Where there is love of power, there is no love.’ I’m mangling it, but that’s the essence of it. “I think it was Jung who said something like, ‘Where there is love, power is but a shadow. “That line you quoted is the essence of it,” says Koontz. But when the ruling class is not responsible any more, she discovers that there’s nowhere to hide from that.” There’s a line in the book: “The world is ruled by arrogant narcissists who have exchanged their souls for the promise of power.” This woman, society has failed her and she has felt that perhaps she can have refuge isolation. This one, he says, “didn’t come out of wanting to write a scary book, it came out of frustration with the ruling class of America for the last 30 years. Koontz, who published his last novel six months ago and has his next after this one out in July, must have ideas circling his head all the time, like planes over Dublin Airport. I used to say, jokingly, that Henry James published 126 books in his lifetime, and I hope to outdo him.” I would tell you precisely how prolific he is, except he isn’t too sure himself: he “stopped counting the number quite a few years ago. His best-known books are titles such as Demon Seed (1973), Odd Thomas (2003) and his first best-seller, Whispers (1980). “I had to literally threaten to leave publishers early on if they wouldn’t stop putting the word ‘horror’ on my books.” But he is mostly associated with suspense thrillers that have a supernatural or otherworldly edge. One such writer is the American novelist Dean Koontz, who at the age of 77 has been publishing novels for more than half a century in, he says, “almost every genre, except I think the western”.
They write in the sort of genres – horror, fantasy, romance – that get sectioned off in bookshops and enjoy little mainstream books coverage. In the books pages of The Irish Times and other newspapers, you will read about writers whose novels and story collections are well-reviewed, are nominated for prizes and feature in arts festivals – and most of which sell moderately at best.īut above this world, or below it – let’s just say outside it – is a universe of writers who have been plugging away for decades, often with much greater commercial success than literary novelists.
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