Eel (who now goes by her real name, Lee) wishes her husband well but ponders how far he’ll be able to track the story back. Unable to shake the feeling that it’s time to shed light in a dark corner of his own life, Lee abandons the novel he’s writing and throws himself into research for a non-fiction book about what really happened between his friends and Spencer Mallon. All he knows is that before the ritual was complete, one of Spencer’s acolytes was killed horribly, another disappeared completely and Hootie was so badly traumatized that he retreated into the comfort of madness. Lee has been trying to get his wife to share the secret of what happened that day ever since it happened. His friends, however, eagerly lapped up Spencer’s teachings and even more eagerly followed him into a meadow for what was intended to be a dress rehearsal for a ritual Spencer claimed would change their lives. Lee’s memory of Hootie is connected to a larger mystery that has haunted him for decades, a mystery that began when four of his friends-Hootie, Dill, Jason and a girl nicknamed Eel who is now his wife-fell under the influence of a charismatic 60s-style guru named Spencer Mallon.Įven at 18, Lee was immune to Spencer’s apocalyptic message-“Everything is everything”-and labeled him a charlatan posing as a shaman, like so many others of the era. The homeless man reminds him of his childhood friend Hootie who has been confined to a mental hospital since the sixties and communicates only in single words and literary quotations. He’s unsettled by the encounter and finally realizes why. Novelist Lee Harwell is having breakfast at his favorite Chicago diner when a hostile homeless guy shouting a single word- obstreperous-interrupts his meal. Another time and place out of this world.Doubleday, 416 pp. It’s about the creeping dread of secrets and past lives controlling our present. The novel isn’t supposed to be about a big shock. There is plenty of good writing, layers of meanings, and a meditation seeking an understanding of what we are reading.
evil, you probably won’t be happy with what you read here. If the reader is seeking a straight-up, good vs.
The characters themselves are both the greatest strength and also the greatest weakness of the story. The author used the issue of genuine vs borrowed language.Įach of the characters stories differ in details and those differences gives the reader the insight into the characters who are telling their story.
I did like the structure, the characters, the themes and the language in the book. The story has its own identity and concentrated on appealingly complicated literature and in a disorderly fashion, however, restrained and focused on metabolic breakdown of life, love and survival. The concept of this book is about a tight-knit group of childhood friends who meet a cult leader and convinces them to help him open a portal to another world.
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