The Cure

Author Athol Dickson won a much coveted award for his 2006 release River Rising. Being aware of this it was with much anticipation that I awaited for his next release, The Cure. Riley Keep is washed up. Once a successful husband, father, teacher, pastor and missionary he's made a mess of his life in each of those areas. As the story begins Riley is homeless and an alcoholic surviving on the streets in Florida. But word has come around that there's hope in Maine. A cure for alcoholism. Riley and his friend, also an alcoholic, head out for Maine in hopes of finding there salvation from the demon spirits. As word has travels the local shelter and, indeed the whole town, are overrun with the homeless who seek shelter and hope. Along the way Riley Keep might just make a turn for the better in his spiraling downward life. When folks speak of the works of Athol Dickson you're bound to hear words like "profound" and I couldn't agree more. Athol has a way of taking the most fallen of characters, making us care about them and follow them on their journey to redemption. Here in The Cure, as always, the characters are vibrant and real. Flawed and yet courageous. And this author's prose sings without being overwhelmingly poetic. This is one of those rare stories and rare authors. Athol and his stories are able to touch you deeply with a message of hope in Christ in a way that few can. Highly recommended! One of my Top 10 Novels of 2007.

THE CURE by Athol Dickson October 3, 2007 Rating: 5 Stars THE CURE is one of the few times I have given out a 5 star rating. For me, giving out 5 stars doesn't mean that everyone will enjoy the book. It is an opinion that comes from one person. However, a 5 star book has to be well-written, have characters that work in the overall scheme of things, and that all other important parts of the story come together to make it a perfect book. With that said, it also is a matter of taste, and in this case, THE CURE was a book that I particularly enjoyed because I like to read about characters that are down on their luck. THE CURE is not an upbeat story, but it is one about redemption and forgiveness, about a man that is trying to make right something that had gone horrifically wrong in his past. In THE CURE, Riley Keep is an alcoholic who at one time was a highly respected minister in this small town that he has returned to, after many years living in Florida, living the life of a street person. He returns to the town of Dublin, Maine because of a myth being told on the streets about a cure for alcoholism, and that it has been saving the lives of many. Riley returns to his old hometown with a friend, Brice, who is dying from the affects of alcoholism, and they are in desperate need to find the cure before it is too late. When Riley thinks he's finally found the cure, given to him on a slip of paper and a bag of white powder while in the church he once preached in, he takes a taste and loses his appetite for alcohol instantly. However, the slip of paper warns that if he drinks alcohol again, his desire for it will increase more than ever. There is a subplot involving a woman who takes care of the homeless. She has a secret that has led her to this town, and it is connected to Riley and his past spent on a mission in South America. She is somehow involved in the cure, and what she knows about it has endangered her life. She is hiding out in Dublin, but her time may be running out, since the news that Riley has the cure has now spread. The book moves along at a fast pace when the woman disappears and is thought to be dead, and Riley is accused of murdering her. The men and women on the streets have learned that Riley has the cure. He wants this miracle wonder to be available to everyone and tries to make a deal with a pharmaceutical company who he thinks will be able to reproduce this product and allow rich and poor person alike to utilize it. What happens, however, changes the outcome of what Riley hopes to accomplish, and changes again the course of his life. Riley is also dealing with his ex-wife Hope, who is now the mayor of the city, and their relationship forms another subplot. What happened between them again is related to the origin of the cure, and their story is told in flashbacks, where they were missionaries in South America. I don't think THE CURE is everyone's cup of tea. It's not an upbeat happy-ending type of story, but

There was a time when Riley Keep was a man of supreme confidence: minister, missionary, educator of New England's finest. Then something terrible happened; he came face to face with his humanity and what he saw changed him. Now he returns home years later an abject failure, a ghost moving among the living. By accident he catches his reflection in a mirror and he sees something far different: failed protector of an entire people, weakling of a husband, incompetent father, and drunkard. Athol Dickson offers us the most unlikely, and to be honest, most unlikeable of heroes. Riley Keep has fallen so far that when he returns to his home town in Maine along with a dying homeless friend no one even recognizes him. Not the church people, not his former friends, and not even the mayor who just happens to be his ex-wife. Through an apparent accident Riley discovers something every person trapped by the demons of their personal sins would give anything to have, a magic bullet that would forever take away their addiction. Riley Keep has discovered The Cure. What happens next is on one level a rousing suspense story and on another a parable of failure and despair. It is the story of far away pagans and the pagan within us all. And in the end it is a story of ultimate hope. As always, Dickson's characters are vivid, tragic, heroic, well-intentioned, and severely flawed. Even when Riley Keep gets his act together and appears to become a great success he is within himself a failure. In other words he is real. Perhaps this is why some found this story uncomfortable. Upon his return to his home town, Riley observes that people walk by him but never look into eyes, never see him. He guesses it is because they fear they see some of themselves. I think Riley Keep guesses right. The Cure ends with these words: Riley was no longer dead; his ghostly days were over... here at last was something truly good to drink. The Cure is something truly good to drink.

Riley Keep had been so many things in other lives. Minister. Missionary. Educator of New England's finest ... Failed protector of an entire people. Weakling of a husband. Incompetent father. Drunkard. Friend as best he could ... By accident, Riley caught his own eye in the mirror. Startled, he looked away. Athol Dickson has done it again! In River Rising he made us want to look away from the stark realities of racism and then compelled us to look back in its mirror and see ourselves. Now, in The Cure, this master of parables holds up another mirror most of us will look into only after fighting it the first two hundred pages or so. This time the parable concerns failure and hopelessness. It is the story of far away pagans and the pagan within us all. And in the end it is a story of ultimate hope. What sets Dickson apart is the way he uses words like oils on a palette. You don't read about Riley Keep. If you allow yourself you become Riley Keep. I wrote in a review of River Rising that only word did it justice: profound. Now that I have read The Cure I am at a loss for any other description. The Cure will make you uneasy at times. Its hero is flawed. A failure. And, even in his return to God he is far from perfect. In other words he is real. All I can say is read this book. The Cure ends with these words: Riley was no longer dead; his ghostly days were over... here at last was something truly good to drink. The Cure is something truly good to drink.

Athol Dickson writes the most delicious prose ever, and The Cure certainly doesn't disappoint in that department. And, as always, his storyline is original and gripping. Don't miss this one!