I Am Legend and Mystic River

Back in college I had a friend who would reference Richard Matheson's I Am Legend whenever the topic of vampire and other horror books would come up. Through him I learned about the plot and character of the book and, since I wasn't into vampire books then, I never got around to reading it. Nine years later, I'm still not into vampire books but since I'e seen the trailer for the new I Am Legend move staring Will Smith -- something I really want to see -- I decided to pick up a copy of the book at the store.

The story itself is only 160 some odd pages -- much shorter than I thought it would be. The writing is crisp and clear and took only about two hours to read. Since Matheson was one of the early science fiction/horror pioneers it reads like something from an earlier generation. But it's still a wildly imaginative story and one that had me going all the way until the last page.

For those who don't know the general plot of the book, it centers on a character named Robert Neville who is apparently the last human on the planet. The rest of humanity has been consumed by a virus that has changed them all into vampires. Neville spends his nights inside his vampire-proof house while the undead creatures roam around his house attempting to find a way in. During the day scavenges for supplies, hunts and kills sleeping vampires, and looks for any other human survivors.

The most interesting part of the story for me was watching how Neville adapts to being the last man on earth and how he learns to cope with being alone so that he won't go insane and then what happens when sitting on the porch of an empty house he sees a beautiful young woman running through an empty field in his direction.

I'm curious to see what adaptations they'll make to the movie. The most obvious change from the promos is that the story takes place in New York instead of Los Angeles and it looks like they've spiced up the action scenes with the vampires quite a bit so it certainly looks like a very fun movie to watch.

My only request is that they have a better ending than the books. You know, one where Neville comes out on top. Those who have read the book will know what I'm talking about.

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It's rare that I read a book a second time only to enjoy it more than I did the first time around. This week I picked up Mystic River after not having read it in about four years. (It was the best book I read back in 2003.) Part of the reason it took me so long to pick it up again was that I thought the Clint Eastwood movie version of the book was plain awful. I thought that the screenwriter and Eastwood failed to capture the relationship that the three main characters -- Jimmy Marcus, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle -- had as kids and how that affected their actions 20 years later. Thankfully instead of watching Eastwood inept adaptation, I can always return to the novel and get that experience again.

Dennis Lehane is a good writer. I'm three books into his Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro detective book and have liked what I've read so far. However, I think Mystic River beats the pants off the other books I've read so far because the characters are so much more real and compelling.

Jimmy Marcus is an ex-convict who's spent the last 15 years trying live within the law. Then his daughter, Katie, is murdered the night before her sister's first communion and his world that he's built up so carefully suddenly falls apart and he finds himself being torn between building it up again or going down the wrong side of the tracks again.

Sean Devine is a homicide detective for the state police and Katie's murder happens to land on his desk. Despite a decent upbringing and being a top-notch cop, His life is in shambles. His wife had and affair and left him but still calls on occasion even though she says nothing to him when he answers. He feels the weight of the world on his shoulders and all he really wants is his wife to come home.

And then there's Dave Boyle who's just a shell of a human being after being abducted by child molesters right in front of Jimmy and Sean when they were kids. He's married and manages to eek out a decent life for himself and his family until he comes home one night unexpectedly with blood all over his clothes and the rage and anger of what happened to him all those years ago is finally boiling to the surface.

Mystic River isn't a make your day brighter book. The neighborhoods and general atmosphere of the book isn't pretty. Everyone and everything in the book seems to have the crapped kicked out of them at one point or another. But therein lies what makes Mystic River such a good read is that it's really a story about how characters react to the different tragedies that shape their lives. Some make good decisions, other bad ones but all the characters have things we like about them and things we don't. The're very human, very believable, and very compelling -- even more so the second time around.

Add those characters to a sad but intriguing plot and you have one heck of a book.

News Article on Room for Two

An article about Room for Two appeared in The Signpost, the paper of Weber State University, today. I've pasted the text of the article below. However, if you read it on the The Signpost website, you can see a photo of my late wife -- something I've never posted before. WSU alumnus writes about spouse's suicide in new novel, 'Room for Two'

by Seth Durfee

"Young pregnant wife commits suicide," that's a headline, which never ran - although it happened to author Abel Keogh's wife. Krista killed herself in November 2001.

