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WORK TITLE: The Second Death
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WEBSITE: http://www.devonauthor.com/
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www.devonartwork.com
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Male.
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Writer, artist, and entrepreneur.
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Scott Devon is a writer, artist, and entrepreneur. He creates both paintings and sculptures and has written novels with supernatural elements.
In 2017, Devon released his first novel, The Second Death. At the beginning of the book, a man named Henry (nickname “Edsel”) Ford suffers from stomach cancer and subsequently dies. From the afterlife, Henry looks back on his actions and is disappointed in himself for not have had more successes in his life. He also recalls his high school experience, during which he acquired his nickname, and his family relationships. Henry’s father, Charlie, was an alcoholic and abused Henry’s mother. Henry did not grow up to be abusive, but he did drink excessively and did not pay much attention to his family. He worked in insurance sales, having taken over the business Charlie built. In the afterlife, Henry is placed in Purgatory. There, he has confusing visions of symbols, numbers, and snippets of interactions with family members. Henry also interacts with another person in Purgatory, Billy, whose nickname is the “Piano Man.” Henry and Billy crossed paths in life, as well. Billy performed at a club in Pensacola, and Henry saw him play. Billy tells Henry that he can try to redeem himself for the wrongs he has done to just three people in his life. Henry requests that the three people be his son, his daughter, and his wife. The remainder of the narrative follows a less linear path. Charlie returns to kill off Billy and bring him to Hell to play for the Devil. Henry watches a concert by Satan, and Charlie suggests Henry make a deal with Satan to avoid spending eternity in Hell.
A Kirkus Reviews critic described The Second Death as an “unusual novel.” The critic noted: “Devon keeps up a colorful patter with frequent references to songs, movies, and other aspects of popular culture.” The same critic also stated: “Although the progress of Henry’s soul becomes a little hard to follow in this heady atmosphere, the story somehow still manages to hang together.” The critic concluded the review by calling the book “entertaining, thought-provoking, and original.” A reviewer offered a mixed assessment of the novel on the Blue Ink website. The reviewer described it as “irreverent” and remarked: “Readers hoping for a profound journey of self-discovery will be disappointed that Ford remains unchanged. … Additionally, while Devon’s writing style is impressively multi-layered, there’s sometimes a sense he’s trying to do too much.”
BIOCRIT
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Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2017, review of The Second Death.
ONLINE
Blue Ink, https://www.blueinkreview.com/ (May 18, 2018), review of The Second Death.
Scott Devon Artwork website, https://www.devonartwork.com (May 23, 2018).
Scott Devon website, http://www.devonauthor.com/ (May 23, 2018).
About The Author
Scott Devon is an acclaimed entrepreneur and artist. THE SECOND DEATH is book one in a three-part series.
Living forms born where there was once nothing, not even time. Catching a glimpse of the evolving story of eternity. This is the point where I find inspiration.
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QUOTED: "unusual novel."
"Devon keeps up a colorful patter with frequent references to songs, movies, and other aspects of popular culture."
"Although the progress of Henry's soul becomes a little hard to follow in this heady atmosphere, the story somehow still manages to hang together. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and original."
