LOW COUNTRY LAMENTATIONS

In this novel, a troubled college student takes a trip down Memory Lane—a past that’s only in her head.

It’s been mere months since Erica Edwards graduated from a South Carolina high school. Now, Erica has decided to adopt the persona of Savannah D’Bergeolet. Savannah is frustrated that her parents and older brother, Roy, can’t remember the family’s history—her father was a perpetually drunk shrimper and a Marine fighter pilot, and they’ve all alienated her twin brother, Chicken John. But none of it is true; she doesn’t even have a twin. Still, Savannah is positive that she’ll reunite with Chicken John in Charleston. She takes an impromptu road trip to the picturesque city with her naïve friend Mitzi Bedenbaugh. At times, Savannah can be offensive; for example, the White woman assumes people of color are uneducated. But she can be dangerous as well. She’s convinced certain people belong to “the Ten,” an evil, racist secret society—not unlike Pat Conroy’s The Lords of Discipline, as Savannah believes she lives inside Southern authors’ fictional stories. In the real world, her distressed family searches for the missing Erica. Roy goes out on his own, a far cry from the online community and games that usually monopolize his time. Savannah also has an unexpected effect on her college writing professor, Creighton Starke. As this one-time author struggles to decide where his life will take him next, he peruses Savannah’s manuscript, Lowcountry Lamentations. These periodic excerpts give Creighton (and readers) insights into the quixotic world Savannah has created and completely immersed herself in.

Malmsteen’s dark comedy has its share of lighthearted moments. Savannah’s amateurish manuscript, for example, is rife with typos and silly turns, like her childhood story of an Orkin man’s sudden obsession with her beautiful mother. Nevertheless, the tale’s more somber elements will hit readers the hardest. Savannah is undeniably unwell, and her misguided confidence that the “characters” in her book—herself, Mitzi, and a passenger they pick up along the way—are relatively safe actually puts them in jeopardy. Roy doesn’t fare much better in his search, and both he and his sister run into trouble with the law. The author excels at character development; the story is told from the narrative perspectives of Savannah, Roy, and Creighton. Savannah remains intriguing throughout the tale. The two men evolve dramatically, and one of them turns into a much more unsavory character by the end. There’s a handful of nods to Southern authors, like Dorothea Benton Frank and Anne Rivers Siddons. At one point, Savannah speaks to Mitzi like Bull Meechum in Conroy’s The Great Santini(“Come on, sportsfans!”). But Malmsteen boasts an indelible prose that’s all his own: “The metal rattled underneath the wheels to the point that even a brave man would have felt his sword hand stutter, and with the windows down as they were, each passing car sounded like the noise one hears the moment before a long-dead grandparent beckons from within the pleasant haze of white light.” Staying true to the novel’s overall tone, the denouement is offbeat and a bit unnerving.

A striking, character-driven tale about a disturbed woman and her quirky world.