At 05:03 PM 2/20/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Regarding all the negative comments on SUMMER OF
FEAR, it might be helpful
>to note that Jeff Parker's first wife, Cat (to whom
the book was dedicated)
>died of brain cancer during the writing of the novel.
In the book (which I
>reviewed for the Washington Post), Parker makes some
interesting connections
>between serial killers and cancer, implying that
these random murderers are
>both manifestations of the anti-Christ. I don't know
how Parker found the
>guts to tackle the subject matter in SUMMER OF FEAR
as his wife was dying.
>He deserves some credit for going there, and for
exploring inherent
>spiritual issues in a genre that tends to ignore
them.
I can't speak to SUMMER OF FEAR or Parker specifically, but
it does seem to me that this bit of background serves to
suggest a potential weakness in the book. Linking serial
killers and cancer in our collective psyche is interesting,
but having linked them, the implication that random death is
evil and anti-Christian is, though understandable given
Parker's circumstances, thoroughly conventional. Death is not
only inevitable, but essential to our world, and the notion
that its timing could be anything but random reflects the
human attempt to impose order where none exists, or is beyond
our ability to comprehend. To be meaningful, issues of
spirituality and morality need to recognize human
limitations, and the possibility that evil often results from
our tendency to overreach. Rather than ignoring the issue, I
believe much of our genre makes that point evident.
Kerry
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Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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