Adventure Reading #3: "State Of Mind".
Hello everybody this is my second time participating in this amazing contest made up by @therovingreader this is the only contest that truly gives you a lot of incredible books recommendations by other people, makes you want to read all of them and you can see the beautiful pictures taken by the contestants and their opinions about their reading, so with no further ado let´s begin with the post:
John Katzenbach (Boy I could never spell his name right without help) he is an author who worked as a criminal court reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News, This guy here has make a lot of very famous books, my favorites until now have been: The Shadow Man (La Sombra in Spanish), The Analyst (El Psicoanalista in Spanish, I don´t know but I think that we Latin Americans had a lot of analysts for this book been called this way).
First of all his books are simple astonishing and they are like the manuals to make the best thrillers ever but I’m heading ahead of myself here, the reason his books are so good it´s not only the story (which is the most important part of the book) but the characters transition, the characters really evolve in a steady but at the same time dramatical pace. Take the Analyst for example; the protagonist have to understand how to become something that he´ll never think capable of becoming, the use of his natural abilities in the story only make him more real than was expected but the ability to change the character personality was without a doubt the strong point of everyone of John Katzenbach books.
Let me put you the description of the book:
A professor of abnormal psychology, Jeffrey Clayton struggles with a dark past. Twenty-five years before, Jeffrey and his mother and sister fled his tyrannical father - a man who was later suspected in the heinous murder of a young student. Though the father was never charged, he committed suicide. Or so it seemed. Since then Jeffrey's mother and his sister, Susan, have concealed themselves in the remote tangled swamps of the Upper Keys, where Susan creates word games for Miami Magazine. But someone has sent her a cryptic note. Once deciphered, it carries a terrifying message: I have found you. At the same time, a serial killer has invaded a community whose citizens seek a haven of old-fashioned values. And one new-fashioned guarantee: unconditional safety. But no one is safe from this intruder - who murders young girls in unspeakable ways. Is Jeffrey Clayton's father the source of this latest killing spree? The authorities think so - and they present Jeffrey with an ultimatum: Find the butcher responsible for the newborn spate of carnage. Find your father.
I mean look at that description that´s enough to convince everybody of giving it a go, this book has a Prologue, 25 Chapters and an Epilogue in total 544 pages of intelligent and dramatic reading.
The Characters:
• Susan Clayton, protagonist. He works in the hobby section of a magazine. • Jeffrey Clayton, lead. He teaches college and specializes in serious killers. • Diana Clayton, lead. Mother of Susan and Jeffrey Clayton. Wife of Jeffrey Mitchell. • Jeffrey Mitchell, antagonist. Susan and Jeffrey's father, and Diana Clayton's husband. • Robert Martin, Special Agent of the Security Service. • Manson, Director of State Security fifty-one.
The Story and Social Criticism:
John Katzenbach intention is to make the reader consider, leading him to think about what may become of our present world in the near future, where violence, crimes and insecurity are becoming more frequent (Like here in Venezuela, the crime rate is incredible high). People have become cold and inhuman as in the world created by Katzenbach. In contrast, the author creates a dystopian place (the state one hundred and fifty-one or the illusion state as I like to call it) in which false security is offered to his citizens. Letting us see what we are able to do by living in a "safe" place where we can walk "free" and without fear. No alarm systems, no door locks, no weapons, nothing to worry about whatsoever. The author criticizes the media for biasing and concealing the truth in order to satisfy political demands, or people from the upper strata of society, who only have to pay well and make bizarre donations.
Also the familiar theme, which makes us identify with the characters. Diana Clayton's cancer and her suffering as the wife of a murderer of such proportions as Jeffrey Mitchell. John Katzenbach also shows how Susan and Jeffrey Clayton were affected by the abrupt separation and run away from home giving a lot of melancholy into the psyche of the characters.
The Narration:
John Katzenbach employs an eccentric narrator (3rd person) to tell us the story, getting into the mind, feelings, eyes and opinions of a different protagonist in each chapter and sometimes also within the same chapter. In this way, the reader will get to know each character in detail.
He usually switches between Jeffrey, Susan and Diana Clayton.
The Conflict and Problems:
The conflict of the history is framed in the struggle to catch the serial killer. Dystopian state security against the killer. But that conflict is the internal conflict or dilemma of the characters. This is the great core that keeps the intrigue going from the first chapter.
The children of Jeffrey Mitchell and his wife Diana Clayton have been confronted from within by doubts that assault them as the plot unfolds. Can Jeffrey shoot his father without shaking his pulse? Can Diana Clayton endure the pain of cancer to face her husband? Isn't Jeffrey a repressed murderer? Does the family know the killer well enough to catch him? Is the killer capable of killing his own children?.
Score:I give this book a deserved 8.5/10.
Since this are the last few days of the semester, I´ve a lot of free time in my hands so I decided to come here, buy a good coffee and read (surprisingly enough, the waitress who attend me is reading: Paper Towns of John Green) The ambient here in this coffeshop is astonishing as well the view, you can sit down, drink a very good and cheap coffee and let your imagination drift with this book political and crime adventure and besides sometimes I´ve come with a good friend of mine.
Yes this is Andrea or better known here as @awhsarada, she is my best friend and my companion in the university for the people who doesn´t know it yet. This particular day she decided to accompany me to the coffeshop for a coffee and make his appearance in my adventure reading, beside we talked a lot but I mean a lot (like 2 hours) about this book (she is the one who lend it to me by the way and I lend her the shadow man) and John Katzenbach´s characters as well some than other funny pun about it.
Well I think that is everything I have to say for this adventure reading and like the previous one I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes of this book:
"Even when you're doomed to failure, it's worth putting everything you know into practice so that when the inevitable defeat comes, you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing what you did while in your power to avoid it."
Thank for reading all of you and @therovingreader for making this awesome contest, good luck everybody!!.
One of my gifts from my 15th party it's famous e.e John Katzenbach books will run the world
Speaking of which, you have to read The Shadow Man, IT´S AMAZING.
As soon economic engineering is over
I am not a huge mystery reader, but I think reading in Spanish would be a really good way to help me practice my Spanish... I'll have to get something at a slightly lower reading level though!