characters are introduced, some for just a fraction of a page, making it difficult to keep track of which character will have a future and which is there merely to provide an opportunity for a description illuminating what’s in Sarah’s mind. Eventually, Sarah admits to having heard voices since she was a little girl, suggesting that she’s bipolar.
One of the things I had difficulty in reconciling with the writing is that I don’t know anyone who speaks and thinks like this. Sallis seems to be reaching for more and more impressive allegories and descriptions that the book seemed more about that than a traditional story.
With that being said, the language is very poetic, which seems an appropriate observation due to the author’s several published poetry collections. This is the only work I’ve read of Sallis. He’s probably best known for the novel, Drive, which was made into an excellent movie directed by Nicholas Winding Refn, with a career-making star turn by Ryan Gosling. The movie had an intoxicating quality, which is reflected here. I read a snippet of The Long-Legged Fly, published in 1992, which suggested to this reader that his reputation as a crime writer is well deserved and reminded me of some of the titans of noir.
If you like literary fiction with a poetic bent, you may find much to like about Sarah Jane.
The publisher of Sarah Jane by James Sallis suggests that this is a crime novel. It is not. What it is, is a collection of colorful descriptions told in the first person by the main character, Sarah Jane Pullman.
Sarah Jane is and has always been a bit off. She tells her story, jumping around from event to event, back in forth in time, mostly elaborating on the details of the small things in her life. She bumps around, living on the bottom of society, cooking and serving in a variety of establishments, baking mostly, ending up preferring to cook for homeless people down on their luck in flophouses and those doomed to assisted living as they live out the final days of their lives.
The milieu is Southern, Louisiana mostly, and Sarah Jane fits in with the lowlifes and oddballs that populate the novel. Her low self-esteem causes her to make self-destructive choices in her life. She’s filled with self-loathing but also a strong sense of self-preservation, having learned to protect herself while serving in the military in Iraq. She confesses to having probably murdered an abusive boyfriend earlier on.
After the first fifty pages or so, Sarah Jane announces that the real story begins here. By now she’s taken a job with the local sheriff’s department and takes over as the de facto sheriff when her mentor, the real sheriff, disappears.
People who pick this up expecting a crime thriller are going to be disappointed. This is literary fiction, more concerned with descriptive minutia than narrative. Every small thing is described in exquisite detail with many inventive allegories that serve to give the writing emotional depth and a certain sense of illumination.
It’s hard to follow the story at times because of the importance given to so many ultimately insignificant things. People of a certain literary bent will enjoy Sallis’s writing. Others will find it distracting, effectively killing the development of any sort of narrative. But I suppose this was the author’s intent in writing the book. Time bounces around in Sarah’s mind as though in a dreamlike haze as she recounts memories from childhood, her war experiences, the different people she’s known and the things she’s done. Many characters are introduced, some for just a fraction of a page, making it difficult to keep track of which character will have a future and which is there merely to provide an opportunity for a description illuminating what’s in Sarah’s mind. Eventually, Sarah admits to having heard voices since she was a little girl, suggesting that she’s bipolar.
One of the things I had difficulty in reconciling with the writing is that I don’t know anyone who speaks and thinks like this. Sallis seems to be reaching for more and more impressive allegories and descriptions that the book seemed more about that than a traditional story.
With that being said, the language is very poetic, which seems an appropriate observation due to the author’s several published poetry collections. This is the only work I’ve read of Sallis. He’s probably best known for the novel, Drive, which was made into an excellent movie directed by Nicholas Winding Refn, with a career-making star turn by Ryan Gosling. The movie had an intoxicating quality, which is reflected here. I read a snippet of The Long-Legged Fly, published in 1992, which suggested to this reader that his reputation as a crime writer is well deserved and reminded me of some of the titans of noir.
If you like literary fiction with a poetic bent, you may find much to like about Sarah Jane.
September 24, 2019
Sarah Jane by James Sallis is a highly recommended character study set in a crime novel.
Sarah Jane Pullman is currently a cop, but she has a complicated past. From a rocky childhood that eventually led to a court-ordered Army stint where she still has the scars from her combat experience in the Gulf War. She got back and spent years drifting around, taking on jobs as a cook in various places. She has had several relationships and plenty of heart-break and bad times, including her relationship with a violent cop. Life eventually led her the small southwestern town of Farr where she accepted a job with the police department. Sheriff Cal Phillips recognized she was a vet and taught her what he knew. When Cal disappears, Sarah becomes the acting sheriff, and begins investigating his disappearance.
This is an exquisitely written character study of a complicated woman making a life out of the chaos she's been through. The opening of this this is a bit hard to become engaged with at the beginning when Sarah is sharing memories and anecdotes from her life, before we really have a context in which to place the information. Things do fall into place, eventually, at about a third of the way through this short novel, but in my opinion it did take away from the narrative.
