A Spider on my Tongue, by T.M. Wright

Those that frequent the Shocklines Message Board might only know T.M. Wright as a vociferous participant in various political threads. In fact, I know that some only are aware of that side of his writing. I've heard him referred to as T.M. Wrong, T.M. Left, but never, ever T.M. Right.

And that's a shame. For T.M. Wright is one of the most talented and original writers working today. Regardless of genre.

I've had my copy of the Nyx Books hardcover edition of A Spider on my Tongue for quite some time, but I only read it today, months after obtaining it. Why the long wait? Well, for one I have a lot of books sitting on my shelves, screaming to be read. For another, I must be in a certain mood to tackle one of his books. They're always challenging and they rarely are conventional stories with nice, neat beginnings, middles and ends, with easy to recognize heroes and villains. In fact they never are.

When it comes to cover art and illustrations, I usually am pretty ambivalent. They're nice, but the meat of the matter is the words. I always prefer to conjure my own mental images when I read fiction and a lot of acclaimed covers simply rub me wrong. But Robert Sammelin's brilliant cover and interior works not only compliment the story, they enhance it. This is a cover that conveys the mood of the story, without giving an iota of what it's about. It's one of the finest designed books I've ever seen. Period.

A Spider on my Tongue is a sequel to a novel Mr. Wright wrote many years ago. It's his classic A Manhattan Ghost Story, and I read it a long time ago. Long ago indeed and I remember almost nothing about it now, except that it was a great novel. The good news is, no previous knowledge of that novel is necessary to enjoy A Spider on my Tongue.

And enjoy it I did. The story deals with a man living in a house full of ghosts. but T.M. Wright never lets his readers off with such a simple plot device. The man is tortured by memories of loved ones from his past and he is convinced (sort of) that their spirits live with him. As well as a hoard of other restless souls. Questions came to me as I read it. Are they really ghosts? Is the chatty narrator himself deceased and existing in some form of afterlife? Is he schizophrenic? Or is it something else altogther?

If you like neatly tied up stories with clearly defined resolutions, you may want to find a book by another writer. But if you don't mind exercising your gray matter and putting some of your own imagination into the act of reading, I highly recommend A Spider on my Tongue.

Another wonderful thing about T.M. Wright's writing is the easy prose that he uses. It's deceptively simple. Other writers that attempt to deal with the heady issues that he uses often compose dense, thick, hard to digest language. In the best of Wright's work, which A Spider on my Tongue most definitely is, it's a breeze to read through and he sneaks his devious ideas into your brain in a sublimely subversive manner. And with a considerable amount of wit to boot.

A Spider on my Tongue is the debut publication from Nyx Books and it shows great promise. I talked about the gorgeous design earlier, but I also like that they offer a trade paperback as well as a reasonably priced trade hardcover.