THE NEXUS by Mike McQuay
Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070
THE NEXUS by Mike McQuay
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
When television news reporter Denny Stiller first finds Amy Hale, the
autistic healer, he sees in her a story and a ladder to success. (I was
reminded of Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE, though the similarity does not
extend much further.) That it takes him, and most of the other characters
in the book, as long as it does to realize the extent and implications of
Amy's power is a major problem--they have (in the story) days to figure out
what the reader has only the time it takes to read a few chapters to do.
When everyone does realize the ramifications of this discovery, the novel
switches to an atmosphere very similar to Stephen King's FIRESTARTER, and
becomes increasingly less convincing. The machinations of the government,
the scheming of the television evangelist, and even the actions of the
general public never ring quite true. And the ending is, alas, totally
unbelievable. This may be McQuay's major weakness--four years ago when I
reviewed his MEMORIES I also noted a tendency toward DEUS EX MACHINA.
McQuay does use an unusual technique, though. His story is about
television newscasting (among other things) and many key scenes, including
most of those not involving the main characters, are written as television
scripts. This is a bit unnerving at first, as I found myself saying, "But
there could possibly have been television cameras present to film this."
I'm note sure whether McQuay was commenting on our propensity to accept what
we see on television as more real than what we read about, or to underscore
how artificial and staged many "impromptu" moments are, or something else
entirely.
McQuay has a lot of good observations to make, and takes his pot shots
at all the right people (in my opinion), but I never believed his plot and
this reduced THE NEXUS to a polemic rather than a fully developed novel.
%T THE NEXUS
%A Mike McQuay
%C New York
%D May 1898
%I Bantam Spectra
%O paperback, US$4.50
%G ISBN 0-553-28178-X
%P 474pp
%S Bantam Spectra Special Editions
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or e...@mtgzy.att.com