Idle Hands by Cassondra Windwalker is both a compelling narrative (or two) as well as an extended meditation on how humans ascribe blame and responsibility for life's many irregularities. This isn't so much metaphysics, which deals with what is the nature of reality, so much as a combination of moral philosophy and ethics coupled with human psychology as it grapples with the good and the bad that happens in life.

Most books that combine an explicit element of theorizing (in this case the voice of Ella or Adversary) with a narrative tend to succeed far more in one of the areas and fall short in the other. This is the rare exception that works very well on both counts. I think that is because Adversary comments throughout the book, sometimes longer sections and sometimes key comments in the middle of the narrative itself. In this way, they (the narrative and Ella) are speaking to each other as much as they are speaking to the reader.

I found myself in broad agreement with much of what Adversary says. It highlights many of our foibles as well as our inconsistencies. The disconnect between what we often claim to believe and how we actually act or think, which often, if looked at closely, is counter to our alleged big picture belief system. How we rationalize things to suit our needs or desires, which are often not in our best interests.

I don't want to give away much of the story or the world as Adversary puts it forward. I think one of the strengths of the book is that it does not cater to any particular worldview the reader may have but allows the reader to indeed apply it to their views. Regardless of your opinion on religion, or which religion you might subscribe to, you can frame the comments and ideas within your views and then ponder the questions that that dynamic will generate.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy domestic drama as well as those who like novels that are designed to make you think about our assumptions and blind spots. I'm not sure how I would have used it but I think, if I were still teaching, I would have found a way to incorporate this into a course. If you belong to a book group or have a group of friends who enjoy talking about books, I would recommend this for both the topic of domestic violence as well as human morality and psychology.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )