An Open Book: September 2020

Back in May, I read Joseph Pearce's article about Dean Koontz. While Pearce is not a fan of current fiction, and that is what I prefer, I did agree whole heartedly with his attitude about what we read in general.

We only have so many years allotted to us and we know that we will die with a long list of unread books, which would have nourished us had we read them. We need to be selective.

A book that was recommended to Pearce was Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas, the favorite of the author's.  Remembering an interview I saw with Koontz on EWTN a number of years ago, I decided it was time to give this author a try and start with his favorite.

Odd Thomas is not only the name of the book, but also is the main character's real name.  How he came to be named Odd is up for debate, but he does manage to live up to it.  Odd is a short-order cook in a small dessert town, Pico Mundo, from which he has never traveled very far.  He also sees spirits.  They don't talk to him, but still manage to engage his help.  When a stranger comes to town, he is accompanied by dark, hyena shaped shadows, which seem to feed off of fear and evil.   Odd races against time to thwart an evil that threatens his small town.

Dean Koontz's has an engaging and challenging writing style which sent me to the dictionary on more than one occasion.  His Catholic faith is quietly present in the story.

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.


I am an optimist about our species. I assume God is, too, for otherwise He would have scrubbed us off the planet a long time ago and would have started over.


A wonderful poet, now all but forgotten because modern universities teach nothing but self-esteem and toe-sucking.

Head on over to Carolyn's for more An Open Book.

AMDG