The Book: Horace Afoot by Fredrick Reuss
The Story: Horace is kind of this quiet, weird guy obsessed with philosophers and hating cars. He lives in a smallish town where everyone kind of just regards him as an eccentric. He makes random phone calls to ask strangers what they think love is. He’s pretty separated from “normal” life.
On one of his long walks, he hears some gunshots and then sees a naked, bound woman stumble out of a cornfield. He helps her get untied and promptly becomes a suspect in a murder. The woman is a Jane Doe and there is no sign that anyone else was around. As Horace tries to figure out who she is and who else was in the cornfield that day, he makes friends and enemies in town. His house is vandalized and he realizes that someone is coming after him. He finds out that his Jane Doe isn’t the innocent little woman she appeared to be at first and his world kind of comes unglued.
What I Thought: This is one of those books that I think was kind of over my head. Not all of it, of course, I got the whole “murder mystery” bit and really enjoyed it, but if I’m being honest a lot of the philosophy stuff was lost on me. I think that I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it with a book club and got to talk it out.
The story itself was engaging and I was really intrigued. I thought that Horace was a unique and interesting character. So often the “town eccentric” is just this same guy: an old guy who lives off by himself and grows his own food and reads too much and… well… you know… has a coat made out of human skin or something. Horace is a young, rich, good looking guy… he just happens to be underwhelmed by cars and overwhelmed by philosophy. I love that the biggest part of this story revolves around Horace kind of finding himself and figuring out who is. Again, the “who am I” storyline has been done over and over, but this was different and refreshing. I loved it.
I thought that the plot unfolded in a slow, lazy way. There were 5 pages of character development for every 1 page of plot, but I’m not complaining. I fell in love with the characters and really enjoyed digging into their lives. It’s thought-provoking and unique.
Conclusion: This is a great book to cuddle up with under a blanket on a cold, lazy snow day.