Word Made Flesh

When James Ellroy bluntly states that Jack O'Connell "is the future of the dark, literary suspense novel," one takes note. When his tomes are described as "something taken straight out of Blade Runner. Imagine Kafka writing The Maltese Falcon, or Borges or Pynchon one of Raymond Chandler's novels," well, the mix becomes intriguing, to say the least. The thing is that O'Connell's bizarre approach is all of the above and more. Published by No Exit Press, his first four books were categorized simplistically as crime novels. And without doubt, they are very much about the dark underbelly of his fictional New England town of Quinsigamond and the writhing denizens of that strange town. We have the cops; the powerfully amped Leonore Thomas, the crazed ex-FBI agent Speer, the sickening sweat-oozing crim August Kroger. Then we have the town itself. Quinsigamond is O'Connell's finest character. If the cityscape of Blade Runner is inherent to its power, or Batman's Gotham City a key to the vigilante's very existence, then Quinsigamond is the foul manure in which O'Connell's characters grow as deformed flowers. It is a multi-textured locale that forms the base for the action in Box Nine (1992), Wireless (1993), Skin Palace (1995) and Word Made Flesh (1998). The latter was best summed up by Crime Time magazine as: "Hyper-real noir. A grotesque romance about genocide, language, bibliomania, doubt, obsession, epidermis and sanctuary." Quinsigamond is crowded with strange locales which, with typical O'Connell word play, hint at the myriad influences in his books; a bar called Ballard's, Herzog's Erotic Palace, a nightclub called Wireless - a ruthless pun on the magazine title. For all of the grit of Quinsigamond, it is a highly literate town. Indeed in Box Nine, the town is rife with a drug known as Lingo - a shot to the brain cells governing linguistic comprehension and verbal skill. O'Connell takes Bruce Sterling's investigations into Dead Media several steps further. The wireless, the movie camera, the book, all become metaphors for the digital age; their timeless power overwhelming their users. O'Connell's band of dwarf radio jammers are thinly veiled computer hackers, Herzog's Erotic Palace a pornographic website gone mad. But for all the palimpsest of literary influences, O'Connell has carved his own horrendously distinct style. He does not shy from extremes and images haunt well past the moment; the flaying of Leo Tani, Speer's beating of the dwarf Olga, the creation of `Alicia's Tale' are guaranteed nightmares to which O'Connell tells me: "I wear nightmares like badges of great honor."

I live near Worcester,Mass., which borders a lake- Quinsigamond, The city also houses a Jesuit college and a railroad station, once in disrepair and the scene of crimes.And a bar named Gilrein's. Take the familiar and throw it into a brilliant twisted mix of fact and horror, and you get one angle on this work. Work your way through and you will be haunted. The nature of humanity, its inhumanity, the destructive nature of revenge. All this and more. It ain't easy- but wow.

If you can get through the first few pages of this book, (it took me three attempts to do it), you'll find much more than a well-written horror story. O'Connell shows us the darkest side of humanity, in a fictional place that could well have been the German ghettos during the late 1930's.Be warned, this book is emotionally exhausting and ultimately tells us something of the human condition that we ignore at our own peril.

The book starts off with Gilrein getting beat up. The beggining is just a bunch of things happening and you don't know why they are happening, but as the story progresses, everythings starts to relate and plot becomes like a deep hole you fall into really quick. The writing style of Jack O'Connel is very original. His words are very complex and carefully chosen. The way he describes his violence is as if it were a poem, like as if it were poetic violence. This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who has a taste for poetry and/or great mysteries.

Gilrein quit the police force when his wife, a fellow cop, died during a raid on a bomb factory. Three years later, he drives a cab in the rundown town of Quinsigamond. His fare that night turns out to be a steady customer, Leonardo Tani, a fence who dies that night courtesy of August Kroger's thugs. This gang also viciously beats up Gilrein as they seek a book allegedly possessed by Tani. Gilrein decides to investigate, especially after he connects the Tani death to the murder of his spouse. Gilrein searches his deceased wife's notebooks looking for clues that might connect Inspector Laczze and his "Methodology" to the Kroger gang. He also begins inquiries into the most dangerous areas of a dying town where death potentially awaits Gilrein at each corner. WORD OF FLESH is a weird, dark, but absolutely superb tale. The story line is filled with a dark landscape as nightmares abound under the guise of justice and crime. Gilrein is a wondrously tortured soul and the eccentric support cast augment the novel that will leave readers wanting to go Krogering. Jack O'Connell has written one of the most exciting, fantastic, but sobering tales of the year.Harriet Klausner