Where the narrative is good, though, it is excellent. As I said, the prose is exquisite, spare and brief, but with nary a wasted word. It is worth it to read through to the end as this is an empathetic, insightful, thoughtful observation on the human condition, as well as a mystery.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Soho Press/Penguin Random House.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/0...
Sarah Jane Pullman is currently a cop, but she has a complicated past. From a rocky childhood that eventually led to a court-ordered Army stint where she still has the scars from her combat experience in the Gulf War. She got back and spent years drifting around, taking on jobs as a cook in various places. She has had several relationships and plenty of heart-break and bad times, including her relationship with a violent cop. Life eventually led her the small southwestern town of Farr where she accepted a job with the police department. Sheriff Cal Phillips recognized she was a vet and taught her what he knew. When Cal disappears, Sarah becomes the acting sheriff, and begins investigating his disappearance.
This is an exquisitely written character study of a complicated woman making a life out of the chaos she's been through. The opening of this this is a bit hard to become engaged with at the beginning when Sarah is sharing memories and anecdotes from her life, before we really have a context in which to place the information. Things do fall into place, eventually, at about a third of the way through this short novel, but in my opinion it did take away from the narrative.
Where the narrative is good, though, it is excellent. As I said, the prose is exquisite, spare and brief, but with nary a wasted word. It is worth it to read through to the end as this is an empathetic, insightful, thoughtful observation on the human condition, as well as a mystery.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Soho Press/Penguin Random House.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/0...
September 26, 2022
This is the story of a woman (who may be) named Sarah Jane Pullman. From an early age, Sarah roamed from place to place, stopping when she ran out of money or met someone who interested her, always moving on. The chaos of her early life taught her to travel light, and eventually she lands in a small town as the deputy sheriff. But when the sheriff goes missing, she finds herself promoted to acting sheriff, but the deeper she gets into the investigation, the more she realizes that the sheriff had secrets of his own that caught up with him, just as her own secrets find her.
Although we are aware that Sarah is telling her story selectively, deliberately omitting certain details, the reader is well into the novel before realizing exactly how unreliable a narrator Sarah is. She chooses not to define many of her relationships and misadventures, even her relationship with Sid. Sarah is a true noir character, always short of money, taking whatever job comes along, choosing the wrong kind of man, and living according to her own code of ethics. James Sallis writes wonderful, spare prose and does not waste words, the kind of writing that makes you stop and go back to re-read a loaded sentence. Many thanks to the publisher, Soho Crime, and editor Juliet Graemes for providing me with a pre-publication ARC.
Although we are aware that Sarah is telling her story selectively, deliberately omitting certain details, the reader is well into the novel before realizing exactly how unreliable a narrator Sarah is. She chooses not to define many of her relationships and misadventures, even her relationship with Sid. Sarah is a true noir character, always short of money, taking whatever job comes along, choosing the wrong kind of man, and living according to her own code of ethics. James Sallis writes wonderful, spare prose and does not waste words, the kind of writing that makes you stop and go back to re-read a loaded sentence. Many thanks to the publisher, Soho Crime, and editor Juliet Graemes for providing me with a pre-publication ARC.
October 25, 2019
This is really not a mystery but a character study. It can be challenging to read sometimes as it moves place and time a lot. It is very descriptive of small town life. But I was left feeling confused at the end and somehow wanting more.
October 22, 2022
Me gustó la historia de Sarah Jane. El libro en si,pues creo que estuvo un poco regado para mi gusto,pero a veces también cumplía su cometido de esta forma. Te ibas enterando de las cosas casi a la misma vez que los personajes..
wish-list-possibles
October 6, 2019Written up by Marilyn Stasio in Oct 4, 2019 NYT. Nice writeup. And Tom Nolan writes this up in Oct 4, 2019 WSJ.
October 14, 2019
Sallis is as strong as ever in his new novel, and it’s really refreshing to read a quality piece of American contemporary fiction after several dodgy experiences recently.
This is the story of Sarah Jane Pullman; the second half dealing with her time as sheriff in a small rural town, the first concerns how she got there, from a derailed background, with a chaotic, nomadic lifestyle haunted by secrets and buried memory. Sallis crams as much into this short novel as many authors get in an epic. As the story is propelled forward chapter by chapter - her difficult upbringing, her own law-breaking, her time in the army - more detail of Sarah Jane’s character are revealed.
This is a philosophical novel, part biography, part crime, but all noir; a very original tale about redemption and resilience, with a satisfying and unpredictable ending.
This is the story of Sarah Jane Pullman; the second half dealing with her time as sheriff in a small rural town, the first concerns how she got there, from a derailed background, with a chaotic, nomadic lifestyle haunted by secrets and buried memory. Sallis crams as much into this short novel as many authors get in an epic. As the story is propelled forward chapter by chapter - her difficult upbringing, her own law-breaking, her time in the army - more detail of Sarah Jane’s character are revealed.
