The Ninth Life of Louis Drax

When I opened this book, the first thing I thought was "Oh no, not another precocious young narrator!" I had recently read "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," so the smart-and-perceptive-little-boy gimmick felt a bit old. However, gimmick or not, the author manipulates both the cutting intuitions and the wide-eyed fragility of little Louis to wonderful effect. The suspense in this novel is centered around two basic premises--that Louis has mysteriously picked up on, but then completely detached himself from, certain emotionally traumatic experiences in his family's past--and Jensen's Louis very convincingly plays both sides of this equation. Three characters--Louis' troubled parents and a high-minded but overly Romantic doctor--try alternately to save and destroy him, the reader never knowing which is sincere and which simply a hypocrite. The psychology of all three, like Louis', is elaborate and glorious: they are three-, even four-dimensional, realistically complicated to the extent that it seems Jensen must know them personally--they can't exist only on paper. Aside from her convoluted and fascinating characters, Jensen's work is good, but not outstanding; the Gothic tone of the novel adds to its suspense, but the plot is a little wild to be believable, and nothing real--aside from dirty secrets--is illuminated or resolved. The characters are all in a worse mess than when they started. It is her idiosyncratic and self-involved characters that make this book worth a read.

Louis Drax calls himself the amazing accident-prone boy. He is a precocious, emotionally disturbed French nine-year-old who is oddly different from other children. He has been a victim of frequent life-threatening accidents since the complications of his birth. His Maman warns him that he is using up his nine lives faster than a cat, and she is frantic to protect him. But on his ninth birthday, while on a picnic with his parents, he falls off a cliff and his Papa vanishes without a trace. Maman claims that Papa pushed Louis off the cliff and has gone into hiding. Although pronounced dead, Louis somehow begins breathing again, but is in a deep comatose state. He is transferred to Dr. Pascal Dannachet's coma clinic while the police search for Papa. The story is narrated alternately by Louis within his coma and by Dr. Dannachet. In a disturbing and eerily askew voice that calls to mind Christopher Boone from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Louis tells his life story to a mysterious bandaged man who lives in his head. Through the voice of the doctor, who becomes obsessed with Maman and talks with the police, the reader is presented with different perspectives on the severely dysfunctional Drax family and Louis's near-fatal accident. As the two narrative voices converge, the truth of Louis's past slowly emerges. I found the book unsettling, haunting, and full of constantly shifting truths. Yet I also found it riveting, freshly original, and full of twists and surprises. Louis is presented in a quirky and endearing fashion, and his narrative mixes humor with angst. In spite of the darkness, there is a thread of hope. Once I understood all the facts of his life, I felt like rereading the beginning of the story to give his words their proper interpretation. This is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. Eileen Rieback

This is a great book- it has a dynamic plot, fascinating characters, an intriguing mystery, and excellent characterization by Liz Jensen. Although it's similar to the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this book is more of a mystery and has two narrators, the precocious but highly disturbed youngster Louis Drax, who narrates while in a coma, and his doctor, Pascal Dannachet, who desperately tries to understand the events that led to Louis falling off a cliff and into a coma. I found the ending to be fair and I look forward to rereading the book again to see how well it holds up and if I can catch clues which I may have missed before. Although highly recommended, there are a few minor mistakes in the text, and one scene in which a character is referred to by the wrong name! However, this does not reflect on the quality of this enjoyable and ambitious book, and I can't help but think that this book would make a fine movie, if handled appropriately. Highly recommended!

An imaginitive story about a little boy who literally falls into a coma and the doctor who tries to save him from himself and his dysfunctional family. This book is so hard to put down and is such an easy read! The character's are compelling and even the "bad guy" characters have a dimension to them which allows you to empathise with their position. This is a psychological thriller that twists and turns during the entire story, leaving you guessing as to whom the culprit is and what really happened to little Louis Drax, the "Amazing Accident Prone Boy".

The accident prone boy Louis Drax falls into a coma on his 9th birthday, and the ensuing events entangle his mother with doctors and the law. The characters are original, the dialogue sharp and sometimes darkly comic. The author's focus on the world outlook of the child reminds me a bit of that used in "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" and "The Way the Crow Flies," both of which I found equally compelling. Liz Jensen, a Brit who has written other novels, deserves to be read!