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Hayden Reese is 50 years old and, in the course of one particularly bad day,
he meets up with death in several forms --- the death of a beloved animal,
the death of a relationship, his present, and then his past. But is his heart
really the thing that has taken the most blows, facing a spiritual death
itself? That's the question Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of PAY IT FORWARD,
poses in ELECTRIC GOD, her latest Hallmark card of a novel.
Hayden, like lots of other American men, sailed the bumpy seas of childhood
with his emotions latched away deep inside of him --- only now he finds them
pouring out at the slightest provocation and when completely inappropriate.
The journey to his heart opening is the thrust of this mid-list offering.
ELECTRIC GOD tells self-destructing Hayden's story in easy-to-follow
flashbacks. A nasty dad and a wimpy mom have left their marks on the boy who
goes to Sunday School and learns the real lessons of life --- the biblical
stories of Job and Jonah become his cautionary tales. When his brother, his
father's fave, dies in a crazy accident, Hayden decides that he could have
kept the tragedy from occurring if he had been with his brother, watching,
protecting. He later loses a son, as if in reparations for his brother's
death. Hayden isn't exactly living "the life," if you know what I mean.
The mud keeps getting thicker and thicker, and Hayden gives so much of
himself through acts of rage that he lands himself the unfortunate reputation
of jail-worthy loser. If you're familiar with the story of Job, you may find
this entertaining, but a protagonist this destructive to himself and others
is a hard fish to land. Ryan Hyde uses all her narrative powers to unleash
the cat inside this tiger but, ultimately, doesn't do so; it is hard to align
yourself with a character like Hayden who just never learns from his previous
mistakes. I know this is the point of the story but I found myself wanting to
call him a therapist or send him money so he could go live in the Himalayas
with some monks and try to find some rest and happiness.
ELECTRIC GOD is a fast read and fairly entertaining; but it is filled with
the kind of misguided pathos that will leave you a little upset and angry at
Hayden for not learning, as if he were some failed Pinocchio, how to be a
real adult.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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