Book Review: "The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell" by Robert Dugoni

I'm back to reading those books that I have never heard of by authors I have never heard of. If you're struggling on what to read, then I suggest you let Amazon Kindle Unlimited do the choosing for you. Go for something you like the initial read of and run from there. You will find that even though the big corporations are, in fact, evil - this is probably the best way to discover books you would have never otherwise seen around and about. This is how I discovered this John Irving-esque novel entitled The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell - a boy born into strange circumstances with something that makes him special, but left out amongst his peers.

Part one tells us the story of his early years in the first person. He is born to a god-fearing woman and her husband. Ultimately, he is born with red eyes from a case of albinism. Samuel Hill is therefore growing up teased by classmates who nickname him "Sam Hell" and "Demon Boy". However, his mother thinks he is simply perfect, just the way god made him. She calls him 'extraordinary' and believes that his eyes are a special gift of some kind and they mean something great is to come in his life. Eventually, Sam makes friends with another child who is also different in comparison to a lot of the other children. Unlike them, he is Black. He and Sam connect instantly and it is clear they will stick up for each other no matter what.

I thought that this first part was fantastically written, you really get a flavour for the characters and their belief systems. The writer makes a point to draw us into the protagonist's sense of displacement as a means for him befriending another person like himself. It kind of reminded me of The Cider House Rules in its language use.

As he grows up, he becomes embroiled in a few lies including one about a bike accident. The author writes these formative years of Sam's education as a learning experience in which he realises that even though he is intelligent, perhaps he does not know everything. There are strange situations in which he meets his friend, Mickie Kennedy - a girl who is tough as nails and then Donna, his first girlfriend who is not all she's cracked up to be.

As we come to the centre and second half of the book, we gain insight into what led him to become the man he is in the present day. The different timelines start to converge and we have a man forced to confront his past through a childhood bicycle accident. Honestly, I loved the mirroring in this book - there are not only events that mirror each other but there are also characters that mirror each other, juxtaposed directly they create a sort of expectations vs reality situaiton for Sam. I found this to be especially true for Donna and Mickie. But also for the child and adult David Bateman.

One thing I was grappling with in the novel is the fact that the parts that were meant to move the reader didn't quite live up to their emotional climaxes. However, as we delve into the book I started to realise that this was done on purpose. Our main character is one of restraint, even in discussing having been brutally battered, he lies through his teeth to make it easier on other people. This could be the same thing he is doing to the reader. He is practicing this same restraint emotionally, in order to save us the blows of terrible situations, even when they involve people dying. It is one of the few cases where I have realised that the initial judgement of the reader may not always be correct.

All in all, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants a narrative that shifts between time and place, watches a character grow through intense difficulties and ultimately, keeps them emotionally on their toes throughout. There is something very special about the story that is being told and you don't quite realise how special it is until right at the end. The themes including those of the Bible and eyesight litter the book with intensity and make the reader feel that the man we are reading about has something really captivating to tell us.