UBC: Barthel, A Death in Canaan

A Death In Canaan by Joan Barthel

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


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UBC: Olsen, Son

Son: A Psychopath and his Victims by Jack Olsen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


So far as anyone knows, Kevin Coe never escalated to murder, but Jack Olsen's narrative makes it clear it was only going to be a matter of time. Coe is currently incarcerated in a "Special Commitment Center"--a dreadfully Orwellian title for a facility that holds sexual predators; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's article about his attempt to sue the state of Washington makes it absolutely clear that he hasn't changed a particle since 1981 when he was first convicted; he's using the same arguments and the same language. That in itself suggests to me that he is where he belongs.

Son is an excellent book. Olsen has a sprawling story, a lot of people whose voices need to be heard, and some remarkable pieces of truth stranger than fiction, including Coe's mother in toto. Olsen doesn't rush, but there's no sense of wandering or rambling. He knows what story he's telling, and he balances it beautifully: Coe, his victims, his family and friends, the police, the city of Spokane (which is a character in this book in its own right). Olsen charts the damage done to Coe's victims but also to his friends, his girlfriend, his ex-wife; the book ends, in fact, with an oddly lovely and moving description of Jenifer Coe trying to put herself back together: "After twenty-eight months of self-imposed house arrest, she rode the bus downtown to look for work. She said she felt like Columbus sailing toward the edge of the earth" (570).



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