Book Review

By Derryll White

Coben, Harlan (2011). Caught.

I think this is a curious novel. It may be only because I read it in transition, leaving Canada and immersing in Sweden, but I don’t think so. It is very much concerned with perception – how the media presents things, how the media people see a story, how authority sees the same story. And of course, Coben’s story is of the people trapped within that process.

Coben is a strong writer, capturing social nuance and developing characters that the reader understands and relates to. The individual family interactions in this novel are believable, the mother-son exchanges between Wendy and Charlie are touching, and the harsh vigilante dialogue surrounding Marshal Grayson is chilling. It is the type of story I do not want to believe; don’t want to accept as possible because it terrifies me. But my intellect tells me it is possible.

The whole discussion of cyber-bullying is worthy of everyone’s attention. In the age of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and unregulated blogs this could definitely happen to you – easily. Coben is easy to read and a polished enough storyteller that you want to keep reading.

For me Coben sums it all up when he writes, “You live in this world, you collide with others. That’s the way it is. We collide and sometimes someone gets hurt.” And from that there can be repercussions. That is what ‘Caught’ chillingly investigates. This is a good read.

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Excerpts from the novel:

UNEMPLOYED – Or maybe Wendy was projecting. A group of blood-sucking, overpaid, over-important yuppies whining about the economy they’d helped destroy by feasting on it parasite-like – all while enjoying a five-dollar cup of coffee.

Well, boo-friggin’-hoo.

DENIAL – She wanted to wish problems away – that was her way. pack the bad away in a suitcase, stick it on the top shelf of some closet in the back of your mind, close the door, and plaster on a smile. Maggie’s favorite phrase, something her mom in Quebec had taught her, was “You bring your own weather to the picnic.” So both women smiled a lot. They both had smiles so great you sometimes forgot that they were meaningless.

JUSTICE – Justice needed to be done. If not by the courts, well, then it fell to men like him. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a personal price paid by those who delivered it.

You often hear that freedom isn’t free. Neither is justice.

UNEMPLOYED – A man stops being able to earn for his family – you might as well cut off his balls. Makes him feel like less of a man. That’s sad. Losing your job is an earthquake for Working Joes and Yuppie Scum alike. Maybe more so for Yuppie Scum. Society has taught them to define themselves by their job.

IMAGE – Sam was right, of course. She was a television news reporter. Anyone who thinks looks don’t matter in this industry is somewhere between naïve and brain-dead. Of course looks matter.

GRIEF – Grief weighed you down, made your limbs heavy, put glass shards in your lungs so that even breathing was agony. Everyone in the community hurts right now, but Wendy knew that would not last…. Grief is devastating, all-consuming. But grief merely visits friends, even the closest. It stays much longer, probably forever, with the family, and that was probably how it should be.

DEATH – Death made you crave life. The world is nothing but a bunch of thin lines separating what we think are extremes.

NEVER LIVED IN THE ROCKIES – The truth was, this view, like almost any view, just became a view. Visitors would be stunned by it, but when you see it every day, much as you never wanted to admit it, the extraordinary becomes commonplace.

POLITICS – Exactly. That’s the beauty of our system. It can be tweaked and twisted, but when you keep within it, right or wrong, it somehow works. When you don’t, when you loser balance even with the best of intentions, it leads to chaos and catastrophe.

CHANGE – Typical old fart, Frank had made fun of these devices, kids texting and e-mailing and walking around with earbuds, but in a sense, the device was a life. Her friends would be listed in her address book, her school schedule in the calendar, her favorite songs in some playlist, photos that made her smile.

CELEBRITY – She had her TV makeup case always at the ready, which was pretty sick when you thought about where she was headed [body hunt]. Welcome to the world of television news.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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