January 22, 2024
Cecil’s boisterous debut functions as both origin story and revisionist portrayal of American folk heroes Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Saddled with debt, Bunyan toils somewhere out west in the mines of Lump Town in what feels like the late 19th century, unearthing the energy source known as Lump. When one of the mineral’s side effects causes his wife, Lucette, to fall deathly ill, Bunyan skips town to the Windy City in search of El Boffo, the magnate who runs Lump Town. Rumor has it El Boffo has developed a machine that uses Lump to cure all ailments, and Bunyan hopes his boss will use it on Lucette before it’s too late. Before Bunyan manages to gain an audience with El Boffo, however, he meets and befriends Henry, who’s the run from the law for reasons not immediately specified, and their journeys intertwine as obstacles pile up. Cecil leans on some thread-worn tropes (for example, Lucette exists solely as damsel in distress), but he makes up for it with a fresh depiction of his legendary protagonists, portraying the wealth gap faced by Bunyan and the racial inequities that plague Henry. He also writes with a playful flair for language, dubbing El Boffo’s scientific showroom the Wondertorium and his healing machine the Simulorb. There’s plenty of substance to this fun romp. Agent: Chad Luibl, Janklow & Nesbit.
September 13, 2024
With his outsized debut, Cecil offers a portrait of Paul Bunyan and John Henry before they reached legendary status, racing across a young United States and trying to keep ahead of cultish businessman El Boffo. Bunyan's dreams of family and financial security are ruined when his employers withhold his bonus--and hide the deadly side effects of the ore they mine. Henry flees an unjust prison system that finds his strong arms too valuable to set free. He seeks to escape across the waters with his brilliant wife and son. Ari Fliakos narrates the majority of the book as Bunyan, with a few chapters going to Tanis Parenteau and JD Jackson. Fliakos often performs the novel with a booming drama appropriate for a tall tale and is never too shy to break into song or onomatopoeia, no matter how silly the situation. Though the story centers on corporate greed trampling innocence and freedom, Fliakos also gives voice to Bunyan's naive sense of wonder at the world. VERDICT This literary prequel warns against current tall tales masquerading as truth and will appeal to fans of Gregory Maguire's and Ann Claycomb's repurposed classics.--Matthew Galloway
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