“Borrowed Time,” the first and last novel by John Nolte, is the tale of a man who does not age.
For reasons unbeknownst to him, Joshua Mason is immortal. Although he can, and often does, die, he is shortly respawned in southern Arizona.
For thousands of years this suits him just fine. Until the All At Once, what Joshua calls the sudden onset of civilization, makes a key aspect of his existence more and more difficult to maintain.
Anonymity.
He learns early on not to let anyone, or anything, get too close, lest the heartbreak dog him for eternity. However, with the simple running of her fingers through her hair, he finds himself unable to resist Doreen, a motel owner with a disabled grandson.
Thus begins the love story.
John Nolte on ‘Borrowed Time’: ‘I Wanted to Write Something Timeless, Not Timely’ https://t.co/QQnOzRCtnY
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 26, 2023
Nolte is a long-time online columnist dating back to the Jurassic Era of the early 2000s and the Liberty Film Festival. He currently writes for Breitbart News, covering a range of topics but specializing in film criticism. He is also a staunch conservative who warned us all about the Left Wing Sucker Punch (the overtly political message shoe-horned into an otherwise apolitical film) some 20 years ago.
Though a huge fan of movies, he has no love for what Hollywood has become. (He really, really misses t*** and ass.) This is all to say; Nolte has a viewpoint, as does “Borrowed Time.”
Long-time readers (of which, admittedly, I am one) will instantly recognize the book’s side quests into, say, the evils of the welfare state or its healthy mistrust of the government, among other Nolte-isms. But, as Chuck Wendig did some years ago with his Left Wing allegory, “Wanderers,” the book is not weighed down by these asides.
They are woven naturally into the story.
Nolte loves good movies, great TV and long RV vacations. But, most of all, he loves his pretty wife. This actual love no doubt infuses the fictional love between Joshua and Doreen, which is equal parts thrilling and tragic.
But “Borrowed Time” is not, to quote Rocky Balboa, all sunshine and roses. A main character sold as a lovable misfit turns out to be a cruel sadist. A CIA agent aids and abets a serial killer for political gain. And Mason sells his life on the Dark Web to fund his adopted family.
While this is, in my opinion, the weakest aspect of the book, it gives Nolte the opportunity to exercise his inner-Stephen King. The gore and violence are spectacular. But the descent into a Kubrickian blood orgy did little for me.
Conversely, in perhaps the book’s strongest section and Nolte’s best writing by far, we get the long-accepted local legend of how Doreen’s grandson came to be disabled, which is unraveled in a way that leaves you both uplifted and grieving.
To that end, an undertone of grief informs just about every page of the novel. In much the same way a setting can become a character in a film, so too does grief permeate “Borrowed Time.” All of it is earned.
Nolte has also written an overtly Christian book. It explores questions of God and faith and good and evil in interesting ways, all of which serve and advance the story.
“Borrowed Time” is something of a miracle; conservative without the right wing sucker punch, romantic without the melodrama, Christian without the proselytizing.
It is also very cinematic, no surprise given Nolte’s background as a screenwriter. Borrowed Time reads almost as a screenplay, with lean, muscular prose and flourishes of John Ford-like vistas.
“Borrowed Time” is not a perfect book. It mildly overstays its welcome and the ending will either work for you or it won’t. But by God, it is a humdinger of a page-turner and a cracking good read.
If you’re a conservative, support conservative art and buy this book. If you’re a liberal, shock the squares, grab a copy. If it sells enough copies, who knows? Maybe Nolte will write a sequel.
Terry O’Brien is a long-time columnist and author from the Cape May, NJ area. He writes about music, sports, movies and sometimes books.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was briskly paced, easy to read and highly compelling. Dude can definitely spin a yarn.