One of Us
A hodgepodge of influences looms throughout, from the genre masters Chaon acknowledges in his dedication (Ray Bradbury, Reginald Gibbons and Peter Straub among them) to Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love and even nods to William Wordsworth and Carl Sandburg. The book’s omniscient narrator mimics the era’s hyperbolic advertising and slang, stepping in and out of characters’ heads, shuffling chronology and breaking the flow with newspaper copy and historical digressions. It works! As One of Us gleefully samples multiple registers—comic, tragic, satiric, elegiac, poetic—its mesh of archaic and contemporary styles becomes something quite arresting, a joy to read ... Chaon’s beautiful novel insists on answers. We must not look away.
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Atmosphere is crucial to his books, and it’s usually a combination of hope and page-turning dread ... His books are so gripping.
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One of Us ultimately finds its footing and delivers, although Mr. Chaon’s good taste and well-meaning sympathy sometimes threaten, paradoxically, to get in the way ... Mr. Chaon knows how to unsettle a reader ... It is puzzling that Mr. Chaon seems to pull his punches for the first third of this book ... Wet-blanket Eleanor obstinately resists every interesting plot development ...
This pays off horrifyingly in the final chapter, but along the way it’s a drag to spend time with a character who dislikes being in her own story ... Nevertheless, One of Us triumphs ... Uncle Charlie is written with exuberant gusto ... He is a compelling, bloodcurdling, often funny delight.
