Koko Book

It has been at least a decade since I last tried to read this book, which I had attempted before on two previous occasions. And I knew how far I had gotten each time, if not by some whiff of remembering; then at least by the markers I had placed where I had stopped each time. It was the pure principal of the thing that fuelled my surpassing both those afore laid markers, not the prose or the characters or the story. If memory serves me correctly I bought this book based solely on my experience of reading The Talisman. Having never read another Straub book I was none the less persuaded to give him, independent of King, a try. It is a hard cover first edition that graces my shelves.

And I hate putting down a book before having turned the last page. Having done so twice before did not make it any more palatable I can assure you. So why then?

Here we go:

The prose felt fractured. I had a difficult time following it and understanding the meaning behind the words. It is not like I need the author to hold my hand or explain every little thing, in fact that usually puts me off. No this was more like a giant jigsaw puzzle put together wrong, even though the pieces still seemed to fit as though the edges were malleable. I found myself going back and rereading passages and not for pleasure, just trying to find a path.

The characters, okay I am just going to say it. They all felt alike to me. Sure, there were four different Vietnam vets that reunited in Washington but to me they all read like different versions of the same man, each individually cloaked or tricked out in some other fashion, they all seemed like revenants of a common host.

The story held great potential. I thought I could see quite clearly how it might all play out. Who knows maybe I did. But in the end, at least my end if not Straub's; I was not prepared to invest in another 400 plus pages to find out.

Straub is a prolific writer, whom my comfort food King, chose to co-author two books with. This is most likely my failure and not the authors.