"There's a taboo about suicide," said Keogh, who decided to help break that taboo by writing "Room for Two", a novel about his late wife's suicide.

Keogh, a Weber State University alumni, released his book August 2007. The book gives a straightforward look at his experience with his wife Krista, also a Weber State University graduate, who suffered from depression. She committed suicide at age 25 when she was seven months pregnant with their first child.

Keogh, who has since remarried and is the father of three children.

"After my late wife Krista's death," Keogh said, while holding two squirming sons on his lap in the living room of his Utah County home. "I tried to find on the Internet even one example of another pregnant woman committing suicide. I couldn't."

Keogh said a local newspaper ran an ongoing story about his wife's death for a day or two, but as soon as the paper realized was a suicide, all coverage stopped.

"You're not supposed to talk about it," he said.

The book relates the events following Krista's suicide. Keogh stressed the fact that he did not write the book to say, "I got through it and so can you." He wrote it to try and chip away at the taboo surrounding suicide. "People should know that it's OK to talk about," Keogh said.

He made almost daily entries on a blog after his wife's death.

"Ninety percent of what you find in the book is not in the blog and, in my opinion, the real meat of the story."

Keogh's motivation for writing the book is very personal.

"I didn't feel like there was a story out there that was really helpful to me." He said he wanted to write the book that he would have pulled off the shelf after his wife died.

"I've gotten a few e-mails from people who haven't necessarily had a suicide in their life, and they say how much it's helped them," Keogh said. At the time he recognized there was a problem but he didn't know what to do.

"Looking back I can see that there are things that weren't right. If she hadn't been pregnant I would have asked 'What's wrong with you,'" Keogh said.

For those who don't know what to do, Diane George, a licensed clinical social worker at the McKay-Dee Behavioral Health Institute in Ogden has some insights.

"Signs of depression can be Anhedonia, or a lack of interest from activities that normally provide pleasure, lack of appetite, weight gain or weight loss," George said. "People suffering from depression can also become isolated from friends and family or have a lack of concentration."

George said if an individual is experiencing these types of changes or feelings, talking to someone who will listen is a good course of action.

"Take a stress inventory," George said, "Reevaluate your status. Decide if the depression is situational or biological"

George said those who commit suicide often feel hopeless and alone.

Rebekah Clements, long-time friend of both Keogh and Krista, said she is still trying to cope with the guilt that came following the unexpected suicide.

"Krista's story was even more difficult to talk about because she was pregnant," Clements said. "There wasn't a support group for something like that. We really were alone." Clements said that it was very difficult when Keogh gave her one of the first copies of the manuscript. "There had been five years from the suicide to when I read it. It opened up a lot of memories that I've tried to forget," she said.

There isn't anything you can say about a situation like that, explained Clements, but maybe this is the only chance to bring a silver lining to the whole story. "I hope Krista would think two things about the book: that she would be proud of Abel for writing it and that the book will help people," Clements said.

"If I can help even one person feel like they aren't alone with something like what I went through," Keogh said, "then I did what I wanted to do."

Quick Update

I apologize for the dearth of updates. I've been using a lot of my free time writing my second book or working on some promotional efforts for Room for Two -- many of which should be bearing fruit over the next month. Stay tuned.

Book Review: Want to Marry A Good Man? Here's How!

By far the most common subject that fills my email box is from women who are dating widowers who, for one reason or another, refuse to give the girlfriend the love and affection she wants or are reluctant to commit to a more serious relationship.

It's usually assumed that the reason for his lack of commitment or affection is because the man is a widower and still grieving over the late wife. While that may be the case for one out of 20 emails, for the most part the widower is simply using his late wife death as an excuse to behave badly or their seemingly unwillingness to appreciate, value, and love these women. In reality, it doesn't matter how long the wife's been dead, if the widower truly loves another woman, he won't let anything hold him back from moving the relationship forward and treating the woman like she wants (and deserves) to be treated.

