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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In Soda Lake, author John C Hampsey follows a narrator whose life becomes entangled with a mysterious man named McCuade—or possibly the man’s invention—after witnessing a strange disappearance at the titular Soda Lake. The narrator alternates between observing, tracking, and interacting with people connected to McCuade, traveling extensively across California, Ireland, Greece, and France in attempts to locate him. Along the way, the narrator documents local inhabitants, landscapes, and social rituals while moving through unpredictable weather and rough terrain. Encounters range from intimate, almost domestic exchanges to charged confrontations, and the narrator oscillates between participation and detachment. The search intersects with artistic, historical, and spiritual contexts, and the observation of McCuade’s presence, movements, and disappearance leaves the narrator as the chronicler of a shifting, elusive life.
“And McCuade vanished into the dry white lake and sky, just like a god…. Soda Lake? Do you know it? What happened after that?” It takes a moment to get into John C. Hampsey’s Soda Lake, but once we are on the journey alongside the narrator, it is a fully immersive event. The writing style is almost poetic and in the classic literary style, and each setting is described in cinematic detail, from peaceful valleys and busy cafés to windswept lighthouses and remote islands. The characters, whether Father Fenton, Rostrum, or Pasqual, are shown through the lens of a supremely unreliable narrator, the exception being a Homeric series of scenes that feel out of place until we realize where, and how, they fit in. It is an interesting concept. Hampsey goes a long way in building a balance between thought and observation of the surroundings, and in producing a story that is exceptionally unique, elegant, and ambitious. Very highly recommended.
