A humorous take on age and justice comes off a Morgantown press.
Backyard gorillas, camo balaclavas, and cosmic payback all have one thing in common: They’ve crossed paths with the Outlaws for Justice and Mercy, a retired couple walking a bit on the wild side.
One of the more recent books to come out of Morgantown’s Populore Publishing Company, The Outlaws for Justice and Mercy by author Alan Simms is a self-proclaimed “novel in stories” of moments in the later life of the narrator and his wife, recent retirees settling into their new normal after moving to be closer to their grandchildren. The 2021 novel is eight chapters of pure, unlawful delight as the couple descends deeper into their righteous escapades against the injustices of humanity they are forced to become aware of. By the end, the Outlaws grab national attention and incite the passions of thousands, who help turn the now infamous (and wanted) renegades into something much bigger than an old couple with a fondness for outlawry and cabernet.
Dry and sarcastic wit stays light on its feet throughout the 210 pages, dancing in and out of moments either quietly mundane or comically unique and drawing laughs out of readers with—and many times at the expense of—the narrator, a “quiet older man who’d gotten a righteous burr beneath him and joyfully succumbed to its urgent force.” It demonstrates a brilliant dichotomy between youthfulness and age that pushes the imaginary boundaries of what we let our age hold us back from. Simms asks why we let ourselves “get old,” why we perceive and stereotype age the way we do, and why we are truly only as old as we let ourselves feel.
Both the dark and the shining spots of humanity are brought to readers’ attention through a lens of humor that keeps it all just light enough to be considered fully and clearly. Simms gives readers a quiet, ordinary man living a quiet, ordinary life and shows us that he can be so much more than what the world expects of him.
At its heart, The Outlaws for Justice and Mercy is the tale of an elderly couple finding new—if questionable—purpose in their retirement years. It explores the concept of what it means to be kind to all things and how we rise up against the injustices of the world.
Pick up a copy of the book on Amazon.
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