On an unremarkable afternoon a bus departs for Los Angeles. As if guided by an unseen hand, three passengers alter their fates when a man loses the battle with the voices inside his head.
On a summer afternoon in Albuquerque, a bus departs for Los Angeles and three of the passengers, unfamiliar with one another, are unaware of how entangled their paths will soon become. Empty-nester Martha Gregory, lacking experience in a world beyond her husband and home in New Mexico, is lured by a pre-paid ticket to reconnect with her younger sister. Handsome media executive Marc Greensweig, deigns to return from a business trip by bus, fortified by the free pass to the top of the corporate ladder awaiting him at home. Emanuel Montoya, recent college grad fleeing a painful breakup, eagerly embraces the new life that beckons when offered a place to stay in West Hollywood. Meanwhile, simmering in L. A. is William Miller, a lonely security guard, fighting a losing battle to distance himself from the troubling voices in his head. As if guided by an unseen hand, each must respond to a crisis in which their actions will ultimately determine whether second chances really do exist…
Professional Reviews
Reviewed by Molly's Reviews - Molly Martin
On the pages of A Slight Touch the reader is carried along on an absorbing romp through the elusive junctures that cross and recross in the course of life. Human significance is touched on in gentle manner which is neither unbending nor devotee as writer Cherryholmes lends a bit of faith based tweak the text.
Interesting writing format: Structured to follow a three act arrangement of a theatre play the format works well to craft reflexivity for characters and readers. A compelling work fashioned with intriguing associations between characters drawing the reader into the work if for no other reason than the text revolves around the main players all being drawn to Los Angeles for the purpose of attending a theatre production.
Filled to capacity with a varied grouping of precise, multifaceted characters who appear estranged at times, but linked by self-discovery find themselves prodded in the direction of a commonality of thought to thwart a calamity in the making and set against well defined back drop of things to see, noise and reverberation as well as varying venues have merged to make A Slight Touch a most intriguing read. Writer Cherryholmes proves to be a very adept storyteller in this blending of wit, self-observation and suspenseful chronicle.
For a California native who has often visited the Los Angeles area and have traveled through Albuquerque many times during family vacations, and as a Oklahoma resident who has stepped aboard AmTrak over in Kansas to ride the South West Chief through Albuerque and on to LA; reading of A Slight Touch was accomplished with nods of the head and ummm hmmm, as I found places and people I could all but recognize as having seen or met.
Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend, not for everyone those easily offended will get their knickers in a knot: some profanity and some reference to homosexuality.
Synchronicity done exceptionally well
For years I have heard about the power of synchronicity and was often taken aback with my experiences with this lovely "fate". Reading A Slight Touch, the author has captured the beauty and simplicity of this marvelous human awareness. I was totally engrossed in the characters and could not wait to read about Martha, Marc, Em, etc. as they travelled down their eventful (and mutual) paths.
I am not a true fan of Spiritual books, but this particular novel has enlightened my quest for a possible higher power. And if there is not such a being, so be it. It was just fun to read about these people's lives and how they learned so much on their journeys.
If there ever was an Oprah book, this is it. I am now going to purchase three more for friends.....
Gentle, but in no way, slight...
This is a fascinating and very well structured story – HL Cherryholmes is very strong on structure and focus. Like his Come Back For Me (see my review) the reader’s attention is brought to bear on one particular character at a time. The chapters are headed with a character’s name and, like a play, there are three acts, corresponding to the exposition, the rising action and the resolution. But life isn’t broken up into segments, as much as we would like it to be, and woven within each seemingly disparate episode are tendrils of other narratives that do not stop and start, but are part of the fabric of life…. We are, in fact, one crew united by our common bonds and failings. We are all part of ultimate reality with our own role to play.
Whatever – the overall effect is of a fast burning page turner. It is an immensely exciting and completely compulsive thriller, tightly controlled and expertly judged.
Very cleverly, HL Cherryholmes sketches out the main characters, exposes them to a desperate crisis (which made me think of an inverted Thornton Wilder’s "Bridge of San Luis Rey") and then follows them up. The fascinating thing is that the seemingly unconnected characters all find themselves drawn together, symbolically as spectators at a perhaps not very exciting musical evolving on a stage in front of them. But each of them, at this moment, is required to pick up the challenge and play out their own part in the drama of real life. All of them have to open the doors to their own existence and discover that the key to this door has always been available to them if only they had realised it. The process is achieved by being unafraid to assert oneself, locating the key and pushing the door open, decisively.
“She saw beyond the young woman a field of angels covering a plaza of pink marble.” “Only then did he look back at the mirror. His reflection had returned.” HL Cherryholmes is the master of the unexpected and of suspense; his gaze and analysis of human nature is riveting, piercing and yet gently indulgent at the same time. A less assured writer might have gone for an all-guns-blazing ending. Instead, HL Cherryholmes treats us to something vastly more profound.
You should read this book to see for yourself – it’s funny, it’s touching, it’s moving, it’s hugely human and it’s a lesson in life.
Any one of us can, and every one of us should, grasp the outstretched hand of life, which, with a slight touch, can open doors which appear to be stuck fast and even pick us up, gently, from the bottom of the darkest stairwell of despair.
Thou art that. I too am that. That… is all.
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Reviews for "A Slight Touch"
Reviewed by alex dihes (алик дайхес)
7/13/2008
have read. you are right. "Storytelling - it's as simple as THIS."
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