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The Wrong Thing
NOMINATED FOR THE SPINETINGLER AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL OF 2011
They call him The Kid. He's a killer, a dark legend of the Southwest's urban badlands, "a child who terrifies adults." They speak of him in whispers in dive bars near closing time. Some claim to have met him. Others say he doesn't exist, a phantom blamed for every unsolved act of violence, a ghost who haunts every blood-splattered crime scene.
But he is real. He's a young man with a love of cooking and reading, an abiding loneliness and an appetite for violence. He is a cipher, a projection of the dreams and nightmares of people ignored by the economic boom…and a modern-day outlaw in search of an ordinary life. Love brings him the chance at a new life in the form of Vanjii, a beautiful, damaged woman. But try as he might to abandon the past, his past won't abandon him. The Kid fights back in the only way he knows – and sets in motion a tragic sequence of events that lead him to an explosive conclusion shocking in its brutality and tenderness.
They call him The Kid. He's a killer, a dark legend of the Southwest's urban badlands, "a child who terrifies adults." They speak of him in whispers in dive bars near closing time. Some claim to have met him. Others say he doesn't exist, a phantom blamed for every unsolved act of violence, a ghost who haunts every blood-splattered crime scene.
But he is real. He's a young man with a love of cooking and reading, an abiding loneliness and an appetite for violence. He is a cipher, a projection of the dreams and nightmares of people ignored by the economic boom…and a modern-day outlaw in search of an ordinary life. Love brings him the chance at a new life in the form of Vanjii, a beautiful, damaged woman. But try as he might to abandon the past, his past won't abandon him. The Kid fights back in the only way he knows – and sets in motion a tragic sequence of events that lead him to an explosive conclusion shocking in its brutality and tenderness.
137 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2011
55 people want to read
About the author
Barry Graham
61 books50 followersBarry Graham is what Foucault called an Author Function.
More than a dozen books.
Published in magazines including Harper's, Salon, Narratively, PANK, Northwords Now, Flaunt, Parabola, The Big Click and Nerve.
More than a dozen books.
Published in magazines including Harper's, Salon, Narratively, PANK, Northwords Now, Flaunt, Parabola, The Big Click and Nerve.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 6, 2018
A violent balance of the renegade and romantic, THE WRONG THING merges two distinct traits and creates a central character that’s as deadly as he is endearing. For The Kid, a young man born more of myth than blood, bone and flesh, life hasn’t been easy. Undersized and undervalued, his home life brought nothing but pain and seclusion with crime a natural progression as part of his development. Subsequent incarceration ensures the family ties remain severed, while any foothold in the drug business is lost upon release back into the community. Here’s where the story gains momentum and things get a whole lot bloodier.
Barry Graham’s THE WRONG THING isn’t about a madman with a thirst for bloodletting, more so a young man who takes to violence as a means to an end. Knowing little by way of problem solving skills, any hurdles in his way succumb to brutality as bikies, police, and innocents feel the wrath of the urban badlands walking myth.
The Kid is much deeper than I had anticipated – he’s surprising well rounded, emotionally sound (if a killer can be) and in empathic towards the opposite sex, particularly when they’re in need of a saviour. He cooks, he loves, he kills. This simple yet highly effective premise serves Graham’s creation well. The basic need to love and care is balanced out by an easy violence that’s all too natural. I really enjoyed this black/white double sided take on what is a very interesting character.
I love noir that portrays a character in many forms and THE WRONG THING does that to perfection. The plot accompanies the character, the drive and progression of the story proceeds at the pace of the characters doing – everything else is peripheral. There is a hopelessness quality to THE WRONG THING that echoes long after the confronting ending concludes that resonates well for fans of the genre. Like the other titles I’ve read by Barry Graham, THE WRONG THING does not disappoint.
Barry Graham’s THE WRONG THING isn’t about a madman with a thirst for bloodletting, more so a young man who takes to violence as a means to an end. Knowing little by way of problem solving skills, any hurdles in his way succumb to brutality as bikies, police, and innocents feel the wrath of the urban badlands walking myth.
The Kid is much deeper than I had anticipated – he’s surprising well rounded, emotionally sound (if a killer can be) and in empathic towards the opposite sex, particularly when they’re in need of a saviour. He cooks, he loves, he kills. This simple yet highly effective premise serves Graham’s creation well. The basic need to love and care is balanced out by an easy violence that’s all too natural. I really enjoyed this black/white double sided take on what is a very interesting character.
I love noir that portrays a character in many forms and THE WRONG THING does that to perfection. The plot accompanies the character, the drive and progression of the story proceeds at the pace of the characters doing – everything else is peripheral. There is a hopelessness quality to THE WRONG THING that echoes long after the confronting ending concludes that resonates well for fans of the genre. Like the other titles I’ve read by Barry Graham, THE WRONG THING does not disappoint.
October 14, 2011
I read the manuscript through in one sitting, and put it down and said god damn. It's a matter-of-fact voice but it gets into you head and it wrenches at your heart and at the end of it you just don't know what to do with yourself you are so full of conflicting emotions. It's what I'd call a good book, and one of those rare noir novels where the darkness is made more intense because it does not deny the good and the kind, but swallows it whole. Besides, it's about my homeground.
Perfect Switchblade.
Perfect Switchblade.
January 2, 2012
I first read Barry Graham in 1997 when I found a copy of Before at The Strand in NYC. Like most books you find by a new author it was the cover that caught my eye, the back cover text that sold me. It was a great find, I devoured it, loved it, but then I never found anything by Graham again. Until last week.
Searching for Summer Brenner's I-5 I started researching the Switchblade line of crime novels which published I-5. Looking through the other offerings I found The Wrong Thing by Graham. And let me tell you, my wait was worth it.
The Wrong Thing is a tight novel, really more a novella at about 120 pages. It tells the story, or the legend, of The Kid - a Mexican American in the US SW whose reputation precedes him. It is the story of the rise and fall of The Kid from growing up in the Barrio, to trying to do the right thing, you come to understand The Kid. This is a meditation on the nurture aspect of our upbringing. It is violent, it is heartbreaking, and it feels real. I can't say I would have acted in the same ways as The Kid, but I'm glad I wouldn't. It means things went right in my world.
Searching for Summer Brenner's I-5 I started researching the Switchblade line of crime novels which published I-5. Looking through the other offerings I found The Wrong Thing by Graham. And let me tell you, my wait was worth it.
The Wrong Thing is a tight novel, really more a novella at about 120 pages. It tells the story, or the legend, of The Kid - a Mexican American in the US SW whose reputation precedes him. It is the story of the rise and fall of The Kid from growing up in the Barrio, to trying to do the right thing, you come to understand The Kid. This is a meditation on the nurture aspect of our upbringing. It is violent, it is heartbreaking, and it feels real. I can't say I would have acted in the same ways as The Kid, but I'm glad I wouldn't. It means things went right in my world.
February 23, 2016
I didn't enjoy reading this book. I'm a fan of noir in general, and I didn't expect The Wrong Thing to be pleasant or uplifting, but the story left me cold. While there were some nice descriptive moments, the récit meandered and I found myself treating each page like a recalcitrant child might treat the cold veggies at the edge of the plate.
October 5, 2015
Warning, don't buy a stack of Barry Graham's books and start them on a Saturday night, because when you look up it will be Monday morning and you've just read through the lot of them! Compelling in such a way that you breath the dust of the Southwest, feel the lives of the characters and get lost in the at times hopeless but always riveting lives they lead. Why this absolute gem of a book and author are not more well known is beyond me.
October 4, 2011
DUDE THE ENDING IS SO TIGHT. AHHHHHHHH
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews