MOTHER BLUES BOOK TRAILER

As Hurricane Harvey submerges Houston, Davis Payne escapes to the small desert town of Corbin, Texas. He is escaping much more than a 100-year flood. He is escaping a life of guilt and a childhood haunted by death. When Davis was ten, his mother drowned saving him from a boating accident. Years later, his first love burned to death before he could reach her. Davis has no idea of any supernatural connection between these tragedies. He knows only that if he does not leave Houston and stop drinking, he will not live to see his late thirties.

But, of course, there is no starting over; there is only another step deeper into reckoning. Davis soon finds his life inextricably tangled with the lives of others fighting to keep their own heads above water. For Corbin, Texas is not the quiet refuge Davis expects. Beneath its dry, dusty surface Davis finds a town rife with terrible secrets, restless legacies of love and heartbreak, and life-and-death dramas that rival his own.

Olivia DeLuna, for instance, is a beautifully bi-racial loner with a tragic past that she keeps rigorously to herself. Working a collection of low-paying jobs, Olivia lives in a brothel masquerading as a pecan farm called Libby’s Nuts. Its proprietor, Libby Holder, is a colorful, hysterically irreverent madam known after dark as Liberty Cherish, a woman rumored throughout Corbin to have long ago murdered her husband and fed his privates to the coyotes. Parentless from childhood, Olivia’s only goal in life is to own a blues club known in its heyday as Mother Blues.

There are others in Corbin whose stories Davis must make his own: a haunted, childless schoolteacher risking incarceration for murder in order to save a troubled student she is determined to adopt; a former Louisiana prostitute who, having heroically raised and died for her adopted Asian daughter, is ultimately avenged when the girl marries her mother’s killer and exploits the opportunity; and a world-renowned blues diva who unwittingly trades her only daughter for commercial success and who, until her final days, spends the rest of her life desperate for a chance to atone.

Filling the background of these various dramas, is the rapidly unfolding drama of Corbin: a tiny town teetering on the precipice of momentous change. A plan is afoot to transform Corbin with a commercial river walk fed from an engineered diversion of the Pecos River. Except for environmentalists fighting to preserve the habitat of a tiny minnow species, most of Texas is rabidly in favor of the project. Unfortunately, no one realizes that the Corbin River Walk is but a well-conceived, brilliantly executed and violently defended fraud perpetrated by the Russian mob.

If there is one maternal presence that binds together the characters of this novel, living and dead, it is the blues itself. Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Etta James, Big Mama Thornton, Mahalia Jackson, and all the timeless mothers to that quintessentially American genre are here, a soulful Greek chorus singing from the shadows, warning and imploring, offering hope, and bearing witness to lives adrift and in danger of capsizing.

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4.5 STARS

Mother Blues is a breathtaking page-turner by award winning fiction writer, Owen Thomas; its spellbinding characters will draw you in as its striking metaphors leave you speechless.

Mother Blues follows the tumultuous life of Davis Payne, a man who’s been plagued by tragedy and death for as long as he can remember. Following the wreckage of Hurricane Harvey, he resolves to leave his home in Houston to escape his troubled past. Trouble, however, is waiting for Davis in the small town of Corbin, Texas –the inhabitants of which are grappling with histories as chaotic and cryptic as Davis’ own. As his life becomes gravely intertwined with the townspeople and the conflict unfolding in Corbin, Davis must confront the trauma of his past to understand the truth about a lifelong omen that may bear fatal consequences for him and the people around him. It’s a dark, twisted tale that invokes motherhood both figuratively and literally.

Thomas is a master at bringing the ethereal to life. His magical realism can be as subtle as it is jarring, a contradiction held together by his artful pacing and rhythm. Although the book doesn’t spend much time featuring the blues, its presence certainly lives in the pages of the novel. In fact, Mother Blues couldn’t be more aptly titled. Thomas’ thematic approach to the metaphor of motherhood challenges us, as he often does, to question the way we make sense of the world around us and how we understand ourselves. The recurring role of motherhood in the novel serves to accentuate Thomas’ more abstract theme of motherhood –and the pain and responsibility that comes with it –especially as it pertains to Davis’s character and his relationship to Corbin.

There is a certain sense of duality present in most of Thomas’ writing, and, in Mother Blues, it stands out primarily through his characters. While Davis Payne’s arc is undeniably compelling, it’s the stunning development of the other characters he encounters that sets the book apart. They are, at once, both mysterious to a nearly mythical extent and remarkably human. And Thomas has a way of writing this kind of paradox that fits perfectly into the worlds that he builds. The duality of his characters is tied together by a keen sense of place; Corbin itself has a sort of character. As Davis becomes more involved in the lives of the townspeople, with the weight of a supernatural responsibility on his shoulders, we do get to enjoy characters that stand on their own, but we also see Davis’ character as inextricably bound to the character of the town itself. Yet, despite its magical predilection or the mind-bending subtext of Mother Blues, Thomas’ prose remains engaging and easy to read.

