Customer Reviews

Strange but True

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Melissa Moody has been grieving for five years, ever since a prom night accident in Radnor, Pennsylvania, killed Ronnie Chase, the only person she has ever loved. Scarred both physically and emotionally, Melissa lives alone, unable to work. Charlene Chase, Ronnie's mother, is also devastated by the accident, which contributed to her divorce, the loss of her job, and her binge eating. Though her older son Philip is recuperating at home in Radnor after a strange accident in which he fell from a fire escape in New York, Charlene has little interest in him, herself, or anything else. Suddenly, Charlene and Philip receive a middle-of-the-night phone call from Melissa Moody, whom neither of them has seen in five years. At two a.m., she arrives, nine months pregnant, announcing to Charlene and Philip that she is carrying Ronnie's baby, though Ronnie has been dead for five years.

Alternating between the present and five years in the past, author John Searles establishes the relationship between Ronnie and Melissa, their activities on the night of the prom, and the relationship each has with his/her parents. At the same time, he reveals through specific, homely details, the hopelessness and squalor of Melissa's and Charlene's present lives--their lack of hygiene, their untidy living conditions, and their total disinterest in the present world. Melissa has taped Ronnie's photographs to the dashboard of her trash-filled car and still has her prom corsage in her freezer, while Charlene has made a shrine of Ronnie's room and refuses to let anyone enter it. Philip, the living son, is ignored, though he has been living an equally hopeless life in New York.

As Philip and his mother try to deal with the mystery of Melissa's pregnancy and her insistence that she has had no lovers, the author introduces peripheral characters--Melissa's landlords, her parents, and Charlene's ex-husband--and soon real danger threatens their lives. The symbols, omens, and portents the author inserts into the narrative (especially the crows) are obviously used to increase tension and to highlight private secrets, revelations, and bizarre plot twists. The dramatic changes made by some characters, especially Charlene, strain credulity, since they come suddenly and with little preamble, but they are necessary to resolve the Gothic plot. Some readers may be put off by the intrusive personal detail, some of which seems unnecessary, and by the amount of coincidence, but, overall, this is a good summer read--a suspenseful popular novel which builds to a blockbuster conclusion. Mary Whipple

The description of STRANGE BUT TRUE makes it sound like a supernatural novel. Five years after a young man dies, his prom date arrives at his family's house to tell his family that she is pregnant with his child. But this is a novel of the real world and the mystery is resolved through one of those major plot twists that forces one to re-evaluate everything that came before it. This plot twist is merely the largest of the loose ends that John Searles resolves and ties together to weave an interesting story well worth the read.

In addition to the excellent job of tying all the details together, Searles also succeeds in creating the appropriate feel for this book. The dead boy's presence is felt throughout the book through the pull he exerts on the living, from his parents' separation, to his brother's unresolved feelings of failure and alienation, to the pregnant girl's inability to let go of the past. STRANGE BUT TRUE is actually quite a downer at times, though the feel is put to good use.

There are a couple of weak points. Searles' writing is a touch too technical at times. Also, the events of the book take place within only a couple of days. This detracts from the book's believability as the relationships between the characters change and develop far more quickly than is realistic. This is particularly problematic as the characters themselves are fairly strong individually thereby making the artificiality of their changing relations that much more acute.

The weak points of STRANGE BUT TRUE, however, do not come close to outweighing the strong ones. Based on this book, I look forward to reading the author's previous book. I guess that is the ultimate test and it is one that Searles passes.

I'm way, way up on a biblio high. Just finished John Searles' "Strange But True" which is part mystery, part teen-age romance turned tragic, part marriage mistakes and family politics, part rite of passage, part thriller, part tragey and wrecked people, part redemption and utterly fine reading not to mention all wonderful.

Searles' earlier novel, his first, "Boy Still Missing," is a good read but this, his second, novel is entirely engrossing and that rare combination of writing + story + plot = finest kind. This book makes a great gift for just about everyone you know except, perhaps, Lutheran ministers.

One complaint only; OK, it's not really a complaint but a reality moment: the book is a bit stern (and was meant to be), although that comes naturally with the story, the telling and the language. It's not a heavy/drowning book but it is a book that examines cause and effect with a strict minuteness that is superb. Meanwhile, thank goodness for the remarkable Donnelly Fiume and his variously scaled menagerie in East Village -- they lighten and enhance the reader's load.

Addendum: poets and poetry lovers may find a special affinity for this novel. And, anyone who is an Anne Sexton fan.

