Life Expectancy Another captivating read from Dean Koontz
Written: Jun 19 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compelling story, interesting characters.
Cons: Simplistic plot
The Bottom Line: You never know what to expect from Dean Koontz as he has taken the crown away from the King (Stephen King) as the most prolific teller of tall tales.
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| daumco's Full Review: Dean Koontz - Life Expectancy |
Dean Koontz is a very prolific writer. By that I mean he grinds out a lot of books but as he grinds out new titles his writing has been changing (evolving?). I'm not saying it's bad, far from it. It's just that when Koontz started out, he used to write very good books, strictly in the Horror genre and for the last few years has been writing in what I would call bizarre, humorous, suspense.
Take Life Expectancy. Along with about the last four Koontz novels I have read, he works overtime to develop an endearing character or two and a lots of playfully jocular remarks, in a background of a dangerously weird situations. In Odd Thomas it was of course the enigmatic Odd Thomas. In The Face (a mega rich movie star), it was the Face’s son Fric and to a lesser extent Ethan Truman. In One Door Away from Heaven it was the irrepressibly, spunky, handicapped Leilani Klonk. In Life Expectancy it’s the equally spunky and beautiful Lorrie Lynn Hicks and to a lesser extent our protagonist Jimmy Tock.
Life Expectancy
I don’t know if Koontz planned it that way but the spirited, incisive and spontaneous lass that he created, Lorrie Lynn Hicks, stole the show from the main character, Jimmy Tock but I’m getting ahead of myself
Jimmy Tock was born to some most unusual circumstances and an even stranger legacy. On the night he was born, Jimmy’s grandfather, who was in a stroke induced coma, suddenly awoke and predicted, among other things, five “terrible days” for his grandson, between his twentieth and thirtieth birthdays and then dies as Jimmy is born. In the meantime, as Jimmy is only minutes old, tragedy befalls the hospital as a man whose wife dies in childbirth goes berserk, kills the doctor and a nurse, grabs his newly born son and rushes into the night. As it turns out the events of that night and the legacy of terrible days are intertwined and do come back to haunt him five times.
Jimmy belongs to a family of pastry chefs. The Tock’s have been Pastry Chefs for generations and Jimmy is being groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps. He has started out as a baker, where his father Rudy works. His family is close and tight knit and all are concerned as his first “terrible day” approaches. And so when the date of the first “terrible day” arrives Jimmy decides that not knowing what is coming and realizing that he must survive this day in order to have four more terrible days, goes out into the world as if it was a normal day to meet his destiny and the love of his life, the inimitable, Lorrie Lynn Hicks.
Conclusion
I have read some Koontz books that grab you from the first chapter, while others take their time to wrap their tentacles around your mind. Life Expectancy is one of the former. With the extraordinary drama that takes place in the first chapter and the knowledge, generally about how the story will proceed, it would take a major act of will power to set the book aside after the first twenty-five or so pages.
I must admit, once I got into this book, I found it to be an intriguing read as good as some of Koontz's best. Koontz did not meander too much on details as he did in previous novels and the writing was smooth and clever. Koontz still seems to be perfecting a humorous side, as the banter between Jimmy and Lorrie Lynn Hicks, had me chucking on occasion.
The character development in this book was marvelous. You really got to know and love Lorrie and Jimmy and felt attached to his family including Jimmy’s Granny, who was definitely off the wall. The bad guys were clowns. No, not figuratively, really, they were clowns. Bad clowns at that. How’s that for a twist? There were a couple other unexpected twists as well which I dare not go into. It should also be noted that Koontz wrote most of this book in the first person, which made it easier to follow. The book, at four hundred pages, is concise and easily digested and for a change Koontz did not try to show off his impressive vocabulary and managed to hold his typical verbosity in check. I give Mr. Koontz kudos for this one. final rating 4.25 stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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daumco
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