"Life offers infinite possible roads. Sometimes your head chooses the route, sometimes your heart. And sometimes, for better or worse, neither head nor heart can resist the stubborn pull of fate."
Dean Koontz, master of 37 psychological thrillers, is back with a story that will make your worst nightmare seem tame. This time out, Koontz offers a tale not only of gripping fear but also of the power of love and friendship.
Koontz offers a cast of characters so intimately portrayed you are immediately drawn into their lives.
Martie Woodhouse Rhodes is a video game designer. She's always been a stable and fun loving person thanks to her now deceased father's influence. Robert "Smilin' Bob" Woodhouse was a fireman and a hero. Sabrina, Martie's mother doesn't actually dislike her daughter's husband, she just thinks he isn't good enough for her daughter.
Dustin (Dusty) Rhodes, Martie's husband, loves his work as a painting contractor. He's 29-years-old, handsome, and has an eidetic and audible memory. You'll be glad he does before the tale is over.
Susan Jagger, ex-wife of Eric Jagger, is Martie's best friend. The girls have known each other since grade school. For the past 16 months Susan has inexplicably suffered from agoraphobia. She depends on Susan to take her to her therapist, Dr. Ahriman, for sessions geared to cure this phobia that keeps her locked inside her apartment fearful of going out alone.
What's a good story without a dog? The Rhodes have a golden retriever named Valet. He's as important a character as any of the humans. Valet is loyal, gentle, and a great companion.
Skeet Caulfield, Dusty's half brother is another central character. He's 24-years-old, skinny, doesn't believe in anything, but is sweet. He's been in drug rehab several times, but is determined to kick the monkey off his back. Then, he sees "the otherside!"
Ned Motherwell, a 6-foot 5 inch giant of a man is a "straight edger" and dislikes Skeet intensely because of his weakness for drugs. Ned is funny and a reliable friend to Dusty. Along with Ned, another good friend of both Martie's and Dusty's is Foster "Fig" Newton. Fig listens to radio shows dealing with UFOs, fourth dimension beings, and big foot. He's taciturn, a man of few words, pie faced with clear gray eyes magnified by thick eyeglasses. He's also full of perpetual sorrow. Both Ned and Fig are important to the total plot.
Dusty's father, his mother, Claudette's, second husband is Dr. Trevor Penn Rhodes, professor of literature, specialists in the deconstruction theory. "Language can't describe reality. Literature has no stable reference, no real meaning. Each reader's interpretation is equally valid more important than the author's intention. In fact, nothing in life has meaning. Reality is subjective. Values and truth are subjective. Life itself is a kind of illusion. Etc., etc., etc." Dr. Rhodes also drinks Scotch, a lot.
Dr. Holden Caulfield aka Sam Farner, is Skeet's father and Claudette's third husband. He's a fraud and egoist of the worst kind, and a real abuser. You have to expect this as Claudette only goes for the bad guys. She's on her fourth husband as the book opens.
Dr. Ahriman, Susan's therapist is a genius. He entered college at 13, received his
doctorate of psychology at 17, went on for a medical degree and emerged as a psychiatrist. He loves poetry, particularly Haiku. Ahriman is also a narcissist and a megalomaniac.
There you have the main players of this strange and exotic story. How each fits into the puzzle will stun you.
One morning Martie experiences a sudden and inexplicable fear of her own. This isn't like her friend Susan's agoraphobia. Martie has a fleeting episode of being afraid of looking at her image in a mirror. Then, more and more the episodes grow until she fears herself and the evil that she might to do to others. The condition is called autophobia.
As Martie's condition worsens her life and that of her husband's changes drastically. Desperate to discover the reasons for his wife's sudden and seemingly inevitable descent into mental chaos, Dusty takes Martie to her friend Susan's renowned therapist. Dusty tries to reconstruct the events of recent months in a frantic search for clues. As he nears the shocking truth, he finds himself afflicted with a condition even more bizarre and fearsome than Martie's.
This has to be one of Koontz's most involved and complicated novels and yet it makes perfect sense. At first I had a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief. Then, I read an article in the March issue of "Discover" magazine entitled, "The Future of Humanoid Robots." A quote by Marvin Minsky, cofounder of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, "I don't see anything wrong with human life being devalued if we have something better," made a believer out of me. Koontz's dramatic tale suddenly came into focus and all disbelief dissolved.
The ending of "False Memory" will shock the most prodigious reader. It is a twister that you do not see coming. For me, it caused ghost spiders to crawl along the back of my neck and creep down the staircase of my spine.
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(Jones is a published writer & literary critic)
COPYRIGHT April 28, 2000, PATRICIA A. JONES, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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