This is a philosophical novel, part biography, part crime, but all noir; a very original tale about redemption and resilience, with a satisfying and unpredictable ending.
January 18, 2020
I thought the book was so hard to follow. I had to force myself to finish the book because I was constantly loosing interest. The main characters thoughts were so jumbled and there was a lot of pointless passages that added no value to the story. I would not recommend.
October 21, 2019
One of our best living noir writers.
November 25, 2019
I read another librarian's review of this short novel and was intrigued, especially when I learned it was around 200 pages and I knew I could finish it without too much effort. What started as a "let's see what it's all about," led to a deep dive into an incisive and profound character study the likes of which I rarely encounter.
Sarah Jane is a mysterious character, and the reader knows they are in for some surprises when she says, "...I didn't do all those things they say I did. Well, not all of them anyway." Sarah Jane grew up her with her father and a mother who kept disappearing; so it's not too much of a surprise that she has trouble staying in one place herself for long. She floats around in her youth, gets in some trouble, and ends up in the military rather than jail, those being the only options granted her at the time.
After her military tour, Sarah Jane supports herself as a cook, and ends up a bit on the run later in life after realizing someone she's married to is not who she thought he was. She changes locations and names like changing clothes, just keeps moving forward, almost instinctively. Ultimately, she finds herself working in law enforcement and filling in for a sheriff in a small town when he goes missing. This is where the mystery story begins. Because it IS classified as a mystery, and there are mysteries that do get solved. Some more definitively than others.
What surprised me, kept me intrigued, and also challenged me so much about this novel was the author's construction of his chapters. He starts a paragraph almost in the middle of the story, and the reader doesn't really understand what's happening right away. But, by sticking with it, we gradually fall into the narrative: the characters and action and clues - it all starts to make sense. Well, most of it, anyway. There is plenty of ambiguity here, but it works in this story. The novel also is not straight forward chronologically, but slips back and forth in time in a way that can be a bit jarring, but it all comes together eventually. Well, most of it anyway :/
It's really incredible what the author has done here in a little more than 200 pages. We are given a snapshot of various stages of the main character's life: click, Sarah's a child keeping a journal and scratching her arm open because she heard the phrase, "beauty is only skin deep," and went looking; click, Sarah is in a far away country in an unnamed war, lying in hot sand after an explosion, having killed an enemy so young, she has to imagine something different to live with it. And she does; click. And on the story goes, through interactions, connections, incomplete beginnings and leavings. We get a glimpse of some of the things Sarah did do, and wonder what she did not.
The writing is really something, and I found myself taking screenshots of sentences and paragraphs I wanted to re-read. Since I had checked this book out from the library, I couldn't write in it or turn down pages. But I wanted to. And will buy my own copy to re-read someday. Because it deserves to be read more than once.
I saw on Amazon some one star reviews, and a five star review that said, "people who slam this book just didn't get it." And I'm glad that I seem to be one that understood what the author was attempting to accomplish: an unusual character study in which we learn many things about the main character, but in such a removed way, that we barely get a chance to know her before it's over. And she's worth knowing. There are glimpses of violence, but also touches of redemption that provide the payoff I needed to be satisfied as a reader.
I don't think this book is probably for everyone. The narrative is bit chaotic, and the confusing way the chapters begin could be off-putting. But it worked for me. I tend to be drawn to books with unusual structure for some reason - maybe I just like the challenge. But this book reminded me why I love reading, fiction especially. Other books that I ended up loving due to an interesting narrative structure were Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong, The Current by Tim Johnston, A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed, and Costalegre by Courtney Maum.
The critical reviews of the book, from sources such as The Wall Street Journal, The Toronto Star, Bookpage, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist, among others, are incredibly good. And I don't always agree with critical reviews. This time around, I concur. And I'm just sitting here, right now, imagining whom I will recommend it to next.
Sarah Jane is a mysterious character, and the reader knows they are in for some surprises when she says, "...I didn't do all those things they say I did. Well, not all of them anyway." Sarah Jane grew up her with her father and a mother who kept disappearing; so it's not too much of a surprise that she has trouble staying in one place herself for long. She floats around in her youth, gets in some trouble, and ends up in the military rather than jail, those being the only options granted her at the time.
After her military tour, Sarah Jane supports herself as a cook, and ends up a bit on the run later in life after realizing someone she's married to is not who she thought he was. She changes locations and names like changing clothes, just keeps moving forward, almost instinctively. Ultimately, she finds herself working in law enforcement and filling in for a sheriff in a small town when he goes missing. This is where the mystery story begins. Because it IS classified as a mystery, and there are mysteries that do get solved. Some more definitively than others.
