The Lost by Jack Ketchum, A review
So I recently picked up a Jack Ketchum novel after about a year of leaving him alone. It wasn’t a new book by Ketchum but The Lost. I had taken a break from him after reading The Girl Next Door, which is such an intense text palate cleansing can take up to a year to complete. (I will say that The Girl Next Door is one of those rare books that leaves me with a strong impression long after reading it. I’ve added it to the list with such works as Night, Dandelion Wine, and The Good Earth.)
The Lost isn’t going to be on my list of linger texts. It was a good read with plenty of pay off, but it was a slow build. There were times when reading it that I couldn’t figure out what was going to happen next. I knew the main character/villain, Ray, was going to do something spectacularly evil, but I wasn’t sure what.
It ends up that this book is about hypocrisy. Ray is a twenty-something guy in the late sixties who hates all things that the late sixties represented (peace, love, flower power), except drugs and certain rock bands (mainly Mary Jane and The Stones). He despises hippies, but in the end, imitates the most infamous murdering band of hippies ever, the Manson family.
Ketchum also makes a point that all the main characters are seriously flawed. There’s a reason it’s titled the Lost instead of the Innocent. No one is unspotted. Almost everyone is an anti-hero or villainous protagonist. The two cops are an alcoholic who lost his family due to his work habits, and a lecherous older man who is having sex with an 18 year old. The 18-year-old, Sally, is having the relations with this older man, which is a scandalous thing to do in the late 1960’s. Most all the young characters are drug addicts or hoods in some fashion, but you feel for them.
The only innocent character is Gimp the cat. The whole time reading I knew that Ketchum was going to kill the cat. I knew it. In past works, he’s filleted humans and roasted them, hung them from trees to be dressed like a hog, and tortured young teen girls, so why not whack a cat. He didn’t. And I was glad of it.
This book lacks a few things. One is a satisfying ending. The carnage is what you expect from Ketchum, bloody, brutal, and always pushing the envelop of bad taste (a Sharon Tate type murder by Ray). At the very end, Ray get convicted of his crime, but we’re left with he’s going to get AIDS and die. For all the gore tossing at the end and beginning, and the slow suspenseful build up to Ray’s snapping, an allusion to AIDS at the end given to him during stereotypical prison rape, seems like a cop out.
The book is well written. Words are used to there maximum impact, but this one comes up just short. But The Lost was Stoker nominated for best novel, and probably should’ve been. I understand the flaws that kept it from winning big. If you like Ketchum, then read it. You won’t be that disappointed.