Simple People: A Novel of Choice and Consequence by Paul Martin Midden follows two truck drivers who walk into a love story and discover that life has a wicked sense of humor about the plans they make.
Ahmed Winslow planned to stay unnoticed while conducting a harmless hobby, while Eleanor Hornby planned on finding meaning and making a difference in the world. Their story will make you question what it really means to be simple, and whether the people we say we know best are sometimes the ones with the most to hide.
Ahmed grew up in emotional survival mode and never really learned how to be anything until life forced him to. His childhood was basically a religious tug of war. His dad was Muslim and his mother an Anglican, and they would use faith against each other, dragging Ahmed and his sister Fatima to the Mosque on Fridays and to church on Sundays. Growing up in that double-barreled religious family explains why Ahmed keeps people at arm's length, follows his own rules, and relies entirely on himself. As you interact with him, you see the scars and understand why he also fears intimacy, has trust issues, avoids conflicts, and often has panic attacks.
Eleanor is a walking contradiction. She is a college graduate who wanted "to do something good for the world," yet became a truck driver who, though baffled by her own life choices, loves the outcome. Her parents are thoughtful and supportive, and they treat her like an adult. She is not a believer and neither are her parents.
Their meeting is a combination of fate, coincidence, and the sometimes messy unpredictability of life. Ahmed has been looking to accompany someone from El Paso back to Columbia, while Eleanor has found a job to El Paso and back the week after next. The meeting, however, has a dark side to it. Eleanor's travel companion is a little bit more complicated than his shy smile suggests, and he is hiding a part of himself from everyone, maybe even from himself. The reader knows that he derives joy from doing things he'd never tell anyone about. He is a man who might be one wrong move away from disaster, and out there, consequences are already starting to stir up. His past is about to catch up with him, and the reader is just waiting for the moment she finds out.
This book's characters are refreshingly ordinary. They are full of hesitations, nervous pauses, and are dealing with trauma, secrets, and the consequences of bad choices. The book's cleverest technique is in how it lets the reader know more about them than they do about each other, making every moment between them feel tinged with suspense and gentle dread because we are anticipating what is coming. Its tension also comes from watching them make choices that feel true to who they are, as they navigate the truck-driving career, a career that is the perfect metaphor for their movement and progress.
Quill says: Simple People: A Novel of Choice and Consequence is long enough to feel like a journey, the kind of journey where you settle in and let the miles roll by. It trusts you to stick around, watching Ahmed avoid his feelings until they explode, and Eleanor, as she discovers new things about herself without forcing the pace. It is two books in one, and it gives you the satisfaction of a full character arc, which is rare because full arcs often require patience and trust that the reader will stay. It is not a book you finish and forget, but one you live in, and by the time you leave, you miss the characters as if they were old friends.
For more information about Simple People: A Novel of Choice and Consequence, please visit the author's website at: paulmidden.com/
