Evil lurks in the shadows........always!

[Loup Solitaire]

Everyone who enjoys reading has their favorite authors. And I have mine. Depending upon my mood of the moment, I am drawn to one or the other of them. Although I enjoy fiction the most, I like a book that teaches, imparts some body or fragment of knowledge. This knowledge can be geographical, technical, cultural, or moral. The best books, for me, combine all of these.

One of my favorite authors is Dean Koontz. Not everybody likes to read his books. Some find him too dark in his writing. Like Stephen King, his stories can be frightening. In his books, evil becomes an ever present shadow lurking in lines that he writes. Early in his books you cannot discern what the evils is, but you sense that it is there. And ever slowly, he gives you a clue here or there so you may eventually discover what it is and the power it can have upon you.

I think Dr Dahesh would have liked his books. I do not think Dean Koontz is (correction here - delete double negative)an advocate of evil, but wants to make his readers aware of how insidious it is, so that we will maintain a keen awareness of its' presence and its' potential to harm us. His writing will at times lull the reader into a sense of well being, then suddenly turn brutal and unleash a sense of foreboding upon him or her that might make them want to curl into a fetal posture longing for the protection of the womb.

The book I've read most recently is Your Heart Belongs to Me. On the cover is a seductive woman with a mysterious expression or her face. At first glance, one could interpret the cover to mean the book is meant to appeal to women. I now wonder if the cover is meant to derail any assumptions a potential reader might make about the book. Now that I have almost completed the last pages of the book, I think a picture of a detached heart dripping blood and still frantically beating might have been more indicative of the story.

As in all of his books, evil is the villain lurking amongst the pages. But the nature of this evil is difficult to define. The main character starts as a person all could envy. He is a man who is almost at his prime age, but one who was catapulted to an enviable place by a single stoke of youthful genius and no longer experiences the hunger to create. Although this is not immediately apparent, this is part of the puzzle the reader must unravel. This man is living a dream like existence of wealth and pleasure. There is a woman at the center of this man's world, and you sense that she is one that will never be possessed by him.

His tragedy starts with the apparent, approaching failure of his heart. He is consumed by paranoia and uses all the resources at his disposal to identify the evil that is the cause of this tragic event in his life, as though he can take control of destiny. The same way he took control of destiny in his youth. After all, he was in a position of wealth and celebrity, and therefore he is entitled. This feeling of entitlement is his Achilles heel.

In this book is adventure and suspense. To tell you more of the story would ruin it for you. The climax comes late in the book after leading the reader through twists and turns. But the moral of the story was for me all meaningful. Evil is ever present. We can thrust ourselves under its' wheels and be crushed despite no intention to do so. Our own misdeeds, although we have no intention of being immoral, are ultimately our undoing. As the author refers to it, "subtext", the underlying story, is in front of us all the time. Our failure to see it is the danger we face. If we allow life to carry us along, never examining more deeply the complete meaning of the warnings we get, then we are destined to be crushed by the evil that lurks in the shadows.

Today, on the news, there were at least two stories, about people whose intentions were good works, but instead perpetuated evil. Their perpetuation of evil arises out of excessive dedication to blind principle. One story that glared at me, was a story of excessive pursuit by religious conservatives intent in ensuring the chastity of women in Pakistan. They beat people at a university simply because men and women walked too close to each other and were being too familiar in their behavior. To me, the most frightening thing , was the fact that there are staff and instructors at this university that think the school is not conservative enough.

Principle is a good thing. Blind acceptance of its' enforcement is a problem. Life is laid out in many layers. Each layer must be peeled back and examined. Before passing judgment, all of the layers should be uncovered. And even then, it is God's duty to punish the guilty. Granted there is need for man to intervene in actions of others, to maintain some order. But never should the punishment exceed the crime.

It is this subtle failure in man that can be the greatest danger. Obvious abuse of power is not always the culprit. The misguided can inflict extensive damage on those close to them and even those who are not.

[Loup Solitaire]

This no recommendation to read the book!

So here I am responding to my own post. How embarrassing.

So that I do not give the wrong impression, on the basis of literary merits, I'm not recommending that everybody run out and read this book.

I am commenting on the issue of evil and how it lurks awaiting a victim, or worse, a willing participant.

I would read any Dean Koontz book because I got hooked after reading one of his better efforts. More because of my curiosity, I did a little research to see how others felt about this book, Your Heart Belongs to Me. I did have a problem with getting through some of the book because of deviations in his writing style.

In retrospect, I now understand why it was not the easiest book to read. Of 212 people who took the time to review the book on Amazon.com, 39 felt it was excellent, 28 felt it was very good, 40 felt it was good, 53 rated it as fair to mediocre, and 52 felt it was simply bad.

But there was one thing that was consistent in Dean Koontz writing style. And that is the issue that evil always seems to lurk ready to pounce on the characters in his books.

I hope this point is not lost when anyone looks into how the book was received by the reading public.

[Y.S.]

A very interesting article. Thanks so much for sharing it. Its full of deep spiritual meanings that deserve all appreciation.
Your great words remembered me of the great short story of Dr. Dahesh which is called " that tree that is split into half"
Where Pain can be felt by the reader himself; the pain of conflict between good and evil.
And the devastating solution when the tree prayed for freeing herself from the evil part of it, and God listened.