THE MOTH
Scott Archer Jones
Fomite Press
258 pages
The Moth, the noir novel by Scott Archer Jones, propels readers on the path of a sad, gray inhabitant of East Los Angeles, a perfect anti-hero for this deep dive into the lives of a cast of characters living on the edge of poverty in situations that begin in misery and go downhill from there. It’s crime fiction in its most convoluted and human form, not the black-and-white movie noir of tough talking private investigators and stereotypical criminals in seedy neighborhoods. It’s noir in the sense of dingy rooms and sleazy criminals intermingled with desperate attempts at survival by people who have little hope of more than making it through the day.
Frank, aka Moth, enters the story in 2010. He’s a pawnbroker, hiding from the worst predators in his world and eking out small profits from lending to those up against debts they’ll never get ahead of.
A series of chapters beginning in 1955 offer clues to how he became who he is. His own past—the only child of a brute Irish father and devout, Lithuanian, immigrant mother—can only be described as poverty laced with misery that began in Chicago and ended up in East LA. He learned the streets the hard way, by being a victim. Yet he persistently “does what he does, he waits.” Over the years, he also learns how to capitalize on his innocuous status by becoming a reliable source of supplies for the “real criminals,” and eventually as a possibly reliable informant for law enforcement. He learns about people.
On occasion he attempts to help others he sees as less fortunate than himself. For example, offering food and later temporary lodging with patched together access to electricity to a man and his family, Frank shows a streak of genuine decency. When, inevitably, bad results ensue, disappointed, but not surprised, Frank continues his daily routine, moving on, apparently undeterred by regret.
Scott Archer Jones’s narrator dispassionately displays the full range of human miseries among the marginalized. Characters and action seems heartbreakingly real. The central character, Moth, is fully developed with depth that prompts an empathetic reader to find a few redeeming qualities even in his worst acts. I recommend The Moth without reservation.
The cover’s great, too.
—Teddy Jones, author of The Jackson’s Pond, Texas series