Driller
A mix of fantasy and the familiar, Driller rides a nightmarish edge to create a vivid, often frightening world of extremes.
“Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink,” penned poet Samuel Coleridge. Nobody knows the feeling better than Retch Barter, the main character in M. S. Holm’s exciting, suspenseful novel, Driller. A down-on-his-luck well digger stranded in rural Mexico, Retch is as parched as the landscape; he’s surrounded by dry sage, bitter women, and dust that permeates the seams of his clothes and the rivets on his truck. He’s on a fool’s errand, trying to sink a well and bring water to the desert—and while he works, a menacing driller is searching for him, with plans to spill blood.
Driller quickly launches into action and maintains a heart-pounding pace from the first page. Holm doesn’t bother much with backstory, which is refreshing and keeps the story from being bogged down. Instead, the language does most of the heavy lifting, swiftly establishing a tone and characters that leap off the page in vivid detail. Lyrical lines and invented words make it clear that this isn’t the known world. “No stench rose from the noria—a handdug hole rounded in an imperfect circle wide enough to swing a pickax. Retch tested the ixtle tied to the lardcan bailer before he returned to the Willy to fetch braitrope from the trailer.” A mix of fantasy and the familiar, Driller rides a nightmarish edge. Holm’s sentences, alternately clear and claustrophobic, create a vivid, often frightening world of extremes.
The characters are similarly intense. Retch’s lover, Dolores Anguamea, “wore walkworn huaraches. Her faded poblano dress exchanged for a weaved huipil.” She’s scarred, and tough as a desert coyote. In a man’s world, Dolores adds dimension—of all the inhabitants of Driller‘s desert setting, she’s the hardest to read. She speaks Spanish, and Holm occasionally dips into her inner monologue in what are some of the most powerful passages in the novel. Dolores’s inscrutability adds a touch of realism to the sometimes outrageous plot. As Holm writes deeper into the novel, the action spreads out, and the characters spring to life. Holm explores the past and the gritty events that made each character who they are. By the time the climax arrives, the novel’s gears are clicking neatly in time.
A breathless, fast-paced novel of obsession, greed, and deeply buried secrets, Driller is an intense, fulfilling read that pushes extremes of language and landscape.
Reviewed by
Claire Foster
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
