cover image The Dave Store Massacre

The Dave Store Massacre

Ron Ebest. Academy Chicago, $17.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-89733-614-7

Ebest (Private Histories) offers a slight debut novel that's part labor dispute, part smalltown comedy of manners, and part searing indictment of big retail, in the guise of the Dave Store, a Wal-Mart proxy that embodies "the most audacious idea in the history of American capital. It was... an attempt, not to corner the market on something, but to corner all markets on everything." The Dave Store comprises the retail ecosystem of Jackson, Mo., but when employee resentments flare into a strike, the conflict between underpaid workers and the odious son of founder Dave Blandine heads toward a violent confrontation, though the main events are often moved offstage so Ebest can examine the burgeoning love affair between mayor Mary and police chief Sid, and the hopeless personal and professional flailings of store manager/aspiring Byronic poet Lucas McCain Cantor. The characters, despite their confinement in increasingly cartoonish situations, are all too human, which is nice, but it also highlights the book's major flaw: it attempts deft, dark comedy, but only manages lumbering and obvious satire. (July)