Listen to the Lambs Review

Navid Tajkhorshid

Preface - I want to believe that these reviews actually make people read books, like the comments suggest. Because of this, I use an HTML-like way to denote spoilers. <SPOILER> Means the spoiler has started, and </SPOILER> means it is safe to read on. So, once you encounter a <SPOILER>, just look for a corresponding </SPOILER> if the book actually sounds interesting. Anyway, on with the review.

More obscure books! More obscure books! I just finished reading Listen to the Lambs by Daniel Otosho Black, and I have some thoughts. I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in an entertaining but also dark story and who does not shy away from potentially dark ideas.

The story follows Lazarus Love III trying to find his place in life. He is a black man fed up with corporate America and tired of things like money or possessions getting in the way of what really matters. So, he leaves his comfortable, rich life, his wife, and his kids (well, kind of) and sets out as a homeless man. Throughout the story, he meets many other homeless people and they come together to support each other as a family, which they will need, as Lazarus gets accused of murder. He must face trial and try to make the courts believe the word of a black, homeless man over that of a white, rich citizen.

If I had to describe the theme of this story in one word, it would be “expectation.” Lazarus must come to terms, with his families’ (both of them) expectations of him, his expectation of his family, his grandfather’s expectation of his father, and society’s expectation of him.

I would say that, overall, each of these themes and arcs is powerful in its own way. However, a constant mistake that I feel like Black makes is explicitly telling the reader nearly everything. <SPOILER>When Lazarus realizes that his father became an addict because of the way his grandfather treated him, he sees that parallels to his own relationship with his son. Just like Lazarus I layed out a path for Lazarus II, he was trying to make decisions for his own son. </SPOILER> This is a very powerful moment when Lazarus sees clarity, but the text really hammers it into the reader’s head and it made groan out loud when I read it. It was so masterfully set up, yet the author did not trust the reader enough to get the big idea, so he defaulted to just telling the reader outright. People cringe when at the end of a story the main characters reflect about the importance of friendship not just because it is a cliche, but because it deprives the reader of the ability to actually think and make their own conclusions from the story, instead of having the morals shoved down their throat. This is a continuous problem in the book and, while it certainly did not ruin it, it was prevalent enough for me to write about it.

However, there is a lot more good than bad in this story. One area where I think it excels is the characters. Specifically, the new family of homeless people which Lazarus meets. Each of them has their own insecurities which are very easy to relate to, and not in the way where each is crafted to appeal to a certain demographic (cough cough “Sing”). Instead, all of these characters feel natural and real, and all of their fears essentially stem from the fact that they want to be loved in their own ways. Elisha desperately needs someone to look after him and love him after his mother died, and finds this in Lazarus, who takes care of him. Additionally, he wants to believe that his mother (a drug addict) really did love and care about him. Cinderella's need for love is much more specific, as she wants Lazarus to love her as a partner. Legion struggles with e’s gender identity and wants to find somebody who appreciates em and does not treat em like an object. All these characters deal with their conflict in different ways, and they evolve very believably and logically. <SPOILER>The one thing that surprised me a little bit is that Legion only got a half-resolution to e’s conflict, but in this specific case, it did not really annoy me as e kind of already found people who accepted em in e’s family, and the main resolution was em realizing and appreciating that.</SPOILER>

One area from which this book does not shy away is racism in America. Almost all the people in the family are black, and the consequences the must face from also being homeless are made very clear. When Lazarus is accused of mureder and turns himself in to the police station for a trial, the next scene is extremely gruesome and shows police violence at its worst. This book actually gives an idea of what people mean when they talk about social unfairness, and I cannot say that about any other book I read. There are some areas where this is to the detriment of the book, however. Sometimes, when there has been a resolution among one or more of the characters, the author will just mention the topic of racism out of the blue, and it teeters on the precipice of having an agenda. Of course these issues are important, but the number one job of an author is to provide an entertaining, thought-provoking, and cohesive story, and when something gets in the way of that, the reader suffers. However, the effect of this idea adds to the story more than it takes away, so I will not get too mad.

The two other characters I have not talked about are the children of Lazarus. When he left them, they dealt with it in different ways, with his daughter, Lizzie, becoming sad for a while and Lazarus IIII (Quad) holds on to his anger and lets it fester inside of him until he becomes an adult. Lizzie is kind of boring and vanilla, so I’ll talk about Quad. The thing that makes Quad interesting for me is that he represents the part of us that we do not like to admit exists. The part that feels good when it is angry because there is a scapegoat for every issue, and the part that eventually consumes you if you let it. <SPOILER>Quad became consumed by his anger at his father, and it ruined his life. The irony in this is that Quad fell into the trap of conflating possessions with happiness, and wealth with worth, which is exactly what is father feared. Admitting to himself that his father actually had a point is what Quad has to do, even though his anger does not want him to. Likewise, Quad’s father must admit to himself that he may have been wrong to just leave his family like he did, even if he had the right intentions.</SPOILER> The dynamic between Quad and Lazarus is one of the most interesting in the story, as paternal and filial love is juxtaposed with raw hate. There are many scenes where Quad fights among himself, trying to hold on to his hate or just love his father. This reconciliation of the past and the future is the core of many conflicts in the book, and is executed very well.

You may have noticed that I barely mentioned the actual plot of the book, Lazarus’s accusation for murder. This is because, honestly, it does not matter that much. The plot of this story will be the first thing I will forget, because instead of the character development being written around the plot, like other books seem to be structured, it almost felt like that plot was an afterthought, in a good way. The characters and themes are very rich, and I literally read three chapters just about Legion thinking at an intersection and did not get bored. If you are looking for a book that offers a nice, satisfying plot for you to cozy up and read, Listen to the Lambs is not for you. But, if you want a story where characters come first, where themes are everywhere, and where you can immerse yourself in the minds of the characters, then I really do suggest that you give this book a chance.