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A review by bookmarked642
McDowell by William H. Coles
1.0
Thanks to OnlineBookClub.org for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this.
This was, in my opinion, a very strange book. I shall attempt to summarise the plot briefly, but I'm afraid I am going to find it quite difficult. The plot was very... [i]all over the place[/i], for lack of a better term.
As the title suggests, this novel follows the life of Hiram McDowell, a wealthy surgeon and father. He has been married several times, and is currently with his wife Carole, who has two daughters of her own. One of the first noteworthy happenings involves one of these daughters, Tasha, and Hiram's son, Billie. Tasha falls pregnant with Billie's child. Hiram refuses to accept this, denying Billie's involvement with Tasha or his responsibility with the child. A restraining order is placed against Billie, and he falls into a depression of sorts. The next major event involves Hiram's eleven-year-old grandson, Jeremy. His mother has known something was different about him for a while, but her husband refused to listen. Eventually, Jeremy goes on a killing spree, shooting classmates, teachers, his sister and his mother, before then shooting himself. But he is not dead - severely brain-damaged and unconscious, but alive nonetheless. Hiram's second daughter, Sophie, tries to encourage Jeremy to communicate with them, to show that he can hear them. But McDowell does not believe he will ever recover.
Soon, Jeremy passes away. Evidence suggests McDowell's involvement in the death; murder? Euthanasia? He is convicted and sentenced to several decades imprisonment. But before long, McDowell decides he doesn't deserve this, and so he escapes. His past experience in hiking and mountain-climbing enables him to survive without proper human contact for weeks, [i]months[/i], at a time, until he believes it is safe enough for him to migrate back into society. He begins a new life, developing different identities and beginning to earn a living again. He meets a lot of people, many of which become quite attached to him. But the law soon comes after him, and he is forced to move on.
In the end, McDowell is betrayed by a woman who's life he saved. He is shot dead, accused of resisting the arrest despite no evidence of any weapons or fighting.
Of course, there are a lot of subplots that I haven't included. There are also a lot of characters that have gone unnamed; too many, I believe. I couldn't keep track of all the different characters and stories in the end. I got a bit lost, and felt no emotional connection to any of them whatsoever. This was probably my biggest criticism; there was a distinct lack of emotion. At the end of the novel, it was suggested that McDowell had grown as a person since his arrest, but I didn't see any of this character growth myself. I didn't [i]feel[/i] anything.
Another issue I had with this book was the repetitive nature of the writing. Several details were repeated within close proximity, removing any subtlety to the writing. I also found that the inner dialogue of characters was not particularly convincing, sounding clunky and awkward.
Throughout the book there were paragraphs in italics, supposedly a separate narrative/summary of the events. But these paragraphs sounded exactly the same as the rest of the writing, and I failed to understand why they were separated from the rest of the text by being in italics.
I know there are a lot of negatives in this review, but I didn't actually [i]hate[/i] the book. I can't say I enjoyed it, either, though. There was definite room for improvement, and very little that was noteworthy in a positive way. I'm giving this book 1 out of 5 stars.
This was, in my opinion, a very strange book. I shall attempt to summarise the plot briefly, but I'm afraid I am going to find it quite difficult. The plot was very... [i]all over the place[/i], for lack of a better term.
As the title suggests, this novel follows the life of Hiram McDowell, a wealthy surgeon and father. He has been married several times, and is currently with his wife Carole, who has two daughters of her own. One of the first noteworthy happenings involves one of these daughters, Tasha, and Hiram's son, Billie. Tasha falls pregnant with Billie's child. Hiram refuses to accept this, denying Billie's involvement with Tasha or his responsibility with the child. A restraining order is placed against Billie, and he falls into a depression of sorts. The next major event involves Hiram's eleven-year-old grandson, Jeremy. His mother has known something was different about him for a while, but her husband refused to listen. Eventually, Jeremy goes on a killing spree, shooting classmates, teachers, his sister and his mother, before then shooting himself. But he is not dead - severely brain-damaged and unconscious, but alive nonetheless. Hiram's second daughter, Sophie, tries to encourage Jeremy to communicate with them, to show that he can hear them. But McDowell does not believe he will ever recover.
Soon, Jeremy passes away. Evidence suggests McDowell's involvement in the death; murder? Euthanasia? He is convicted and sentenced to several decades imprisonment. But before long, McDowell decides he doesn't deserve this, and so he escapes. His past experience in hiking and mountain-climbing enables him to survive without proper human contact for weeks, [i]months[/i], at a time, until he believes it is safe enough for him to migrate back into society. He begins a new life, developing different identities and beginning to earn a living again. He meets a lot of people, many of which become quite attached to him. But the law soon comes after him, and he is forced to move on.
In the end, McDowell is betrayed by a woman who's life he saved. He is shot dead, accused of resisting the arrest despite no evidence of any weapons or fighting.
Of course, there are a lot of subplots that I haven't included. There are also a lot of characters that have gone unnamed; too many, I believe. I couldn't keep track of all the different characters and stories in the end. I got a bit lost, and felt no emotional connection to any of them whatsoever. This was probably my biggest criticism; there was a distinct lack of emotion. At the end of the novel, it was suggested that McDowell had grown as a person since his arrest, but I didn't see any of this character growth myself. I didn't [i]feel[/i] anything.
Another issue I had with this book was the repetitive nature of the writing. Several details were repeated within close proximity, removing any subtlety to the writing. I also found that the inner dialogue of characters was not particularly convincing, sounding clunky and awkward.
Throughout the book there were paragraphs in italics, supposedly a separate narrative/summary of the events. But these paragraphs sounded exactly the same as the rest of the writing, and I failed to understand why they were separated from the rest of the text by being in italics.
I know there are a lot of negatives in this review, but I didn't actually [i]hate[/i] the book. I can't say I enjoyed it, either, though. There was definite room for improvement, and very little that was noteworthy in a positive way. I'm giving this book 1 out of 5 stars.