James Tyler Toothman – Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar
Witchcraft and coming of age drama are an intoxicating
mix in this unmissable, magnificent, and highly original tale
James Tyler Toothman – Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar
Once in a while a book arrives like a bolt out of the blue, completely knocking you out, Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar, is such a title. This rarest of beasts was published towards the tail end of 2023, if I had read it last year, it would most certainly have featured in my top ten reads of 2023, perhaps even topping the chart. It is one of captivating books which is both hard to describe and to nail down exactly why it meant so much. It could also be argued it was disjointed and meandering even, but it has a charm which is impossible to resist, magical even. If you hang in past page one hundred (some will not and it’s their loss) you are in for an absolute treat, in what was a magnificent and totally engrossing 570 pages.
Over the past few years I have read many novels set in the American states which snake across the vast Appalachian mountain range, with this stunning book running the Hank Early hillbilly noir classic Heaven’s Crooked Finger incredibly close as a favourite. The small mining town of Clockmaker, and surrounding forest areas, are so vividly described I felt I was sitting right there on Maw Maw’s front porch smoking a cigarette and drinking Jim Beam whiskey. It is littered with so many tiny magic moments I barely know where to begin, such as when the main character Priscilla hears the rock band Black Sabbath for the first time, or when she and her best friend Joseph realise they have never genuinely hugged before. This book is a treasure trove of pitch perfect scenes which add to its overall charm.
Even though the friendship of Priscilla and Joseph drive the book, for most of the story both teens are around fifteen or sixteen, rarely have I seen a novel with such a living, breathing and such well-drawn supporting cast. There was not a caricature in sight, and I often wondered whether the story was going to double back or reveal more about specific people, as it has a lovely conversational style which takes literary detours, some of which were very long (but never boring).
There was a point when Priscilla and Joseph get lost in the woods and end up straying onto the property of a blind hillbilly mountain family, with the patriarch of the clan, Elias, prone to telling stories and drinking moonshine. I could have listened to this guy spinning the wheel all night! I even had sympathy for Merle, and the local sheriff, who bites off way more than he can chew in the wild closing stages.
As coming of age tales go Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar was a captivating read. Initially Joseph and Priscilla are church going folks, Priscilla has a very abusive father and Joseph has a stable background but finds church a bore. Together they roam the forests, Joseph hunts and Priscilla avoids her parents, both of which have alcohol problems and alternatively lives with her grandmother for extended periods. Her parents also have pivotal roles in the novel and you will not see many nastier sorts than her father, Everett, a miner who takes his frustrations out on his family, oozing malevolence.
This bizarre novel covers so much territory, jumps into the future, dips into a confessional style, and may even predict the world to end sometime around now! You will need to read it to figure out exactly what I mean with that cryptic statement. The story also has a genuine sense of humour and I laughed at the ridiculousness of some situations and was strangely moved by others. God himself has a brilliantly funny cameo and the Devil has a much bigger part, he was so good I was dreaming about who might play him in the film version! Denzil Washington or Edris Elba might both be cool fits.
Ultimately this magnificent book is a drama of friendship and family and what happens to a teenage girl after she finds a magical book and begins to teach herself the art of witchcraft. Joseph’s reactions to some of these experiments were comical (he was such a great friend) and also backed up by Big Tommy, another superbly drawn support character. Hormones come into play but friendship trumps everything else. James Tyler Toothman has the uncannily ability to pull his readers in close and it feels like Priscilla, Joseph and Big Tommy’s adventures are being whispered directly into our own ears.
Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar is surely destined to become an oddball cult classic which deserves to find an audience, probably though word-of-mouth. Set in 1971 and 72, the sense of time and place is pitch perfect and I equally loved the odd jump in time forward to Grateful Dead concerts in what was also an incredibly musical book.
570 pages is long, but I was still sad to reach the finish and never felt it dragged at all. It is a mesmerising journey, but unlikely to be for all tastes, particularly those without the patience to immerse themselves in the town of Clocktower. It took at least 100 pages for me to figure out what was going on, but it was well worth the time. A stone cold masterpiece which is one of the most original and striking novels I have read in a long time.
6/5
Tony Jones
Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar by James Tyler Toothman
The year is nineteen seventy one. Lost deep in the woods of West Virginia, two childhood friends discover a book that dismantles and unravels everything they once considered reality, And when an enigmatic stranger rolls into their small coal mining town in the back of a Rolls Royce, the teenagers are plunged deep into a world of drugs, sex, music, and violence. Together, the two friends confront the forces of good and evil head on – the unwitting pawns of an eternal game played without rules or directions. Feverish, satirical, and deliciously dark, Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue is an offbeat, coming-of-age, face-melting novel unlike anything you’ve read before.
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