From Publishers Weekly
Two worlds wrapped tight in gloomy gothic trappings vie for dominance in this engrossing, elaborately staged exploration of consciousness from O'Connell (
The Skin Palace). Sweeney, an Ohio pharmacist, brings his comatose son, Danny, to the Peck Clinic, "a sandstone monster on fifty acres of private land near Quinsigamond's western border." Danny is all Sweeney lives for; he even studies the comic book
Limbo, featuring a troupe of circus freaks led by the visionary Chick the chicken boy, for what his son may have imagined when his brain functioned normally. Like Stephen King in Richard Bachman mode, O'Connell digs for darkness as Chick and his companions, who inhabit the fantasy realm of Gehenna, encounter Dr. Lazarus Cole, "The Resurrectionist" (stoned to death only to walk again) and dread the inevitable showdown with their nemesis, "the mad doctor called Fliess," in his "enormous laboratory castle, the Black Iron Clinic." Meanwhile, in the real world, cultists kidnap Sweeney in hopes of using fluid from Danny's brain to transport them all to Gehenna. This strange brew is sure to enhance O'Connell's growing cult status.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From AudioFile
Trying to revive his son, who is in a coma, Sweeney reads to him from a series of comic books that follow the journey of a troupe of circus "freaks." Sweeney's own journey of hope brings him strange encounters that expand his sense of reality in surrealistic ways. It's often difficult to tell what's real and what's not in this rich novel. In his narration Holter Graham give a sense of innocence to some characters, which contrasts well with the world-weariness of others. His sensitive and vivid characterizations have range and flexibility. Through pace and timing, he creates an atmosphere of normalcy in a bizarre world. He is particularly skillful at depicting the relationships and interactions between the characters, as well as the parallels between the real and the surreal. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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