Willocks, Tim 1958(?)–

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Willocks, Tim 1958(?)–

PERSONAL:

Born in c. 1958, in Stalybridge, England; son of a bricklayer. Education: University College, London, M.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ireland.

CAREER:

Psychiatrist in London, England, 1983—.

WRITINGS:

Swept From the Sea: The Shooting Script: Screenplay and Notes, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Sin (screenplay), Singular Pictures, 2003.

NOVELS

Bad City Blues, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

Green River Rising, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.

Bloodstained Kings, J. Cape (London, England), 1995.

The Religion, Sarah Crichton Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Although he had never set foot on American soil, let alone visited an American prison, English psychiatrist Tim Willocks made a Texas penitentiary the setting of his novel Green River Rising, which became one of the most talked-about works of fiction works during 1994. The inspiration for what Booklist reviewer Emily Melton described as a "violent, horrifying, and gut-wrenching" tale of mayhem "that's part Dante's Inferno, part Stephen King horror novel" came from an article Willocks once read in a medical journal. It discussed an American psychiatrist's work with prison guards suffering post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of an inmate riot during which they were taken hostage. Willocks had already written one novel in his spare time—"I was not disillusioned with medicine, I was simply more illusioned with writing," he explained to Lydia Denworth in People—and decided to give it another try.

Seeking a "mythic landscape" for the work, Willocks settled on east Texas. There he fashioned a domed, Victorian-era prison of granite, iron, and glass and peopled it with what New Statesman and Society critic Laurence O'Toole called "the nastiest pack of criminal psychopaths" in America. Presiding over the Green River prison is a sadistic warden who deliberately exploits racial and sexual tensions among the inmates. They respond in exactly the way he desires—with a brutal riot that plunges the facility into anarchy.

Willocks then focuses the second part of the story on the experiences of several people who become trapped in the chaos, including a surgeon wrongfully convicted of rape who works in the prison hospital, a female psychiatrist studying prisoners with AIDS, a convict with healing powers, and a schizophrenic mass murderer. In addition to these character depictions, according to Carolyn Banks in the Washington Post Book World, Willocks also provides "an unstinting portrayal of the prisoners who are savages."

"I can't recall when a novel has hit me so hard," declared James Ellroy in Interview, noting that Green River Rising has "a power as surreal and terrifying as being locked up in a six-by-eight-foot cell forever." Commenting in Playboy, Digby Diehl labeled the work an "impressive performance" that is "surprisingly literary" in light of its subject matter. Diehl concluded that Willocks is "a formidable new talent,"

Banks noted the amount of graphic violence in Green River Rising yet found that it serves to "make the moments of kindness and heroism and tenderness in the book—and there are plenty of those—stand out in high relief." She particularly praised Willocks's skill at characterization and his deft use of language, which she says is "alternately guttural and profane, then exaggerated and operatic, but both are always right." In short, observed Banks, "there's plenty of narrative drive in this finely written novel."

In his review of the book, Robert Draper of Texas Monthly took issue with Willocks's off-the-mark depiction of prison life in the Lone Star state. Remarking that the author "checked his realism at the security gate" when he sat down to write, Draper listed some factual errors that struck him as especially jarring. However, he conceded that "beneath the lingering scenes of dismemberment and the ceaseless references to fecal matter lies a pretty brisk and readable story."

On the other hand, O'Toole in New Statesman and Society found Green River Rising a bit too cinematic to take seriously. "Willocks writes like someone who watches a lot of action movies," he declared. "But while he knows the right films to borrow from, [he] fumbles the method. His characters aren't archetypes, but wooden and risible…. The narrative rhythm repeatedly dithers." As a result, wrote O'Toole, "Willocks's tale of horrible conflagration fails to ignite." A reviewer for the New Yorker also found little that "rings true" in Green River Rising, yet concluded that "as an ultraviolent comic-book fantasy [it] is great fun."

Writing in the New York Times Books Review, William T. Vollmann also found more to Green River Rising than first meets the eye. While noting that the book begins as "an eminently believable tale" and then "falls away into a James Bondian ingenuity," he noted that "Willocks has thought quite a bit about motives and causes, and made them beautifully vivid." Vollmann maintained that Willocks's "ability to make this dark, doomed life comprehensible is astonishing."