While my advice to these women is usually to end relationships that aren't going anywhere, it's been frustrating not having a good resource that I can recommend that can them identify relationships that aren't going anywhere or may be abusive before they become too emotionally involved with that person.

Fortunately, there's now a book that does just that.

Want to Marry A Good Man? Here's How! by Alisa Goodwin Snell is a complete guide to having the confidence to find a good man while being able to identify potentially abusive and how to know if a relationship is going anywhere within the first few weeks of dating someone.

(Full disclosure: I had Snell, a licensed marriage and family therapist, on my former radio show several times and read and provided feedback on early drafts of the book.)

Snell does an excellent job of identifying warning sings to watch for when you date someone and provides some good timelines to avoid rushing into a bad relationship. She also provides some excellent tips for flirting, acting confident when out on a date -- even if you're feeling insecure -- and making the man work for your love and the relationship instead of just giving it to him. Snell also provides great insight to the male mind and nails what men value in a relationship -- something a lot of women don't seem to know or act on.

Part of the reason I liked this book so much was because I thought a lot about my relationship with Marathon Girl while I was reading it -- especially the things that she did right that helped our relationship move forward. For example, after Marathon Girl decided she was willing to date a widower, she knew the importance of making me work for her love and prove to her that I was willing to form a new relationship with her instead of letting my love for the late wife hold me back. (For those who have read my book, contrast Marathon Girl's behavior with the girl I dated who basically threw herself at me.)

This book was also revelatory to me as it showed the commonality between Marathon Girl and my late wife and why I fell head over heels for her. (This will all be detailed in my next blog post.)

Want to Marry A Good Man doesn't contain the trite advice you'll find in most relationship books. Snell knows what she's talking about. As a guy I can tell you she knows what men like in women and how they think. Using this book as a guide can get women past the losers and jerks and on the right course to finding someone that will truly love them.

I highly recommend Want to Marry A Good Man not only to women who are dating widowers but any single women who are looking for a good man to have a lasting, long term relationship with (read: marriage).

This book was just released last month and, like my book, is still making its way to bookstores. Your best bet for purchasing a copy is via Amazon or other online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble though you can probably walk into any bookstore and ask them to order one.

A Review of Room for Two

A review of my book, Room for Two, recently appeared in Meridian Magazine. My only comment on the review is that the reviewer seems to think the book somewhat fictionalized (the review appears in a column that reviews four other works of fiction). I'd like to state that the book is non-fiction and is based on my memory and journals of the time. The only things that were changed, as stated before the first chapter, were the names of some of the characters.  Here's the review in its entirety:

Room for Two is a look back by Abel Keogh to a tragic time in his life. Therefore it isn't entirely fictional, but is a somewhat autobiographical account written in a fictionalized form.

This is the story of a young man coming to terms with grief, guilt, anger, and profound loss. He steps into his apartment one day, calls out to his pregnant wife, and hears a gun shot. He's left to wonder why she killed herself and ultimately their unborn child. He also has to deal with the knowledge that he'd been prompted three times that day to do something other than what he'd done and in each case, following that prompting might have saved his wife's life.

The blood and horror of the situation leave him too shocked to apply the CPR that might have given their child a better chance of survival, and he has to live with that failure too. With Abel, the reader feels the anger and betrayal of a senseless death, the loneliness of the loss of a beloved companion, and the emptiness of a dream given no chance to live.

Through the year following the tragic death, Abel mourns, but he also reaches out for someone to understand and love. His search isn't always wise -- it's even selfish at times -- but he relentlessly pursues a course centered on getting on with his life that leads him to several kinds of relationships, the ability to forgive, and greater sensitivity toward others.

There's a strong thread dealing with running that weaves through the book. This thread is the means of providing insights, but is interesting in its own right as Abel moves from running as the means of losing weight to keeping pace with a dedicated marathon runner. Some of Abel's treatment of the women he dates is rather cavalier, and he's a little too casual about physical contact with them, but overall the book is interesting and well-written. It also has a good grasp of the various stages of grieving. The theme sounds dreary, but I think most readers will find the story, with its relentless drive to move forward, uplifting and a source of hope.

