themusicaddict's Review of Dean Koontz's "The City"

Hello,

Special thanks to Dean Koontz, NetGalley.com and Random House Publishing Group-Bantam Dell for allowing me to read this book before it's publication day. "The City" is due to be released on July 1st, 2014.

Set in the late sixties, during one of the most violent and unstable time in the history of America. The Vietnam War had turned into a fiasco, women were fighting for their rights, some men were doing what they could to get out of the draft, political upheaval, assassinations of many of the era's leading lights, etc.

"The City" is about a two year period in the life of young Jonah Kirk, a boy on the verge of puberty. The story roughly covers the time from when Jonah was 8 to 10. Although it's a work of memory, this book is essentially Kirk telling this story over 45 years later.

The story has a bunch of talented musicians at it's core. Along with Jonah, who's a great piano player, we meet his Mom the lovely Sylvia Kirk. Sylvia is quite a singer, working side jobs in hopes of finding her big break. Sadly as a single woman, people think they can take advantage of her. We also meet Malcolm Pomerantz, Jonah's lifelong friend and a talented saxophonist.

We also meet Jonah's grandfather, Teddy Bledsoe. A man of great character and a pianist of great skill that played with many of the breaks many years previous.

Sadly Jonah's father isn't much to shout about. He has no music in his soul and ends up doing a great amount of damage. He's an anarchist fighting for the Cause, although we don't exactly know what cause he's fighting for. We only know that his cause is anti-government.

We also meet The City itself. Both the actual physical parts of the city with Amalia Pomerantz as his tour guide. Amalia is Malcolm's older sister and the object of Jonah's first crush. We also meet The City who comes to meet Jonah in human form, a personage that Jonah nicknames Pearl. Pearl is Jonah's benefactor, guide and she helps prepare him for the upcoming challenges. She introduced Jonah to two characters in dreams before he actually met them in person.

My favorite character is Mr. Yoshoika, Jonah's former neighbor and fellow investigator in mysteries going on in the city. After finishing the book, my appreciation for this character grew exponentially. The end of his story was handled with great poignancy.

Koontz is usually a good author, but the quality of his work varies. Some of his books are amazing, I highly recommend "Lightning". But some of his books are less than stellar. But "The City" is one of the better books, he introduces us to Jonah and gets us to care about him. We know that Jonah is black, but this point is irrelevant as he's such a universal character. Most of us have survived puberty, which makes these types of coming-of-age novels so appealing. (Stephen King's "The Body" is a master work for coming-of-age stories. "Stand By Me" is the movie based on the story and is also of high quality.)

Overall I'd have to give this book a B. While I loved the first 90%, the end was a bit too tidy. Teddy being in the right place at the right time, how everything worked out for everyone. A ending like that is great, but it doesn't stay true to the realism tone of the novel. A minor complaint on what's a very good book, a less sappy end would made this book even better. But thank you Dean for introducing to all these great characters.

themusicaddict