Bloodstained Kings, Willocks's second novel, also features a Deep South setting and plenty of gore. Protagonists Lenna Parillaud, a former belle who has kept her husband locked up on their seedy plantation for years; Gene Grimes, a cynical doctor teetering on the verge of a psychotic meltdown; and Clarence Jefferson, a corrupt former cop, find themselves enmeshed in a plot of sex, jealousy, murder, greed, and revenge. Library Journal contributor Charles Michaud, noting that the novel exploits all the conventions of Southern Gothic—including a "morality play in which the forces of good … confront the forces of evil," called the book a tour de force. Vanessa V. Friedman, writing in Entertainment Weekly, observed that the novel is occasionally pretentious and unconvincingly plotted, but enjoyed the "rich characterizations, fast-paced narration, and … really twisted twists" that make it fresh and exciting. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly hailed the novel's unabashed exploration of human evil, deeming it "one of the most entertaining hard-boiled crime novels since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential."

Willocks turns to historical fiction in The Religion, the first book in a planned trilogy. Its action centers on the 1565 siege of Malta, which occurred when Turkish forces loyal to Suleiman the Magnificent attacked the island in attempt to drive out the Christian Knights of St. John, who had taken refuge there seven years earlier after Suleiman had driven them out of Rhodes. The knights, numbering about 9,000 men, held the island against 30,000 invading troops for four months, with appalling casualties reported on both sides, before reinforcements finally arrived to defeat the invaders. The novel's protagonist, Tannhauser, is a mercenary who had been born a Christian Saxon but was kidnapped by the Turks at age twelve and has fought for their side since then. He is in Malta at the time of the invasion at the behest of a noblewoman who wants him to find her illegitimate son. Tannhauser's story parallels that of the siege, the violence of which Willocks describes in close detail. He is "especially convincing on the battle lust which overtakes both sides," wrote Jane Jakeman in Times Literary Supplement, noting also that Willocks's depiction of events is, for the most part, historically accurate. N.D. Wilson, writing in Books & Culture, hailed Willocks's depiction of "the progression and feel of such a horrific siege," but added that he sometimes "needlessly overspices his tension." Nevertheless, Wilson called The Religion an "unquestionably … impressive accomplishment." New York Times Book Review contributor Susann Cokal also found parts of the novel "overwrought, concluding that The Religion has few pretensions to high literature, but it delivers a timely sermon in the midst of its surround-sound entertainment."

"I love writing scenes of warfare and violence," Willocks explained when asked by Bookslut Web site interviewer Clayton Moore about The Religion's emphasis on blood. "The practice of medicine obliged me to examine the world as frankly and honestly as I could, to observe and record pain, bodily contents and ugliness with fascination rather than revulsion. I'm also very interested in the phenomenon of human cruelty and its manifest allure. Therefore, if I'm going to portray violence or cruelty, I feel obliged to do so as truthfully as I can; otherwise it seems to me a form of titillation." The human race, he added, is "fascinated by violence … so it seems to me a perfectly valid subject for the novel to tackle. I would say that to do so is an obligation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 1994, Emily Melton, review of Green River Rising, p. 1993; January 1, 1998, Michele Leber, review of Bloodstained Kings, p. 779; January 1, 2007, Brad Hooper, review of The Religion, p. 24.

Books, June 2, 2007, Kristin Kloberdanz, review of The Religion, p. 8.

Books & Culture, May 1, 2007, N.D. Wilson, "Tannhauser Rides Again," p. 9.

Entertainment Weekly, February 13, 1998, Vanessa V. Friedman, review of Bloodstained Kings, p. 67; May 18, 2007, Thomas Hayden, review of The Religion, p. 70.

Interview, September, 1994, James Ellroy, interview with Tim Willocks, p. 96.

Library Journal, January, 1998, Charles Michaud, review of Bloodstained Kings, p. 146.

New Statesman and Society, July 1, 1994, Laurence O'Toole, p. 39.

New York Times Book Review, October 23, 1994, William T. Vollmann, review of Green River Rising, p. 12; May 20, 2007, Susann Cokal, "Kill, Pray, Love," p. 19.

People, February 13, 1995, Lydia Denworth, interview with Tim Willocks, pp. 44-45.

Playboy, October, 1994, Digby Diehl, review of Green River Rising, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, December 8, 1997, review of Bloodstained Kings, p. 54; January 8, 2007, review of The Religion, p. 29; January 29, 2007, review of The Religion, p. 64.

Texas Monthly, September, 1994, Robert Draper, review of Green River Rising, p. 88.

Times Literary Supplement, August 11, 2006, Jane Jakeman, "The Arquebusier's Tale," p. 22.

Washington Post Book World, October 16, 1994, Carolyn Banks, review of Green River Rising, p. 15.