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A review by jbmorgan86
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
4.0
Thanks for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review, NetGalley!
A psychiatrist (and the protagonist) in Dan Chaon's new novel, Ill Will, warns a new patient about the danger of "apophenia:" "People can find patterns in all kinds of random events . . . . It's the tendency we humans have to find meaning in disconnected information." "Sometimes," as another character puts it, "a dead bird is just a dead bird." This could also work as a nice public service announcement for the novel. Chaon creates complex characters on two different timelines, multiple perspectives, and drug-induced first person perspectives. By weaving theories about apophenia, schizophrenia, and fugue states, you are never quite sure what is going on. Chaon even goes as far to make the format of the novel seem disjointed (at one point in the novel there are three parallel columns rather than a whole page). Is there a point to all of this madness or is it a kind of illness to make sense out of it?
Ill Will is the story of two murder cases: the first takes place in the 80s. All of the adults in a family are massacred. Their adopted son, Rusty, is arrested for the murder. The second case happens thirty years later (approximately the same time Rusty is released from prison). Rusty's psychiatrist brother, Dusty, takes on a new patient who claims that a serial killer is drowning frat boys. These two cases are closely intertwined but isn't quite clear how.
It is not merely the complexity of this novel that makes it such a challenging read. The content covers just about every disturbing theme imaginable: drugs, molestation, incest, masochism, mass murder, Satanism, cancer, insanity, the death of loved ones, etc.
This novel sucked me in. However, I'm left wondering, "What was the point?" Was there a point to all of this madness or is it crazy to try to find a meaning in the chaos?
A psychiatrist (and the protagonist) in Dan Chaon's new novel, Ill Will, warns a new patient about the danger of "apophenia:" "People can find patterns in all kinds of random events . . . . It's the tendency we humans have to find meaning in disconnected information." "Sometimes," as another character puts it, "a dead bird is just a dead bird." This could also work as a nice public service announcement for the novel. Chaon creates complex characters on two different timelines, multiple perspectives, and drug-induced first person perspectives. By weaving theories about apophenia, schizophrenia, and fugue states, you are never quite sure what is going on. Chaon even goes as far to make the format of the novel seem disjointed (at one point in the novel there are three parallel columns rather than a whole page). Is there a point to all of this madness or is it a kind of illness to make sense out of it?
Ill Will is the story of two murder cases: the first takes place in the 80s. All of the adults in a family are massacred. Their adopted son, Rusty, is arrested for the murder. The second case happens thirty years later (approximately the same time Rusty is released from prison). Rusty's psychiatrist brother, Dusty, takes on a new patient who claims that a serial killer is drowning frat boys. These two cases are closely intertwined but isn't quite clear how.
It is not merely the complexity of this novel that makes it such a challenging read. The content covers just about every disturbing theme imaginable: drugs, molestation, incest, masochism, mass murder, Satanism, cancer, insanity, the death of loved ones, etc.
This novel sucked me in. However, I'm left wondering, "What was the point?" Was there a point to all of this madness or is it crazy to try to find a meaning in the chaos?