The question of rural America appears in public consciousness every four years or so, coinciding with the election cycle. How well are these Americans being heard and acknowledged by the federal government, and can either party truly envision them as more than a voting bloc? Jamie Quatro’s Two Step Devil, while fictional, explores the very real barriers to trust in rural America, including religion, class conflict, biased lawmaking, and the many iterations of a failed system.
Two-Step Devil is primarily the story of an elderly farmer and homesteader in rural Tennessee, who passes the time singing healing songs, creating art, and growing vegetables. The novel’s narrator calls him The Prophet, referring to his history of hearing the word of God and experiencing visions. These visions, mostly revolving around the apocalyptic end of days referred to in later books of the Bible, have plagued him for years and motivate him to send a message to the White House. Despite years of self-reliance and distrust for the government, he sees a kindred spirit in the President (alluded to be President Barack Obama based on the time stamps provided in the novel) and knows he will receive the message with grace. However, as The Prophet’s grown son and other passersby remind him, no one will heed the words of a crazy old man. He seeks a new conduit for his message, and divine intervention gives him this conduit.
While digging for scraps for his art projects, he encounters a young girl in danger—she’s become a victim of sex trafficking. After tracking the assailant’s moves over a period of weeks, The Prophet manages to rescue the girl, named Michael, and deliver her to safety. Michael is scarcely fourteen and has already lived a life of deceit, betrayed by foster families and her birth family alike and at the mercy of her pimp, known as King, and the other players in King’s orbit. Michael forms a bond with The Prophet and accepts his mission to travel to Washington, not believing in his rapturous daydreams, but seeing this as an opportunity to change her life.
What on the surface seems a simple story is elevated by Quatro’s narrative structure. The first portion of the book is centered on The Prophet, told in third person omniscient to examine both his past and present. As The Prophet, who is rapidly declining from untreated lung cancer, approaches death, the boundaries between past and present begin to blur, a blurring that will reach its peak in the third section of the story. However, the second section takes on a new form, following Michael’s journey to Washington and her attempting to make sense of her life thus far. Michael’s narrative is haphazard, full of stream of consciousness sentences and youthful belief in love and the goodness of others around her. Though made to perform adult tasks far beyond her years, Michael is very much a child and her narrative sections prove this. She makes dizzying, mystifying decisions that frustrate the reader, but are the only truth to her affection-starved mind.
The third portion of the novel brings the tension to new heights, featuring a stage play between The Prophet and the Two-Step Devil, who is clearly our story’s narrator and a kind of orchestrator of the events around us. These sections delve into theology and how this intersects with life in America, how the concerns of rural Americans are ignored and their best interests stomped on. While this section is philosophical and insightful, they remove us from the tightly crafted tension of our main characters and ultimately feel distracting. However, the final section takes the narrative to new levels by presenting Michael’s many possible futures. We find ourselves clinging to visions of success and hope but are confronted by reality, and this juxtaposition is what makes Two-Step Devil not only a darkly humorous and insightful novel, but a dramatic tragedy. We are presented with brightness and shadow and must turn from one to face the other. It is a choice we cannot make for ourselves.
While Quatro’s novel is short, its diversity of narrative techniques and detailed character portraits make the story feel well-rounded and robust. Characters like The Prophet are easy to ignore as off-putting or strange based on their beliefs and socioeconomic class, but Quatro chooses a nuanced portrait focusing on inner humanity, rather than a purely voyeuristic or charitable approach. Similarly, with Michael, a character easily seen as maudlin or doomed from the onset, Quatro draws us in so close to her mindset that we cannot look away from her, even when it feels convenient and safe to do so. If there is an answer to the rural American question in terms of politics and representation, Quatro does not pose it, but she does shed light on the impact of years of ignorance, and how those we choose to ignore will nevertheless persist.
FICTION
Two-Step Devil
By Jamie Quatro
Grove Press
Published September 10, 2024
