Whenever I read novels, I have a quirky order. First I read a few paragraphs from the first page, then I skip to the end, and then in an even bigger hodgepodge I read the middle in random bits and pieces. My family and friends used to laugh at me and I myself could never understand, let alone explain to them, why I read novels in this way. Until recently.
After a long pause from reading novels I borrowed a book from my neighbor, The Last Mile. I did not understand why it was so tedious and boring. I used to love reading novels! Until I remembered- didnt I usually read from the end? That is when I realized that sometimes I see a novel as a puzzle. What happened? Who did what? Why? To whom? How? For me, reading the end of the story was like finding the corner and edge pieces of a puzzle and then working in the rest of the picture. In future posts I hope to dissect the story elements of novels, tv shows, movies, biblical stories and other literature and art, but for this entry I want to develop the skills of dissecting a book and reconstructing it as if it was a puzzle.
So far what I understand is that a gang of four men participated in organized undercover criminal activities. They met in high school and many of their victims, possibly merely collateral damage to their grander scheme, were sent to death row for crimes they did not commit. The fourth member, Roy Mars, left the group years earlier. He is cooperating with federal investigators in a limited way.
What I also know is that the mission of the group was to pushback against civil rights and equality for black Americans and they believe in some form of white supremacy, or at least want America to continue to be a white country. Their exact philosophy I have not yet figured out, and part of what I will be searching to understand when reading this book is to clarify their opinion on this topic.
