Thursday, May 28, 2009

Book: Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz

Your Heart Belongs to Me: A Novel
by Dean Koontz

I've read several books by Dean Koontz but I cannot say I am a really big fan of his work.

His books that I've read have been fast paced and interesting and surprising and suspenseful and most all the things I like. But I guess they are just a little too weird for me.

But I hadn't read one of his in a while and I was needing some new stuff and this one was available for my Kindle and I clicked the button and there it was.

I read the first couple of chapters a while back and they didn't seem very "koontz-like and they didn't interest me terribly much either. So I got busy with something else and read several other titles.

But over Memorial Day weekend I decided I needed to catch up and finish reading several of my underway titles and this one was included. I can't say I was terribly happy about reading it for quite a while but I persevered through the end.

The story is about this rich "dotcom" guy that is in love with this wonderful girl who also loves him but rejects his marriage proposal. Then it turns out the rich guy needs a heart transplant. His girlfriend begs him to just let the process unfold naturally without trying to manage everything himself. He, of course, says he will but later cannot resist his need to control everything and changes doctors.

Soon afterwards he is flown out of country on his own jet with accompanying surgeon and staff to receive the heart that has conveniently beome available.

But in doing so he loses his girlfriend who finds out he couldn't keep from micromanaging.

And at this point in the book I thought ot myself that it was a good thing he had involved himself because otherwise it wasn't looking so good to actually get a heart.

There's a place in the book where this lady private ey tells the rich guy that the roots of violence are lust, envy, anger, avarice, and vengenance. At the time I thought it was about someone that was trying to do the rich guy in and he did, too.

It seems that he is having all these strange things happen not the least of which is this woman he keeps seeing from time to time. He has the private investigators find out who donated his heart and the woman is a spitting image of the donor.

I'm giving the ending away now -- so if you don't want to know what happens -- stop here.



Turns out the woman is the sister of the donor. The donor wasn't a volunteer either. And that new doctor wasn't exactly a great humanitarian since he basically bought the heart.

So it turns out that the rich guy's micromanaging of his situation set in motion a string of events that claimed an innocent life.

At the time I finished the book I still didn't much care for the book.

But in the few days since I finished I've been thinking about it and I've changed my mind. I really like this story now.

I like the lesson of this story and find a good deal of truth in it.

I'm one of those who has often succumbed to the temptation to try to control things myself. For one thing I hate to lose and for another I hate to give up. So I go all out usually.

Sometimes my zealousness has produced a variety and a number of unintended consequences that were apparent.

I wonde what the ones were that were not so obvious.

A very thought provoking book from Mr. Koontz.

3 comments:

Staci said...

I'm not a big fan of Koontz either - I think that sometimes his writing is "predictable", i.e. it's too easy to figure out who the villain is.

dave said...

I have always appreciated short book reviews from people I trust. I have avoided a batch of bad books, and found some treasures.
Thanks Terry.

~Betsy said...

It's a sign of a good novel when the reader continues to think about the story for a few days after. I'm not a big Koontz fan, but kudos to him for holding your interest!