3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Hiram McDowell is the eponymous main character of William H. Coles’s McDowell. In the very first few pages of the prologue, readers meet a rather unlikeable Hiram as he summits Mt. Everest. Coles uses shifting perspectives to allow readers a glimpse into the feelings of both McDowell and his acquaintances as he faces the trials of his journey.
When I first opened this book, I had very little intention of continuing because of how distasteful I found Hiram McDowell as a character. His self-centeredness and narcissism made him a character that was easy to despise. Much to the author’s credit, however, I found myself wondering about McDowell and the other characters. Coles engaged my attention so well that I was drawn back to the book and later found it difficult to put down.
One of the things that I really enjoyed watching was how McDowell’s actions led first to his downfall and then to his redemption as a character. Not only does his character show growth, but a couple of the other characters also demonstrated growth, despite their own flaws. Coles’s characters had complexity and showed his mastery of character development.
While I enjoyed this book, there were a few things that I thought could be better. I found that while Coles allowed several of his female characters to have some interesting freedoms from typical social constructs, such as a lesbian character and a world-traveling journalist, he did himself a disservice by attempting to re-contain these characters into traditional models of femininity before the end of the novel. Where these characters ended seemed inconsistent with their portrayal earlier in the novel.
My other issue with the novel involved the way Coles tended used the same turn of phrase repeatedly throughout the novel. For example, no character simply wears glasses. If a character wears glasses, he or she wears a pair of myopic glasses. Discounting my disagreement about the usage of myopic, I find it frustrating that the author did not utilize other ways to describe the glasses. Sadly, this is only one example of the type of repetition we see in this book.
In the end, I award McDowell 3 out of 4 stars. By providing readers with a set of flawed characters that show growth through the events of the novel, Coles gives fans of literary fiction an engaging coming-of-age story. As mentioned above, I feel there are a few areas where this novel misses the mark, causing the loss of a star. I recommend this book to readers willing to persevere through a couple of chapters with a difficult character to discover something deep and engaging.
******
McDowell
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Like Kendra M Parker's review? Post a comment saying so!
