Crawl on Your Belly All the Days of Your Life
A Novel
by William J. Donahue
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Pub Date 21 Apr 2022 | Archive Date 29 Mar 2024
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Description
Once blessed with everything he thought he ever wanted, Sid Carver finds himself on the verge of collapse. A string of reckless decisions has left him without a family, without a career, without an identity.
The dark clouds seem to part the day a woman named Holly Tithe moves into the apartment across the hall. He sees her as a “puzzle with missing pieces.” She sees him as a “broken toy” in need of mending. He cannot grasp her cosmic views on the nature of human existence. She cannot fathom why he keeps an enormous python and a pair of vicious lizards caged in his living room. Despite their differences, their lives quickly intertwine.
Just as Sid finds a possible route toward redemption, new obstacles block his path. One of them is a Neanderthal-like brute who seems to have won Holly's affection. As Sid's darkest impulses take hold, he must decide which role he wants to play in the life he has left—predator or prey.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Violent, earthy, dark, hilarious. Donahue loves his characters enough to mock them. Crawl on Your Belly All the Days of Your Life anatomizes American masculinity and the weak-hearted self-hatred behind all its smoke and bluster. Donahue reminds us of O'Connor's lesson: that redemption is most meaningful when those who eventually find it begin as monsters." –SCHUY R. WEISHAAR, author of Doctor Nobody and the Lower Animals
"Donahue captures the messy reality of love in this stark but engaging ode to unrequited affection, redemption, and reptiles." –LCW ALLINGHAM, author of Lady in White, The Jersey Devil, The Lost Colony of Roanoke, and Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse
"[Donahue] brings us inside the mind of a man who is filled with turmoil, strife, guilt, and uncertainty as to where he wants to be and where his life is going. ... A story that is compelling, heartbreaking, heartwarming and terrifying, and inspirational to a point." –Just Reviews
"The author has such depth of perception when writing Sid that it's astounding. He shows it all: the bad, the worse, the fetish, the flaw ... It's gorgeous in its repulsiveness." –Uncomfortably Dark
"The hot-blooded honesty of Niven meets the relentless style of Palahniuk: a gripping, bittersweet study of masculinity and all the many performances that come with it." –GRANT PRICE, author of Reality Testing and By the Feet of Men
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781684339310 |
| PRICE | US$5.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 273 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Janalyn P, Reviewer
Crawl On Your Belly All The Days Of Your Life by William J Donahue is about Sid Carver who cheated on his wife gambled and eventually lost everything forcing him in his menagerie of reptiles to move to an apartment in the not so great part of town. He is now working for a man who previously did work on Sid and his ex Lydias family home he is definitely down in the dumps when he meets his new neighbor Holly she is like a breath of fresh air that at first Sid wants no part of but Holly doesn’t take no for an answer. He feels a connection to Holly but soon has competition and Steve… Who is a prick and a jack ass! Pardon my language but I cannot stand Steve and guys just like him I get a visceral reaction just thinking about assholes like him. Sid isn’t happy about this but then when he learns Steve is also abusing Holly he feels the need to do something when it comes to a decision things get complicated. Just know this book doesn’t end with a happy ending quite the opposite having said that I thought the author did a great job showing the negative side in the man’s version of a family that breaks down and the affect parents attitudes can have on the children. The book is more about Holly, Sid and Steve and it was so good I really thoroughly enjoyed this book I couldn’t put it down unfortunately it has been months since I read it but after skimming over the novel I didn’t take long to remember how much I absolutely enjoyed this book. I want to think black rose writing for my free art copy via NetGalley please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review