Mother Blues defies expectations and tells a story that is as real as it is magical; Thomas’ distinctive narrative voice shines through once again with mesmerizing prose that pushes us to reach for what’s just beyond our understanding.

— MAINCREST MEDIA

FIVE STARS.

Mother Blues by Owen Thomas is a novel with emotional depth. Set against the backdrop of turbulence, as Hurricane Harvey submerges Houston in misery, Davis Payne lives with inner chaos that has threatened his life over the years. A man plagued by tragedy, he has always wanted an opportunity to reconcile with life and put behind him a childhood haunted by death. His mother drowned saving him and as if the death of his mother wasn’t enough to plunge his life in misery, the love of his life, a woman who believed him to be her savior, burns herself to death.

Consumed by guilt, Davis drowns in alcohol, but can it save him? With the hurricane, he sees an opportunity to leave Houston. When Davis leaves Houston for Corbin, little does he know that beneath the veneer of the calm of this city are dark secrets that can equally destroy this already broken man. Is there redemption for him?

The story is filled with dramatic moments that are beautifully captured in excellent prose and characters that are torn apart from the inside, genuinely human and real. Olivia is one of the characters readers will adore, a woman with a dark secret. The story is very rich, not just because of the ingenious plotting but more so by the depth of character. Each character is a world to explore, complex with many layers to peel off. Nothing is what it seems in this novel and there are subplots that heighten the suspense and strong themes that explore the intricacies of the human heart.

Mother Blues is awesome, written in a lyrical style and powerful in exploring the dark side of human nature. It is the story of one man’s struggle to earn his freedom from a painful past. Owen Thomas makes readers fall in love with the characters and want to know their fate. Mother Blues by Owen Thomas is suspenseful and gripping. — READERS’ FAVORITE

FIVE STARS

Haunted by a past full of guilt and death, Davis Payne escapes Houston to go to Corbin, Texas, searching for a peaceful, fresh start. The early deaths of his mother and his first love have had a painful impact on him, but that is nothing compared to the life that awaits Davis in Corbin. With terrible secrets and heartbreaking legacies tailing him, Davis must make some of the intricately tangled stories of the townspeople his own. A childless school teacher, a former prostitute, and a soulful blues singer — Davis gets to know each of these women’s struggles as an environmental conflict unfolds in the background. Futurists want to transform Corbin with an artificially engineered river fed from the Pecos River, while environmentalists struggle to save the habitat of the minnow species.

Mother Blues by Owen Thomas is a tribute to the feminine and maternal relationships in our lives. A strong current of reverence for classic American blues runs in the background by women like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, and Mahalia Jackson to pay homage to the soulful journeys and struggles of the undeterred female characters. Packed with emotional rawness and subversive feminist and environmentalist tones, this book will move you and leave you wondering if there are repetitive signs in your past that will show in the future as well.

Owen Thomas is a genius when it comes to crafting twisty plot points and weaving magical realism into the story. His prose transports the reader into the imploring, warning, soothing, and hopeful blues’ world while keeping them engaged with tempestuous drama. With a strong focus on supernatural instances, Owen Thomas retells Davis Payne’s dark traumas, relating them to the chaotic lives of the townsfolk of Corbin. You are strongly recommended to read Mother Blues by Owen Thomas if you are looking for a haunting, supernatural work of fiction with its feet firmly planted in the magical history of blues.

— THE BOOK COMMENTARY

What Readers are Saying

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece!!
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I’m afraid MOTHER BLUES is destined to become the least-read literary masterpiece of this decade. Due to its length—over a thousand pages—I’m certain no agent nor publisher would consider it, and thus Mr. Thomas resorted to independent publication, with limited distribution and publicity. Such a shame a book this fine will be enjoyed by so few.

While I appreciated the author’s first magnum opus, THE LION TREES, this work is a major leap forward. It is a masterfully constructed tale reminiscent of Tom Wolfe’s epics of social commentary, particularly BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Despite its length, the individual chapters are easily consumed, and the book is well-paced and not a bit overwritten. It is a remarkably fast read, compelling from page one, though it does take a bit of patience to appreciate how the multitude of characters and storylines weave together. But it’s well worth the wait, so deft is the storytelling, so evocative and allusive the prose, so captivating and often humorous the dialogue.

I am in awe of the author’s deft choreography of the novel’s extensive cast, an extraordinary and memorable lot, each as consumed with making sense of the past as living life in the present moment. This juxtaposition lends depth and breadth to the story, which feels like it covers lifetimes, though in fact the events transpire in a few months.

Just as the blues is a uniquely American art form, this is a deeply American story, set in the most American of states, Texas. Race, religion, drugs, alcohol, politics, music, natural disasters, sales pitches, corrupt business deals, and obsessive pursuit of obscene speculative profits all play a role in the intricate plot which reaches a remarkably satisfying climax. The storylines are fresh and original, yet ring true to life, and in some cases, iconic.

This is a novel that will stay with you long after you’ve read it. Do yourself a favor and be one of the fortunate readers to uncover this sparkling gem.