Devon, Scott: THE SECOND DEATH
Kirkus Reviews. (July 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Devon, Scott THE SECOND DEATH Archway Publishing (Indie Fiction)
In this novel of the afterlife, an average Joe gets the chance to make things right with three figures from his past--and then things get strange. As this unusual novel begins, Henry Ford (not the famous one) has just died of stomach cancer. Now that he's dead, he begins considering his life, because--like his high school nickname, "Edsel"--this Ford failed to deliver. Although he succeeded in not repeating his alcoholic father's worst sins, such as spousal abuse, he resembled his dad, Charlie, in other ways: by taking over his insurance-sales business, neglecting his own family, and drinking too much. Henry explores the afterlife in Purgatory and has visions that include mystifying numbers, symbols, and his mother telling him to avoid his father's fate--the "second death" of banishment to hell. About one-third of the way through the novel, the narration abruptly shifts from first to third person as Henry meets Billy, the "Piano Man"; Henry remembers seeing him play in a nightclub in Pensacola, where he used to vacation. Billy explains that Henry can request to see three people from his life, with whom he hopes to make things right. The novel tells a not-unexpected story of redemption involving Henry's relationships with wife, son, and daughter--but once it reaches that destination, it goes wildly off-road. Charlie gives Billy the second death, explaining that the Devil wants the Piano Man for his band; Henry is invited to celebrate Billy's lost soul at an extravagant rock opera/wake in which Satan is the headliner; and Charlie reveals a plan to help his son escape hell via a deal with the King of Thieves. In his debut novel, Devon keeps up a colorful patter with frequent references to songs, movies, and other aspects of popular culture. Although Henry calls himself "ordinary," he's extraordinarily well-informed, making references to Buddhism's Bodhi Tree, for example, or James Joyce's Ulysses in this passage about his father: "Obscure and obscene, and born on a day in 1904 when the Joyce fella set his Dublin, novel....you see nothing but the dark night of a rotten soul entering the pale moon light to a whiter shade of hate." At the same time, there's nothing highbrow about how Henry's daughter Elizabeth learns to love music--from hearing Elton John's 1997 performance of "Candle in the Wind" at Princess Diana's funeral. Some of the novel's unexpected developments are fascinating, particularly the rock opera; Satan's introduction, for instance, is rich with impresario cadences: "I bring you the long tongue liar, the midnight rider, the rambler, the gambler, the back biter! The one and only, the first victim that rose to be the King of Babylon, Lucifer the beautiful morning star, your deal maker, the one who knows your name, the Serpent Shaitan!" Although the progress of Henry's soul becomes a little hard to follow in this heady atmosphere, the story somehow still manages to hang together. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and original.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Devon, Scott: THE SECOND DEATH." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199662/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=820190ae. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497199662
QUOTED: "irreverent."
"Readers hoping for a profound journey of self-discovery will be disappointed that Ford remains unchanged. ... Additionally, while Devon’s writing style is impressively multi-layered, there’s sometimes a sense he’s trying to do too much."
The Second Death
Scott Devon
Publisher: Archway Publishing Pages: 222 Price: (paperback) $16.99 ISBN: 9781480851061
Reviewed: January, 2018
Author Website: Visit »
Scott Devon’s irreverent novel of the afterlife follows recently deceased insurance salesman Henry Ford who, after a losing battle with stomach cancer, finds himself on a retributive quest through a bizarre partying hellscape. His new reality is inhabited by demonic rockers and hedonistic revelers and powered by a killer soundtrack of diverse songs from the Beatles to Wild Cherry to Led Zeppelin.
The deeply flawed Ford, an alcoholic who cheated on his wife and neglected his children, is much like his father Charlie, who abused Ford’s mother while alive. Ford and his father are described similarly as “potty-mouthed mutha truckers, talking on CBs and driving semis on hell’s highway.” After Ford’s spirit attempts to make peace with his wife, his adult daughter, and son, who died from a heroin overdose years earlier, Ford meets his father in the afterworld. Trying to save his son from a similar eternal nightmare existence, Charlie attempts to find a way out of Hell.
Ford’s countless music references are absolutely brilliant, and the narrative offers irrepressible attitude and wit (“The bar’s closed, so go home Billy. Johnny Cash in your cow chips; the party’s over”). Unfortunately, the latter also becomes a major weakness; the nonstop insolence, while initially amusing, soon gets old.
Readers hoping for a profound journey of self-discovery will be disappointed that Ford remains unchanged throughout his spiritual passage. Additionally, while Devon’s writing style is impressively multi-layered, there’s sometimes a sense he’s trying to do too much. For example, while Ford is described as not much of a reader, the first-person narrative includes more than a few literary references (Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey , etc.).
Despite such flaws, there’s much to like here. Consider Second Death the illegitimate lovechild of Dante Alighieri and Janis Joplin after a week-long bender in a dive bar killing off cases of cheap whiskey and doing endless lines of coke off of strippers’ backsides. Sex, drugs and rock and roll—in purgatory.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.