Koontz's INTENSITY
I'm on a Dean Koontz binge right now. Just finished reading his 1995 work Intensity
. This book is all about emotion -- specifically, fear. There is much plot to it: a serial killer massacres a family in California Napa Valley wine country, but misses the house guest, a young woman named Chyna Shepherd, who hides from him under a bed.
Indeed, Shepherd has spent most of her life hiding, first as a child from her mother's violent, sometimes murderous, lovers, and then as a young woman, from emotional involvement. In fact, Shepherd has spent her entire life practicing the fine art of Keeping Your Head Down.
All of which is about to change. When Shepherd accidentally learns the killer's next intended victim, a teenage girl, our unlikely heroine sets out to rescue the child.
When I say unlikely, I mean just that.
We've all gotten used to heroes endowed with superhero, even supernatural, skills. At least I have. Most of the books I've come across in recent times focus on characters that have such highly specialized abilities or knowledge, I can admire, but not relate to them. They're forensic specialists, have telepathic abilities, were highly trained spies or assassins or ... you get the picture.
Well, Chyna Shepherd has no special abilities in that sense. She's truly one of us -- a normal person, caught in an extraordinary situation. As such, she's not only believable, but inspirational.
Ironically, Shepherd's skills at becoming invisible to those who hunt her are the very skills that enable her to survive. Koontz does a magnificent job of showing how her alternating moods -- from sheer terror to anger to determination to despair to compassion -- all work toward propelling her forward in her quest to Save the Girl.
Of course, in saving someone else, Shepherd is also saving herself. She discovers not only a new sense of strength, but of safety. She can feel safe now. By story's end, she knows she can not only survive, but survive well.
I loved Intensity and I'll probably read it again. Koontz's use of language is wonderful. As I said, this book is all about emotions. How many writers have lost the ability to describe feelings. We so often focus on action instead. Show, not tell, our mentors tell us. Yet Koontz managers to do both here. There are pages and pages of narrative, no dialogue, which are spent describing Shepherd's feelings -- and not one word is superfluous or boring or maudlin. How many ways can you describe fear without being repetitive? How can you drive a book that has a very simply plotline, and no gratuitous violence, when for the first hundred or so pages, the two main characters don't even meet one another?
Intensity is one of those wonderful books that writers can learn from. It's a seminar in itself, a masterful demonstration of how things work. I loved it and I can't wait to read it again.
In the meantime, however, I've started with The Face. I'll add an update as soon as I'm done.
. This book is all about emotion -- specifically, fear. There is much plot to it: a serial killer massacres a family in California Napa Valley wine country, but misses the house guest, a young woman named Chyna Shepherd, who hides from him under a bed.Indeed, Shepherd has spent most of her life hiding, first as a child from her mother's violent, sometimes murderous, lovers, and then as a young woman, from emotional involvement. In fact, Shepherd has spent her entire life practicing the fine art of Keeping Your Head Down.
All of which is about to change. When Shepherd accidentally learns the killer's next intended victim, a teenage girl, our unlikely heroine sets out to rescue the child.
When I say unlikely, I mean just that.
We've all gotten used to heroes endowed with superhero, even supernatural, skills. At least I have. Most of the books I've come across in recent times focus on characters that have such highly specialized abilities or knowledge, I can admire, but not relate to them. They're forensic specialists, have telepathic abilities, were highly trained spies or assassins or ... you get the picture.
Well, Chyna Shepherd has no special abilities in that sense. She's truly one of us -- a normal person, caught in an extraordinary situation. As such, she's not only believable, but inspirational.
Ironically, Shepherd's skills at becoming invisible to those who hunt her are the very skills that enable her to survive. Koontz does a magnificent job of showing how her alternating moods -- from sheer terror to anger to determination to despair to compassion -- all work toward propelling her forward in her quest to Save the Girl.
Of course, in saving someone else, Shepherd is also saving herself. She discovers not only a new sense of strength, but of safety. She can feel safe now. By story's end, she knows she can not only survive, but survive well.
I loved Intensity
and I'll probably read it again. Koontz's use of language is wonderful. As I said, this book is all about emotions. How many writers have lost the ability to describe feelings. We so often focus on action instead. Show, not tell, our mentors tell us. Yet Koontz managers to do both here. There are pages and pages of narrative, no dialogue, which are spent describing Shepherd's feelings -- and not one word is superfluous or boring or maudlin. How many ways can you describe fear without being repetitive? How can you drive a book that has a very simply plotline, and no gratuitous violence, when for the first hundred or so pages, the two main characters don't even meet one another?Intensity
is one of those wonderful books that writers can learn from. It's a seminar in itself, a masterful demonstration of how things work. I loved it and I can't wait to read it again.In the meantime, however, I've started with The Face. I'll add an update as soon as I'm done.
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