I’m consuming Dean Koontz books like salted peanuts right now. Although I still have reservations about his style, especially in the early books, I’d have to be even more in denial than I am to claim I don’t find his books satisfying on a very elemental level.
I don’t know what other people find in Koontz. I can’t imagine that all his millions of fans have the same reasons I do. Because what I respond to most in Koontz is the recurring themes of protecting abused children, and of adult children of abuse overcoming their personal demons.
It would be interesting to know what elements in the author’s own life led him to tell these kinds of stories. If he himself suffered abuse as a child, then I can only assume he’s made a remarkable recovery. Because it’s hard to write that way unless you’ve unpacked your old baggage.
I’ve got an unfinished manuscript on my laptop, and I’ve been stuck on it for at least a year. I made the mistake of having one of the main characters suffer from Avoidant Personality Disorder, as I do. I think that’s one (but not the only one) of the reasons the story’s stuck. Because stories are about overcoming obstacles and, in my heart, I don’t really believe this guy is going to overcome his.
Last time I talked about my reading here, I was working on Koontz’ Intensity. I said that I was finding it hard because the story involved spending a lot of time with a really vile sociopath. And that was true, as far as it went. But I think another part of the problem was that I really—really—identified with the heroine, a woman named Chyna Shepherd who, because of childhood abuse, has walled herself off from the world. But she is forced by circumstances to go far beyond her personal limits, and to suffer much, to save a child’s life.
Loved it. But it was harrowing.
Then I went on to read Cold Fire, which looked like it would be a lot more fun. It’s about a guy who’s a living superhero. From time to time he gets psychic promptings that tell him to be at such and such a place at such and such a time, and to be prepared with this or that equipment. When he shows up, he finds somebody’s life in danger, and he saves them.
But the story gets darker. A woman reporter who falls in love with him discovers that his “gift” has its roots in terrible events in his childhood, events he has blotted out of his memory. With her help he confronts them and faces the truth.
At which point, of course, I stopped identifying.
Anyway, the moral (I guess) is, if you want to write autobiographical fiction about your own neuroses, it’s best to wait until you’re all better.
I agree with you Lars on a basic factor in what makes Koontz a compelling writer.
– What I like about Koontz is that he tends to write about people most novelists ignore. What bothers me about most (99 percent?) fiction is that ordinary people are totally ignored; and if they are mentioned they are dumped on and vilified. The obvious conclusion is that most people aren’t worth talking about… that their lives are meaningless… that they’re as superfluous as another diet book. My idea of a great writer is somebody who can take one of these people (and Christianity tells us all people are eternal spirits) and make their lives compelling… show us their true significance. (Something that I think is the hardest thing a writer can accomplish.)
– I’m not saying Koontz always succeeds at this, but he (more than most) at least tries to do this… or so it seems to me. (A flawed attempt, but one that moved me greatly was ‘One door away from heaven’)
Like you, I am coming to love Koontz’s books in spite of myself and find myself picking them up from the library more and more often … though my true love will always be Odd Thomas. Those books are so wonderful.
Ahem. Anyway …
Have you ever listened to Koontz’s podcast? Individual episodes are not very long and usually only happen when he has a new book coming out. However, they are always entertaining and every so often he alludes to the fact that he had an abusive father, for some reason I think alcoholic though I may have made that up. Here’s his iTunes podcast link if you’re interested.
No, I’ve seen his website, but never listened to the Podcast. I’ve never risen to the technical level where I’ve figured out how to do that iTunes thingie.
I have a similiar unfinished book still floating around in my head. It’s working title is “People Who Don’t Matter”.
For me, I go back to C.S. Lewis’ address titled I believe, “The Inner Ring”.
Must we be healed? Sometimes those who claim to have been are such a turn-off. And, from a Christian perspective, those same people at times seem to lose their need to cling to Christ.
You know, of course, that this is coming from the head of a woman with limited education topped with agoraphobia.
Yah. MY books are in demand, everywhere.
I can see how writing “autobiographical fiction” would be a helpful way to process one’s own past, wrestling with the ways we’ve been victims of the sins of others and agents of sin toward others.
If I waited until I was all better, the book would never end. Or maybe it would give me the fodder for a multi-volume series! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Hmm….this is why I write stories, rather than books about characters.
That way I just take characters who have recovered admirably from shoddy childhoods, break them in interesting manners, and give them bittersweet happy endings that probably only make sense in my own head.
You should start a new forum: unpublishable writers anonymous!
And yeah, I really like Koontz’ compassion, and his focus on the everyday–even if it does sometimes make for icky and depressing stories.
There is an interview with Koontz published last year in the National Catholic Register in which he discussed his childhood and how it shaped him and his fiction.
http://ncregister.com/site/article/2013
It explains a lot about what you find in his novels.
Thanks for the link, James! That illuminates a lot of things.
If you’re reading the older Koontz books, Cold Fear, Lightning, and The Watchers are his best.
Noted. Thank you.