Falling onto Cotton

I loved this book, I loved the characters, the story was good. There was a fabulous paragraph about the pasta sauce comparing the ingredients to dances, I have read that paragraph to several friends, which is not something I regularly do. I enjoyed this book very much if I can do any more to get word out let me know.

I really enjoyed this debut book by this author. The story takes place in Detroit in the 80’s, the mob and all its elements are here. Chance McQueen has had rotten luck in life and some of his choices have not been the best. It is his relationship with Winnie, a fatherless teen, that kept me reading. Navigating life as a teen, first love, and self-discovery for both.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a book about a guy who tries to do the right thing but is constantly facing his inner demons. He is 'next in line' to take over for his family in the mob, but he is not sure he wants to do that. He struggles with this and his complicated love life throughout the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was face paced and I really enjoyed all of the side characters (and there were a lot of them!) . All of the 80s/early 90s references and song titles were a bonus!

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of this book.

Chance McQueen is a successful restaurateur who abuses alcohol and enters into dangerous romantic relationships to make him forget what might have been. He had a loving fiancé and a promising musical career. He lost them both. While he’s a broken man, he generously helps others. He supports a women-in-crisis center, helps feed a homeless veteran and has befriended and mentors Winnie, a nineteen year old who has lost his father.

Chance’s uncle is the head of the Milwaukee mob and wants his nephew to take over the family business as his health is failing. While Chance has no interest in a life of crime, if he refuses, the current man next in line to take over, who hates Chance, will surely kill him.

Falling Onto Cotton is Matthew E. Wheeler’s impressive debut. The characters were well developed. The fast-paced story, which takes place primarily in 1990, held my interest throughout. This is a dramatic story but the author has a good sense of humor, which is evident throughout. And a good taste in music. The music of the times is effectively used to head each chapter providing an enjoyable means of placing the reader in the era. You have to a smile when you see chapters titled by songs from The Rolling Stones (You Can’t Always Get What You Want), Nirvana (About A Girl), Coolio (Gangsta’s Paradise), Prince (When Doves Cry), Sade (Smooth Operator) and more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For a story about mobsters, with violence, sex scenes (I skipped) I have to say it was a sweet book. The main characters were sweet and their motivations and innocence and wounds made them all very human. This was a book I needed to read, right at this time. Escape and smiles. I hope there is a sequel because these are people I would like to follow.

“He fixes everyone else’s lives and drinks to hide from his own.” This quote pretty much sums up the main character of Matthew E. Wheeler’s debut novel, Charles “Chance” McQueen. The story takes place mainly in 1990 in Milwaukee - before smart phones and ubiquitous internet - with some flashbacks to the late 1970s. (Another thing that really dates it - everyone smokes.)

Chance is a man torn between agreeing to follow his mob uncle, who is dying, or staying a restauranteur and do-gooder. The second theme of the novel is focused on two teenagers, Alex (female, short for Alexandra) and Winnie (male, short for Winston). The teenagers are drawn very well; they are real individuals, high school grads seemingly going nowhere (working as valets at the restaurant and hanging out at the local diner). There are two other friends who are also drawn very well, Prez and Hunter. These are not cardboard-cutout teens. There are quite a few other characters, including a plethora of gangsters, who, frankly, I had a bit of trouble keeping straight, plus a number of restaurant employees and Milwaukee citizens, who really came alive for me.

The author has used pop song titles for each chapter that set the tone for that chapter, mainly tunes from the 1970s and 1980s, appropriate to the time the novel’s story takes place: I Wanna Be Sedated; Coward of the County, Should I Stay or Should I Go, as examples. I found myself going back to the beginning of each chapter as I finished it, to remind myself of the song title being used, often eliciting a smile or recognition when doing so.

Serious subjects are covered along the way: the plight of Viet Nam vets, homelessness, drug abuse, alcoholism, and date rape, to name a few. Warning: some graphic violence and explicit sex scenes.

The title mystified me until fairly late in the book, when I came upon the following. “Sometimes life was like falling onto concrete. Those were the bad days, and no matter how bloody you were, you picked yourself up and stood tall. But sometimes life was like falling onto cotton. And on those days, you lay in the rich softness and warmth of your feelings.”

Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and M.D.R. Publishing for an advance reader copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

Falling onto Cotton is a fantastic debut novel from Matthew E. Wheeler. It's fast paced, funny with interesting characters that will keep you hooked from the first page.

As someone who wasn't alive in the late 80's/early 90's and has never set foot in America, I thought the sense of place, setting and time were well created. Although the plot centres around the mob, at its core, this story is about the relationships around Chance and his development (something that will always be a sure-fire winner for me!)

I absolutely recommend this read and hope to see more from Matthew E. Wheeler sooner rather than later.

“This is the most famous thing to happen in Milwaukee since Laverne and Shirley got cancelled.”

Chance McQueen is a musician and restauranteur, an honest man doing his level best to tiptoe around the morass of organized crime that exists around him without getting his toes wet. It isn’t easy. His ancient Uncle Vinny is the local don, and he’s dying. Chance has told him many times that he would prefer to avoid this part of the family business, but he’s been dreaming. Uncle Vinny has stage four lung cancer, and he summons his nephew to share some hard truths: "It's simple. Either you take over the family before I'm dead, or Frank will have you killed before my body's cold...Charles, when did you ever get what you want?"

This oddly charming debut came to me free and early, and my thanks for the review copy go to Net Galley and M.D.R. Publishing. This book is for sale now.

Wheeler’s debut reads as if scribed by a seasoned novelist, and he introduces a lively collection of memorable characters. He serves as mentor and father figure to Winnie, a dapper young man that has it bad for a sweet young thing named Alex; Geoff, his best buddy, who is Black and gay, and endlessly loyal; a homeless veteran living behind the restaurant, who is never a caricature; and Chance’s nemesis, Frank Bartallatas: “Frank Bartallatas was pure evil in a massive frame. More than one little fish had disappeared after swimming too close to Mr. Bartallatas.”

The story is set in 1990, and each of the agreeably brief chapters is headed with the title of a rock song from the 1970s and 80s, which is a portent of what the chapter brings. I like this guy’s playlist, and I stopped reading more than once to add his songs to my own collection.

Here are the things I like most, apart from the playlist: I like the strong, resonant characters, which are well enough developed that they are easy to keep straight; the setting, which hasn’t been overused by other writers, and is a credible choice; the selective use of violence, which cannot be left out of a story like this, but never feels excessive, sickening, or prurient; and the pacing, which never flags. In addition, I like the mobster aspect of this story, an angle that we aren’t seeing much in new fiction.

I have no serious complaints, but if I could change anything here, there are two things I’d tweak: First, Geoff practically can’t have a conversation with Chance without making awkward race jokes, and Caucasians that spend time with African-American people will tell you that never happens, no matter how close you are; and second, the alcoholic protagonist is becoming trite, so I’d either let Chance kick his habit without a protracted, detail-laden struggle, or I’d just let the guy drink. Chance’s dead fiancée is enough hubris all by herself. But clearly these are minor concerns, or this wouldn’t be a five star review.

This rock solid debut signifies great things to come from this author, and a little birdie tells me that there may be future novels featuring Chance McQueen. My advice to you is to get in on the ground floor of this series-to-be, because it’s going to be unmissable.

Highly recommended.