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Critic's Corner
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Once more Koontz presents readers with a story and cast of characters guaranteed to entertain. The protagonist, Odd Thomas, is a charismatic, unassuming young man who lives "always between two doors, between a life with the living and a life with the dead, between transcendence and terror." In the opening of the book, Odd explains how he came by his strange name, and assures readers that he, while living an unusual life, is really blessed and just an ordinary guy. He says, "By this I do not mean that my life is better than yours. I'm sure that your life is filled with as much happiness, charm, wonder, and abiding fear as anyone could wish. Like me, you are a human, after all, and we know what a joy and terror that is." Odd may be right. He is a twenty-year-old short-order cook in a small desert town. As he says, just an ordinary guy possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. The real gift or talent Odd possesses, or that possesses him, lies not only in his ability with a spatula, but is that he can communicate with the dead. Or rather, they communicate with him. These spirits sometimes want justice, and Odd's otherworldly tips to the town sheriff, Wyatt Porter, can often solve a crime or even prevent one. But on the day the novel opens, things are different. Odd sees a mysterious man in the grill. Perversion percolates from this stranger drawing an assortment of what Odd calls bodachs. Now these bodachs are evil spirits whose presence bodes something ominous about to happen. Bodachs surround the man and leave the grill with him. They are dancing about, slipping and sliding all around this person Odd names the Mushroom Man. When Odd sees the bodachs, he knows something horrible is going to happen. That they have attached themselves to "The Mushroom Man," is an indicator of death, even a catastrophe. This set-up is enough to gain readers' interest, but there's more. The living characters in Odd's life are fascinating. Take P. Oswald Boone, a 400-pound man with six fingers. Ozzie has a cat named Terrible Chester who can put the fear of god into any man, even Odd. Ozzie, for all his size is gentle, intelligent, and a first-rate novelist. He is also one of Odd's best friends. Rosalia Sanchez is Odd's landlady. She has no idea that the young man
who lives in her garage apartment carries on with the dead. Rosalia has
enough trouble believing that she is visible. Terri Stambaugh is Odd's boss and owner of the Pico Mundo Grill. She isn't just his employer but also his culinary mentor, his surrogate mother, and his friend. Her only eccentric obsession is—anything Elvis. Stormy Llewellyn, the girl Odd is so in love with, works at Burke and Bailey's ice cream parlor over at the mall. Oh yes, Pico Mundo has a mall, and it's a huge one at that. Stormy and Odd are soul mates and even have matching birthmarks. Few people know of Odd's strange secrets. Only Stormy knows all of them. Once Odd discovers that the "Mushroom Man" is really a fellow who intends on bringing disaster to Pico Mundo, he watches the man and his entourage of bodachs. As Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm, he is aided by his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Odd's account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere. Through Odd, Koontz gives us a bit of philosophy worth remembering. "Most people desperately desire to believe that they are part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time that they are given but one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard's thirst for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of bread." "Odd Thomas" is one of Koontz's most beguiling novels to date. Strange, eerie, packed with characters who steal your heart, and events that could happen in your own hometown. The author's own philosophy slips into this tale of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances as gently as a dream touches your heart then falls out of your consciousness. Little life lessons light as air, yet deep as the depths of an ocean. As other critics have said, "Koontz chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition." "Odd Thomas" is a winner and deserves its place on the best sellers' lists. Patricia Ann Jones, all rights reserved
Jones is a published writer and book reviewer for Tulsa World newspaper. To comment on this review you may email pattij777@aol.com |
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Odd
Thomas
