And the Soft Wind Blows by Lance Umenhofer

Timmy Enosh is a peculiar, small man: fivethree, onehundredandfifteen pounds, and is a pharmacist in Ashton City, Tennessee.

He finds himself at fortythreeyearsold as his life starts to fall apart: his threehundred pound wife disappears, his romantic interest has lost interest and has gained hatred toward him, his coworkers harass him, customers verbally assault him, and he has the strange urge to adopt his foulmouthed, eighteenyearold coworker, Alex.

When things start to pile up, Timmy must find a way to deal: he turns to Alex to supply him with marijuana, starts sewing an elaborate Mr. Mistoffelees costume, finds solace in the wild, etc., etc., etc.

And the soft, constant wind of change blows him on, on, and on.

This book’s premise was definitely interesting: a man who slowly realizes he’s is being trampled in every aspect of his life and the catastrophic meltdown this inspires. I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the writing didn’t live up to my expectations.

It really was the writing that made this one a tough read. There were quite a few quirks, with the author doingsomethinglikethisandjoininwordstogetherwithoutspaces for no real reason. Once or twice might have been okay, to make a point, but it’s done quite a bit throughout the novel and it gets tiring for the reader. Another huge thing is the “show don’t tell issue.” We were “told” pretty much everything, instead of getting to know the characters and the situations by reactions or interactions. It’s tough to enjoy a book that has that kind of fault.

The last chapter or two did feel like they’d been written in a smoother manner, which made them the best ones in the book.

It’s tough to say something like this about an indie author, knowing how hard it is for them to get their books out there, but this is one I would not revisit unless it is heavily edited.