Book 44 of my 2012 Goal

One Rode in by Albert Zayat
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

One Rode In was one of the most difficult books I have read yet. I don't even know how to review it since I really didn't understand it. There was so much psychological and mystical stuff going on that one thing I can say is it is not boring but that seems to be my problem, for me there was too much going on. Don't get me wrong, I understand the story as a whole, it is about Cal, a writer who goes to a town called Fate to write about a bar shooting that took place about 14 years ago that somehow missed the headlines back then. Cal was lucky enough to unearth it and he really needed to do a great story to save his job as a writer. In fact, I really enjoyed the part where he is at the bar and discovering the life of Malcolm but I don't get all the 'weirdness' of the story. By this I mean the mystical things and brother thunder and sister lightning, the three brothers, the watch going backwards, Master and Mother, Bobbles, the Dr. on the radio, and all this was in the beginning including more, never mind the pages after pages of the rest of it. I sat reading for hours and put the book down just to ask myself "what did I just read?" Now this does not mean the author, Albert Zayat, was a bad writer, on the contrary, he is excellent but what it means is I am not into this deep of a psychological thriller. I am more of the kind of person that enjoys reading before bed and I do it to relax not to lose sleep trying to figure out what just happened or what it was that I just read for the past few hours.

The author has a style all his own and his descriptions and use of words were excellent but at times that was the 'fault' in the story. After reading page after page of description of something which really was a great description but it had nothing to do with the progression of the story and just seemed to add to my confusion and frustration. But then again, maybe this is the psychological part that I obviously and freely admit that I didn't understand and by not understanding this book I can't honestly give a good review. My review is suppose to be my personal experience with the story and as I said I got the plot but missed the whole jest of it so I am just giving a neutral rating. Understand though this doesn't mean the book is no good or the author should stick to writing directions on milk cartons, it means it was not the kind of book I enjoy reading or understand. I think the imagination of the author is outstanding and I would even go as far as to bet someone who really is into this psychological and mystical stuff would enjoy this book immensely and the author's unique style of writing.

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