The World Beneath: A Novel by
Aaron Gwyn
"What Do I Do?" I Asked Him. "Go Under."
A mesmerizing literary novel that begins when a boy goes missing—and
winds into an obsessive hunt with murderous results. One cold
November morning in Perser, Oklahoma, Sheriff Jerry Martin receives a
disturbing call: a local fifteen-year-old has disappeared. The boy, J.T.,
who is half Mexican, half Chickasaw and has been raised by his
grandmother, is known for starting trouble. Sheriff Martin sets out on a
fevered search, determined to find J.T., even as the hunt reopens wounds
from a traumatic event in his past. In a seemingly parallel but ultimately
intersecting story, Hickson Crider, a veteran of the first Iraq war, discovers
a mysterious crevice, perfectly round and seemingly bottomless, in his
backyard. The hole becomes Hickson’s obsession—and an ominous clue
in Sheriff Martin’s investigation. Aaron Gwyn’s perceptive, quietly
beautiful prose is “reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor” (Kirkus Reviews),
engaging us in a tale that is both savage and burning with heart, about the
after effects of war, violence, faith, and random acts of devotion.

Personal Review: The World Beneath: A Novel by Aaron Gwyn
Gwyn explores myth and reality, the world above and the one below and
the secret places of the human heart, where guilt, shame and fear reside in
a provocative tale set in Oklahoma. When JT, a young boy, half-Mexican,
half-Chickasaw, goes missing, Sheriff Martin begins his investigation with a
premature despair- he fears this boy's story will not have a happy
resolution. JT doesn't fit well anywhere, a loner without a father who is
seduced by the Chickasaw myth of Shampe, "the vanisher" who resides
underground and captures unsuspecting victims for a new life below the
earth. Hoping for another such existence, JT prays, "Let me be taken."
This concept of another plane of existence is further explored when
decorated Iraq war vet Hickson Crider discovers a hole in his backyard, a
hole that apparently has no bottom. Suffering from PTSD, Hickson has
maintained a simple daily regimen since his return to civilian life, but his
grip on normalcy is threatened by recent events. Hickson and his neighbor,
another Iraq veteran, build a shed over the hole in Hickson's yard, but a
crevasse has opened in Crider's psyche, a breach that will grow until he is
thrust back into the more familiar reality of his experiences on the
battlefield.
Sheriff Martin and Hickson Crider live in parallel universes; both have
reason to worry about the whereabouts of JT, but for different reasons.
JT's uncertain fate has reawakened Martin's pain over the loss of his
younger brother, Pete, years ago. That inexplicable loss has taught Martin
that there are really no accidents, convincing him "if you knew the effects,
you could trace them to the cause". But to Hickson, the world is less
predictable. Researching stories of cities built below the surface, Crider
imagines the earth's crust vulnerable, that "miners have come from other
lands to make it brittle. Because of them, your life could collapse."
Martin's activities collide with the altered reality of Hickson's distorted
perceptions, the consequences of an impulsive act of violence begetting
even more tragedy. The shadowed regions of the mind prove just as
dangerous, just as filled with pitfalls as the imagined world beneath the
earth, neither predictable, both mapped with human error. In a brilliant
contrast of complex characters caught in crisis, the author reveals a
desperate search for place, some willing to reach towards the light, others
stumbling into darkness. Luan Gaines/2009.

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