May 26, 2008
Holter Graham deftly brings to life the myriad characters that populate O'Connell's novel. Sweeney, a pharmacist, brings his comatose son, Danny, to the mysterious Peck Clinic in the hope that the doctors can restore his boy to consciousness. While trying to settle into his new surroundings, Sweeney encounters the peculiar staff of the hospital and a bizarre motorcycle gang who all have dark designs on his son. Though Graham sounds a bit young in his narration, his character voices are dead on, whether portraying the philosophical/psychotic head biker, a stoic strong man from a comic book series Danny loved, or the central, single-minded earnestness of Sweeney, each character is imbued with a richness of layers that is a tribute to O'Connell's writing and Graham's performance. Simultaneous release with the Algonquin hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 4).
April 7, 2008
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, \x93a sandstone monster on fifty acres of private land near Quinsigamond's western border.\x94 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, \x93The Resurrectionist\x94 (stoned to death only to walk again) and dread the inevitable showdown with their nemesis, \x93the mad doctor called Fliess,\x94 in his \x93enormous laboratory castle, the Black Iron Clinic.\x94 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.