ST. GEORGE, UT, September 9, 2020
Justin Harrell
Justin Harrell’s novel, contracted with E.L. Marker™, tells the story of Harris and Willow Caine, an idealistic young couple who trade their Washington D.C. careers with its prospect of a comfortable future for life in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Willow is driven by adventure, Harris by a craving for agency and authenticity. They arrive at their new home with nothing but suitcases packed with the bare essentials: pots and pans, snorkel gear, bed linens, and a wall-mounted wine rack.
The Caines settle in a mountainside retreat on St. Thomas. Harris takes a position as staff attorney for Legal Services of the Virgin Islands. He and Willow spend evenings sipping rum cocktails and entertaining friends. They collect rainwater, boil bathwater, and do battle with centipedes and a recalcitrant breadfruit. For a time, this move seems to deliver on its promise of adventure and autonomy. Until, faced with a host of characters fleeing from the long shadows of their pasts, Harris and Willow question the motivation behind their choices.
Set against the kaleidoscope of Caribbean life and culture, Harrell’s existential novel dismantles the idealized image of the tropics. All of Harrell’s characters, in one form or another, seek to reclaim their lives by chasing a dream that is equal parts art and illusion, beauty and tragedy.
Much of Harrell’s story is based on his experience living and working in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2004, he and his wife sold their car, their furniture, said good-bye to their friends, and boarded a plane for St. Thomas. Like the protagonist of his novel, Harris Caine, Harrell left a world of private schools and luxury German vehicles to seek a life of purpose and self-determination in the Caribbean.
With his novel, Harrell examines themes of freedom and fate, and the vibrant, crowded, weeded, rutted, beating heart of dreams.
Justin Harrell is a Virgo Gen-X lawyer with a penchant for mid-century jazz, gin martinis, Walt Whitman, good literature, French islands, rhum agricole, John Coltrane, constitutional law, plantain fritters, saltwater, Orient Bay, William Faulkner, Creole cooking, Chet Baker, Thai spice, Existentialism, raw oysters, Asian furniture, mofongo, Zouk, and the smell of jasmine during a New Orleans spring.