admin
22 December 2023
I like Dean Koontz. I’ve read most of his novels. I’ve liked a lot of them, loved a couple of them, and thought I wasted my time on a few. Life Expectancy fits into the first category.
In Life Expectancy, Jimmy Tock comes into the world at exactly the same moment that his grandfather leaves it. Just before he dies, the formerly unresponsive Josef Tock suddenly becomes lucid and predicts (to the day) that there will be five dark days in Jimmy’s life for which he must prepare. Although Jimmy’s father, Rudy, thinks that Josef is just delusional, he is taken aback when Josef’s predictions of Jimmy’s exact time of birth, weight, and length prove to be correct, as well as the fact that Jimmy will be born with syndactyly (the fusing of digits) on his left foot. The book follows Jimmy on each of these five days, beginning when he is 20.
To complicate the whole thing is an event that takes place when the wife of a clown from a visiting circus dies during childbirth in the same maternity ward within minutes of Jimmy’s birth. (Yes, strangely enough, there are clowns in this book.) Konrad Beezo goes crazy when his wife dies; he shoots the doctor, grabs his baby boy, Punchinello, and escapes.
This will not be the last time their paths cross.
I got the feeling while reading this book that Koontz wrote it with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek. This is not the first of his books I’ve felt this way about. I found the characters to be quite likable (well, maybe not the Beezos). One thing I’ve always liked about Dean Koontz books is the character development. While I didn’t feel quite the affection for Jimmy and his family as I did for Thomas in Odd Thomas or the dog, Einstein, in Watchers (my all-time Koontz favorite), I thoroughly enjoyed their personalities.
While there are many tense moments, I think that if you tried to make this into a strictly action-oriented book, without feeling anything for the characters, you would be disappointed. After all is said and done, I’d have to say that I liked it. Or as Randy Jackson of American Idol might say: \"It was a\'ight for me.\"
artid
3040
Old Image
7_8_bookreview.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 08 (apr 2005)
section
entertainmental