Samuel Ligon

Among the Dead and Dreaming by Samuel Ligon is a highly recommended novel that looks at events through the perspective of multiple characters. The novel opens with a tragic accident involving Cynthia and Kyle. The two are old friends, but currently the significant others of Mark and Nikki. Their deaths bring Mark and Nikki into an uneasy relationship.

Nikki has been running since she left her home at seventeen. She has ran from one relationship to another and across the country. When she meets Cash in Austin, it may have been the best and worst mistake she ever made. The worst mistake because Cash was domineering and controlling. He became dangerous and a stalker when Nikki tried to leave him. She kills him and escapes. Only she knows that the best thing that happened to her, her beloved daughter Alina, is Cash's child, something she will never tell Alina about.

Now Cash's brother, Burke, is out of prison. He has found Nikki's phone number, photos of her and Cash, and he's fantasized about her to extraordinary creepy levels. He is losing control over reality, but it looks like he is going to be stalking Nikki with dangerous intent, seeking revenge.

Mark is full of regret over the loss of Cynthia and suspects that something was going on between her and Kyle. He's mired in reflecting upon his relationship with her and speculating over what might have been. He ponders his past political career. He thinks he sees some of his own distress reflected in Nikki and thinks he should talk to her about his suspicions, which opens them up to an uneasy relationship.

Alina, thirteen, knows that Kyle loved Nikki, but Nikki didn't reciprocate the same level of love and devotion. Nikki always holds some part of her back. Alina, however, adored Kyle and can't believe he is gone. She's angry at her mother's choices and her clinging to Alina.

Ligon has these characters and others who were involved during various parts of their stories chime in with their side of things and what they think. This is not confusing because each chapter opens with the name of the character speaking. It makes for an interesting story since it is told through the perspective of the individuals involved. While one person may assign a specific motive to another person's actions, that isn't always the case. Sometimes the truth lies somewhere in-between.

All of these characters are searching for love: the love of a mother for a child (even if it becomes clinging and overbearing); the love between men and women; the love between friends; the love lost; the love sought. Many of them are scared of love even while they seek it. They don't really know what it is they want. They all seek a place of acceptance and safety, however unlikely it seems.

There is a real tension that builds as Burke becomes increasingly obsessed with Nikki - and unhinged from reality. This is another novel that isn't necessarily an easy novel to read. There are adult situations and violent scenes. The fear in these characters becomes palatable; they fear for their futures, over their past, and what will happen next. Nikki, Alina, and Mark are so lost and searching for some stability that you can't help but feel for them and hope they survive the coming encounter.

The fact that Ligon manages to give all these characters a different voice and point of view in the narrative is a good indication of his skill and artistry. The story flows smoothly and deftly, even when the scene is grim, somber, or disturbing.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Leapfrog Press for review purposes.… (mehr)

The main character in Samuel Ligon's novel Safe in Heaven Dead is killed in the first sentence. Robert Elgin died on the street, knocked down and run over by a Second Avenue bus while pursuing a woman he thought he could not live without. From there, the novel jumps back several months to gradually reveal the paths leading to Elgin's grim fate.

Like the movies American Beauty and Sunset Boulevard, tales told by dead men, Safe in Heaven Dead grabs us by the hair and doesn't let go until the final page, even though we know how everything will turn out.

Ligon jumps out of the starting gate like a sweat-drenched thoroughbred with this, his first novel which drives forward with relentless energy. If Safe in Heaven Dead is any indication, Ligon has a long, promising career ahead of him as an author of complex thrillers that raise questions of morality as much as they do the reader's pulse.

The novel takes its title from Jack Kerouac's poem "211th Chorus," which concludes with
I wish I was free
Of that slaving meat wheel
And safe in heaven dead
Elgin, a labor negotiator for Oakland County, Michigan, tries to escape the meat wheel when his comfortable suburban life starts to collapse around him. First, he's pressured into cutting a corrupt deal with a local politician who has an eye on the governor's mansion. Then, his five-year-old daughter is sexually molested by their 12-year-old neighbor. Elgin grows increasingly distant from his wife as she drags him through what she believes will be cathartic court hearings and therapy sessions. Finally, Elgin stumbles across a secret slush fund his bosses have been skimming from a public benefits account. His life in an ever-squeezing vise, Elgin decides to steal a half-million dollars and run away from everything.

He was free. He was dead. He was alive. He was a machine.

Trying to lose himself in New York City (the naked city of eight million stories), Elgin crosses paths with Carla, a Faulkner-reading high-priced call girl and the woman he was chasing when the bus turned him into pavement meat. Gradually, the two move from a sexless business relationship (Elgin just wants companionship, someone to share his cross of burdens) to romance (albeit, an odd love affair tinged with nihilism and paranoia). Ligon builds their mutual attraction slowly, patiently over the course of the novel.

There is no such thing as a cardboard character in Ligon's world. Everyone—from the greedy politicos to the desperate-for-stability wife to the lonely prostitute—has pounds of flesh packed on their literary bones. Carla, especially, is complex and compelling. Her sections of the novel are the only ones told in first-person and Ligon gains our immediate sympathy for the troubled call girl as we go inside her head: The real shame is in losing to loneliness, like you're no longer capable of living only with yourself, or worse, realizing or deciding that being strong isn't enough.

As Safe in Heaven Dead gradually unspools, we become more and more engrossed in the characters and the circumstances that put them in their private hells. Ligon uses the non-linear structure of the novel to his advantage, never letting up on the tension as he slowly peels away the layers of what leads to the grim climax.

It's a cruel ending, yes, but we know it's coming, so we only have ourselves to blame for getting so caught up in these characters' lives. Safe in Heaven Dead is that rare novel which envelopes us completely in its world, leaving us to ponder and worry about its characters in the times when we've set the book aside to go about our daily business. When all is said and done, when all is dead and gone on the last page, we feel cold and lonely, like we were doomed to spend the rest of our days in a dark refrigerator…at least, until the next, happier novel comes along. I can think of no higher praise than to say I loved every miserable minute of this book.… (mehr)