"As the night passes, the starless winter sky over the small Main Line township of Radnor turns to an inky, fathomless black. The roads become empty, drained of life. Even the highway on the outskirts of town is soundless.... And when it seems that it can't get any darker or quieter, the first bits of sunlight break on the horizon. The light comes slowly at first, then more quickly. You know what's coming next, but you don't know all of it."

Somewhere in the middle of this novel lies this wonderful paragraph that subtly describes what STRANGE BUT TRUE is really about. This book defies the rules, making it a challenge to fit it neatly into a genre --- it's part mystery, part tragedy, part comedy, and part simple slice of life. Well, not simple, really. Nothing about it is simple. Nothing at all.

Ronnie Chase died the night of his senior prom. His mom has never gotten over it, allowing herself to be overtaken by a meanness of spirit that drives his father into the arms of another woman and his older brother, Philip, into a new life in Manhattan. Five years later, Philip has returned home to convalesce, unable to survive in his fourth floor walkup with a full cast on his leg. In the middle of a snowy, bitter night back in Radnor, a call comes from Ronnie's high school sweetheart, Melissa Moody, a young woman still carrying the scars of the accident that claimed her boyfriend's life. She has a shocking revelation to share, and Philip and his mom react each in their own disparate ways. What follows is a gradual unfolding of a bizarre set of circumstances and the way each of the characters deals with its effect on their lives.

Searles develops one mystery and then starts teasing you with another, building it on top of the last. He has a unique style that dishes out a hearty helping of details, giving even the most insignificant bit player a healthy dose of dimension, yet somehow does not overburden the story. He slowly --- almost infuriatingly so --- feeds the tale to the reader; infuriating only in that the writing is too good to merely skim through to get to the action. It is at once a book of high drama followed by near maddening inaction; rampant emotion followed by an almost exasperating lethargy; searing intrigue followed by a falsely soothing calm before the next storm --- a storm you know is coming. But you have no inkling of the strength of it. Woven together are several lives in a small Pennsylvania town, their interactions causing varying degrees of harm and hope. Some merely cross paths, doing a smattering of damage to one another. But no one comes out unscathed in this darkly humorous novel full of human frailties.

In my reading of STRANGE BUT TRUE, I must have popped off an "Aha" at least five times --- normally a sure five-star Amazon.com rating, and it would have this time but for the ending, which seemed to fall short of Searles's daring excellence throughout the rest of the book. It seemed just a bit too tidy after a story of such startling depth.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

John Searles has created a second successful novel. STRANGE BUT TRUE is anything but 'strange', it is mesmerizing! It is a story of lives affected by events at and following a high school graduation Prom. Ronnie Chase, girlfriend Melissa, her twin sister Tracy, and date Chaz hire a limousine to deliver them to and from the Inn where the celebration is held.

Philip Chase is living with his mother Charlene in the Pennsylvania suburbs, while recuperating from a fall off a balcony of his New York City apartment. Melissa phones Philip and Charlene then pays them a visit, first since five years past. The news she has to deliver stuns Philip and receives a venomous reaction from Charlene.

Melissa is nine months pregnant. Through visitations to a psychic and in answer to her prayers, Melissa believes the conception is Ronnie's baby. She has only had sexual intercourse one time with one person and that is Ronnie Chase on the night of the Prom. However, Ronnie died almost five years ago. He was killed in a tragic accident when the limousine crashed into a thick oak tree on the return trip taking the foursome home. The limo driver had a high level of alcohol in his system. Full of loneliness and sadness, Melissa is estranged from her parents, living in a cottage, and has received a notice to vacate because of unpaid rent. Landlords Gail and Bill Erwin appear to be happily married, even though Gail has been disappointed in a few previous marriages and Bill is an ex-policeman who was asked to leave his job.

Richard Chase, Ronnie's father, and second wife Holly live in Florida. Richard harbors a secret from the past. Charlene is an embittered ex-wife and mother grieving for her dead son. Along with Ronnie's 1979 Mercedes in the garage, Charlene keeps Ronnie's bedroom locked enshrined like a museum. Formerly a librarian, Charlene visits the town library. As she steps into the lobby, "she is overcome by one simple thing: the smell of books." Philip loves reading and writing poetry. He has always known that his brother was the favored son. He overheard a conversation in which Charlene said "? the wrong son died".

Searles delivers poetic essence in STRANGE BUT TRUE. In one instance he writes, "The wind? has died off, leaving the woods around the three small houses in a perfect hush." With intended humor, the author also writes of Charlene speaking to Philip, "?watching too much TV will make your brain rot". Searles's style of storytelling encourages readers to linger from beginning to end uniquely blending chapters with the past and the present . The author gives credence to main and sideline characters assigning each a burden of trials, tribulations, and disappointments.

