Pandemonium Review
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This weeks issue of the New Yorker, a magazine I love, was their fiction issue, populated almost entirely by literary short stories. I didn't like a single one and in general I'm not a fan of the New Yorker's fiction. One of the hallmarks of literary fiction is supposed to be character. What is missing so often is a plot that drives the story forward. Pandemonium has both character and plot, mixed together in a somewhat strange novel by an author who seems to be a Philip K. Dick fan.
Pandemonium is written in the first person. I found the narrator, Del, somewhat sweet and sympathetic. He's struggling through a life that has dealt him a difficult hand. He has a devoted brother, Lew who loves him. Del is a bit of a loser. At one point in the book he says that the plot of his life is that Lew is supposed to be the brother who is successful while Del is the screw-up. Yet it is hard to hold this against Del because he's plagued by Demons.
The world of Pandemonium is very similar to ours, but the presence of Demons has altered the history, which is alluded to tangentially in the plot. There are, indeed, strange plot twists. Some reviewers have objected to these. Although we don't live in a world of demons, it's still a pretty strange world. The novel just throws demons into the mix. Given our world of people who claim, despite all evidence to the contrary, that President Obama was not born in the United States, I don't find some of the plot twists too much of a stretch, with the obvious exception of demons (then again, do we really know that Dick Cheney is of this world?)
About two thirds of the way through the novel, just as the Del, the narrator, starts to understand the underlying shape of his world, I did too. Yet the author does not do what many authors of similar novels do and come up with a happily ever after ending where everything is neatly wrapped up. This is one of those novels that I am still thinking of a day or two after I read it.
Pandemonium Feature
- ISBN13: 9780345501165
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Pandemonium Overview
It is a world like our own in every respect . . . save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. There’s the Truth, implacable avenger of falsehood. The Captain, brave and self-sacrificing soldier. The Little Angel, whose kiss brings death, whether desired or not. And a string of others, ranging from the bizarre to the benign to the horrific.
As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del’s family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised . . . or is it? Years later, following a car accident, the Hellion is back, trapped inside Del’s head and clamoring to get out.
Del’s quest for help leads him to Valis, an entity possessing the science fiction writer formerly known as Philip K. Dick; to Mother Mariette, a nun who inspires decidedly unchaste feelings; and to the Human League, a secret society devoted to the extermination of demons. All believe that Del holds the key to the plague of possession–and its solution. But for Del, the cure may be worse than the disease.
“Look out, Lethem! Daryl Gregory mixes pop culture and pathos, flavoring it with Philip K. Dick. Pandemonium possesses every quality you want in a great novel, and the good news is it’s only his debut.”
–Charles Coleman Finlay, Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author of The Prodigal Troll
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