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The City by Dean Koontz (published by HarperCollins in 2014)
*Errors in this review has been fixed.
I’ve always viewed the insanely prolific Dean Koontz as a competent writer who knows how to create suspense and keep a plot speeding along, but I’ve also found his books repetitive and his characters versions of the same prototype.
I call him the poor man’s Stephen King, which is ironic, because Koontz is probably one of the wealthiest authors alive.
So I picked up The City, convinced I was in for more of Koontz’s crafty if slightly formulaic storytelling.
I was very wrong.
In The City Koontz paints the unusual coming-of-age story of young Jonah Kirk, son of a talented lounge singer and grandson of a true piano man. Young Jonah learns about the mysteries and the beauty of his city through a very diverse crowd of friends… and enemies.
There is Mr. Yoshioka, the polite neighbour who battles his own dark demons, Fiona Cassidy, a dangerous psychopath who haunts Jonah’s dreams, and of course Malcolm and Amalia, who become Jonah’s best friends and co-explorers of The City.
Critics of the book have complained about the ponderous pace, something people don’t really associate with Koontz, but I found it soothing and introspective.
I enjoyed the 1960’s setting, and the fact that the story is narrated by the grown up Jonah Kirk, who is now in his late 50s. It was also a pleasant surprise that the protagonist was African American, and not just the general corn-fed white guy that Koontz normally chooses as a protagonist.
This is not typical Dean Koontz, but it may just be Dean Koontz at his finest.
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