What surprised me, kept me intrigued, and also challenged me so much about this novel was the author's construction of his chapters. He starts a paragraph almost in the middle of the story, and the reader doesn't really understand what's happening right away. But, by sticking with it, we gradually fall into the narrative: the characters and action and clues - it all starts to make sense. Well, most of it, anyway. There is plenty of ambiguity here, but it works in this story. The novel also is not straight forward chronologically, but slips back and forth in time in a way that can be a bit jarring, but it all comes together eventually. Well, most of it anyway :/
It's really incredible what the author has done here in a little more than 200 pages. We are given a snapshot of various stages of the main character's life: click, Sarah's a child keeping a journal and scratching her arm open because she heard the phrase, "beauty is only skin deep," and went looking; click, Sarah is in a far away country in an unnamed war, lying in hot sand after an explosion, having killed an enemy so young, she has to imagine something different to live with it. And she does; click. And on the story goes, through interactions, connections, incomplete beginnings and leavings. We get a glimpse of some of the things Sarah did do, and wonder what she did not.
The writing is really something, and I found myself taking screenshots of sentences and paragraphs I wanted to re-read. Since I had checked this book out from the library, I couldn't write in it or turn down pages. But I wanted to. And will buy my own copy to re-read someday. Because it deserves to be read more than once.
I saw on Amazon some one star reviews, and a five star review that said, "people who slam this book just didn't get it." And I'm glad that I seem to be one that understood what the author was attempting to accomplish: an unusual character study in which we learn many things about the main character, but in such a removed way, that we barely get a chance to know her before it's over. And she's worth knowing. There are glimpses of violence, but also touches of redemption that provide the payoff I needed to be satisfied as a reader.
I don't think this book is probably for everyone. The narrative is bit chaotic, and the confusing way the chapters begin could be off-putting. But it worked for me. I tend to be drawn to books with unusual structure for some reason - maybe I just like the challenge. But this book reminded me why I love reading, fiction especially. Other books that I ended up loving due to an interesting narrative structure were Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong, The Current by Tim Johnston, A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed, and Costalegre by Courtney Maum.
The critical reviews of the book, from sources such as The Wall Street Journal, The Toronto Star, Bookpage, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist, among others, are incredibly good. And I don't always agree with critical reviews. This time around, I concur. And I'm just sitting here, right now, imagining whom I will recommend it to next.
December 16, 2020
I've never read anything by James Sallis before but was impressed by the number of international awards he's won for literary crime fiction, according to the jacket flap. Literary it is, then. Sarah Jane Pullman is an interesting character -- product of a hard scrabble childhood, military veteran and survivor of a marriage to a dangerous cop. She falls into a job as a sheriff in a small town and spends the rest of this relatively short book debating whether to stay or repeat her long standing pattern of running off. I liked her; she's tougher than the average female protagonist. The story meanders with an awful lot of small town detail that may or may not be important -- until suddenly it is. Small town police procedural and a bit of a mystery about Sarah's past that gets more or less resolved, all presented by a writer with an unmistakable relish for words. I liked it.
October 6, 2019
James Sallis' work never gathers dust on my to-be-read shelf. Every time I pick up one of his slim volumes I feel touched by genius guided by discipline. Every sentence, each paragraph, seems to have been lovingly carved, crafted with intense focus. No matter how hard I shake the book, no surplus words tumble out. One can never find extraneous pages, needless explanation, sluggish description. Everything needed is right in its place, telling the truth.
Highly Recommended.
Highly Recommended.
May 16, 2024
This book bears a faint resemblance with "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" in the sense that both take place in American backwaters where rampant violence and nasty rumors are the norm. Both also revolve around a strong but deeply flawed woman. However, while Martin McDonagh's film is beautifully shaped, "Sarah Jane" ends up being nothing more than a series of elliptical scenes in the life of the titular character. What transpires is that after a dysfunctional childhood with an intermittent mother, Sarah Jane committed some unspecified offence and was given the choice between jail or a stint in the Army. After serving in the forces, Sarah Jane then worked as a cook in various places, had at least one abusive relationship and lost a baby. Most of the narrative takes place when she has found some stability as the acting sheriff of Farr (ha ha!). Sarah Jane's life as a cop involves many mundane tasks like dealing with traffic accidents or locating missing teenagers, not all of them abducted by serial killers. However, her junior colleague KC suspects her of the murder of a cop from another state who may have come to Farr to avenge his best buddy who may have been the abusive boyfriend Sarah Jane left for dead years before. Sallis seems to feel it would be beneath his dignity as a literary novelist to pursue this plot thread and tie loose ends. I should have ticked the number of time the word "coffee" recurs since every single scene is punctuated by pots of coffee made, bought or offered by or to Sarah Jane. In other words for me this is genre fiction with all the tics and none of the rewards of genre fiction.
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