STRANGE BUT TRUE is an avid reader's treasure full of astounding surprises. Personification of the cast members is uniquely filled with happiness and sadness, anger and forgiveness, loss and gain, hatred and love, good and evil, but most of all - survival.

A story that poetically embraces the emotions - puts a lump in the throat, a tug to the heart, and gives hope for the soul. Every book has a message -- STRANGE BUT TRUE speaks volumes!

Josephine Anna Kaszuba Locke

Is Melissa telling the truth? Or is she delusional? Remember the neo-realist movie with Anna Magnani claiming she had conceived immaculately and had never had sex? Melissa Moody has a new twist on that. She admits she had sex, once only, on her prom night, the way seniors are supposed to, and that's why she's pregnant. The difficulty is that her boyfriend is dead and this all happened five years ago.

She announces this to Charlene Chase, and to Charlene's surviving son Philip. Both of them are flabbergasted. How could this be true?

Underlying their disbelief is their suspicion and resentment of each other. Ever since Ronnie's tragic prom limo death, the Chase family has come asunder, the way that a violent death will sometimes fracture a whole family like a hammer blow to a glass figurine. Philip has overheard his mother complaining that "the wrong son died," and indeed Charlene resents Philip and his dreamy, poetical ways, and she hates herself for it, but she has to admit late at night, that she loved Ronnie more.

Melissa, whom they had almost forgotten about, has demons of her own! Here's one thriller that doesn't depend on high tech gimmickry, but on the sorrows of the human heart.

Boy, was this a good book. I recommend it to those of you who like John Sayles' movies for their quirkiness and their attention to detail and the lives of ordinary people in tightly knit regional communities. Searles piles nuance upon nuance like a great builder, turning the screws in a edifice of suspense. You won't be able to stop reading, and the journey there is just as terrific as the shock ending.

This is one of the best page turners I have read in a long time. It's hard to put this book down, as Searles really knows how to conclude a chapter. The characters are well-developed, their motivation believable every step of the way.

Although the book is set in the present, Searles dips into the past to reveal the events that shaped the characters as they are today. The book shows how a disaster on prom night not only altered the lives of the young lovers involved in the accident, but their families' lives as well.

You'll be guessing every step of the way. Who is the father of Melissa's baby? What happened at the prom? Why did Phillip run off to New York? Buy the book to get the answers.

Before I bought the book, I read an excerpt of Strange But True and was immediately interested. What a premise, boyfriend dead for 5 years and girlfriend turns up pregnant? Immaculate Conception?
It is such a different story from what I expected. What a wonderful surprise. The mystery/suspense angle enhanced an already powerful story about fractured lives, human relationships and how fragile we are as individuals. At one point I felt like these were my neighbors, so when Philip got into trouble, (and indeed it looked bleak for a while) I was disappointed and expecting the worse. Although I felt the end was a little hurried, I was very gratified at the outcome.

I loved John Searles first novel Boy Still Missing, and I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed with his second foray into fiction. Welcome to the unhappy world of the Chase family. The tragic death of the youngest son Ronnie five years earlier has shaken their lives to the core, but that's just the beginning of the bizarre path they are about to follow. I won't reiterate the plot, suffice to say the author keeps the reader so unsettled and engaged that it is difficult to put this one down. The characters here are beautifully drawn. It speaks to the author's talent that we come to care deeply not only about the main players, but also about the secondary characters, even though we are given only a brief glimpse into their lives. The only thing preventing me from giving this novel 5 stars was unfortunatly the ending felt somewhat rushed. That small issue aside, this is one of the best reads of 2004. 4.5 stars.

This book has an amazing emotional impact. You immediately feel great sympathy for Melissa, who is hugely pregnant. She comes to the family of her boyfriend Ronnie who passed away, claiming he is the baby's father. Problem is, Ronnie has been dead for several years.

Ronnie's bitter mother, his troubled brother, his father, Melissa, and all who surround their lives are affected by this pregnancy. Going far beyond the mystery of how dead Ronnie could have fathered a child, the revelations about everyone in this story are deep and profoundly felt. Each character is fully developed on the pages, and I felt as though they were folks that could live in your town-the type of people you meet every day. In addition to discovering the shocking truth about Melissa's pregnancy, each character discovers the truth about themselves.

This book explores the differences between anger and hate, between love and need, between perception and reality, and between forgiveness and forgetting. I was very surprised at how the story pulled me along. It was very emotional without reading like a story in a women's magazine, and the characters were memorable enough to prevent that sense of confusion you can sometimes get when reading a book with multiple characters.

Rating 4-1/2 stars, this is one that will join my list of "books I liked enough to re-read within a year".