Rarity from the Hollow

The author sent me a copy of his novel to read and review:

To say the least, this novel was different. Knowing that Robert Eggleton is a spokesperson for impoverished children that have suffered physical and sexual abuse, I wasn’t sure how to interpret his story. In numerous ways, he exposed child and spousal abuse, yet he seemed to spend a lot of pages on ostensible pedophile innuendos between an eleven (thirteen by the end of the story) year old girl and a mature android, who was becoming more human as the novel progressed. And the kicker is that the novel was funny. Go figure. The author makes it very clear that his novel is not for YA readers, yet how do you keep it out of their hands. He says his work is out of the Social science fiction genre originated by Ursula K. Le Guin in the 1970s (read The Left Hand of Darkness, published in 1969). Eggleton’s novel was an thought-provoking read with some semi-minor flaws, which I will get to in my last paragraph.

Lacy Dawn is a impoverished and abused fifth grader living in West Virginia. Her father suffers from a psychological problem and tends to beat Lacy and her mother, Jenny, with a switch (branch). Lacy Dawn talks to the trees in the forest as well as her dead best friend, Faith. I was never sure if she was having real conversations, or make-believing. Anyway she floats above the ground (again, real or not?) most days to get learned (now I sound like a hick) by an android that she has been visiting since she was six years old. His name is DotCom, a.k.a. Bucky or Buddy, who has had a spaceship hidden in a cave for several thousand years. She apparently has a port (in her back?) that gets attached to a monitor that teaches her more than she can learn in school. DotCom promises to fix her parents and instructs her to have her dog, Brownie, dig a ditch to the house as Lacy Dawn lays a cable. The cable gets attached to her parents and cures them of their unhappy life. Has DotCom been tweaking Lacy Dawn’s genetic history for thousands of years in order to ready her for a mission to save the universe? Yes.

Lacy Dawn’s father, Dwayne, gets a good job from his "pot" growing neighbor Tom. Dwayne and his family start to thrive. DotCom suddenly leaves for a year. He finally comes back only to be discovered by Lacy Dawn’s mom, Jenny. Now two people know about the android. DotCom takes Lacy Dawn and her mom to his home planet, Shptiludrp (shop till you drop), which is a monstrous mall, managed by a Mr. Prump, who is the most powerful being in the universe. Jenny gets her bad teeth fixed and returns to Earth where Dwayne falls back-in love with his wife. Now all three go to Dotcom’s planet to find out what Lacy Dawn’s mission will be. They don’t find out but impress Mr. Prump by setting the record for their shopping skills. They are now celebrities on Shptiludrp and are hounded by autograph seekers. Is this a crazy story, or what? The ensuing chapters tell the rest of this somewhat convoluted tale. You will have to buy your own copy of this novel to find out how it ends (you have no chance guessing the ending).

Now for the flaws. First of all, The reader had to wade through too many chapters of boring shopping sprees before finding out what Lacy Dawn’s “universe saving” mission was. Second of all, there was way too much prose involving DotCom’s erections and Lacy Dawn’s panties. These two foibles stopped me from giving this novel a five star rating. Did I think the novel was intriguing? Yes, I did. But I’m not completely sold on the novel’s genre. However, I do recommend reading this marginally avant-garde novel.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Obviously, Eggleton’s novel is the first in a series, since at the book’s end he states, “The end of this Adventure.” Doesn’t any new writer pen a singleton anymore? Almost all the books that I receive are...To be continued. There is nothing wrong with that, but the next great American novel will not come out of any serial story. Is there any accomplished reader out there that can rate the top five books of all time? Well there is thegreatestbooks.org who think they can. Here are their top five:

1. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust’s seven-part cycle, was published in 1913.
2. Ulysses, by James Joyce. Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904.
3. Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry.
4. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. First published in 1851, Melville’s masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwick’s words, “The greatest novel in American literature.”
5. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601.

That is a powerful top five, debatable of course, but what about numbers six through ten? Ah, they will be listed in the comment section of my next review.