Echo Park by Michael Connelly

(This post is for TheFlyingRat and Nixtress)

Is there a better writer than Michael Connelly alive today? Maybe one or two, but not many, that’s for sure.

I just finished Echo Park and once again I'm blown away by Connelly ability not only to tell a story but to add depth and to his characters that make them not only believable put people that you care about.

In Echo Park we find homicide detective Harry Bosch haunted by the murder of Marie Gesto -- a case he was unable to solve for the last 13 years ago. Out of the blue Bosch learns a serial killer is willing to confess to her murder and many others in order to avoid the death penalty.

For Bosch, now part of the Open-Unsolved Unit, his job is his life. He has a passion for it that others he works with simply don't have. Bringing killers to justice and giving family members some sense of closure is what he lives for. He's revisited this case many times over the and still stays in contact with Marie's parents to give them occasional updates.

Because Connelly does a marvelous job with his characters, we understand why Bosch acts the way he does in pursuit of the truth even if we don't agree with them or they comes across as reckless and dangerous. We also feel Bosch's agony when he learns he may have missed a clue many years ago that could have solved the crime and prevented other deaths and how that spurs him to do everything in his power to bring the murderer to justice -- even if it means losing a woman he loves.

Connelly does an excellent job with the serial killer character and showing us the man's distain for others. I'm also glad Connelly doesn't follow the Hannibal Lecter route when it comes to his serial killers. He doesn't have to stoop to the level of showing gross acts of torture or sadism. We see his callus regard for life through the serial killer's interaction with Bosch and others and through police reports. The few moments where we see the true dark side of the killer are done perfectly to horrify and illustrate just how far to the dark side he's gone, not simply to gross out the readers. But, like most of Connelly's villains, we're also able to sympathize with him just a little when we learn what may have led him down his dark path of destruction.

The plot is full of twists and turns that are real and don't feel contrived. The writing, like most of Connelly's work, is clear and crisp perfectly detailed so you feel like you're right behind Bosch as he pursues the truth.

A final good think about Connelly's books is that you don't have to read previous Bosch novels to understand his character or the story. If you haven't read any Connelly before, this book is a good one to introduce yourself to a wonderful writer and a thrilling story.

Four stars (out of four) for the thrilling and page-turning Echo Park.

A Train to Potevka

Americans love spy stories. From James Bond to Jason Bourne, we enjoy watching and reading about them escaping with their lives with a beautiful woman at their side. Real spy work, however, isn't quite as wild as the movies or works of fiction would portray. Even though real spy work isn't glamorous as many of us believe, that doesn't mean it's boring. A Train to Potevka is a story about a real spy during the cold war. The story takes place as the Soviet Union is beginning to crumble. The author, Mike Ramsdell, is on an undercover mission in Siberia to extract a Russian criminal. Posed as a German oil investor, his cover gets blown and he's forced to flee to a safe house in the small city of Potevka -- a slow, long train ride from his current location.

During his train ride and subsequent stay in Potevka we are treated to flashbacks of Ramsdell's life from growing up in Bear River, Utah to his training to become a spy. Ramsdell's flashbacks are somewhat reminiscent of flashbacks from the television series Lost. And like Lost they serve as a useful way to get to know Ramsdell better. Each memory is specifically linked to the inner change that Ramsdell is slowly experiencing.

Though there are some harrowing and exciting moments, the real story in this book is the author's inner transformation during his stay in Potevka and decisions he makes at the end of the book. The person we meet at the beginning of the book and the one at the end are two different people. This is rarely something we see in fictional spies such as James Bond who tends to have the same persona and character no matter what happens to him.

Intermingled with Ramsdell's memories and adventures is a surprise love story that not only has a happy ending but helps show just what a powerful transformation Ramsdell experienced during that train ride to and short stay in Potevka.

A Train to Potevka has no fancy gadgets, car chases, or explosions ala James Bond. But it does contain a page-turning, character-driven story that is powerful and memorable. It's a great, fast read and a must for those who want to see what the life of a spy is really entails.