Lowboy by John Wray
Canongate $35
Lowboy leads us on a dark yet wondrous journey into the strange subterranean world beneath the streets of New York City - and deep inside the chaos of his own unravelling mind.
Lowboy is on the run from Skull & Bones, Quick & Painless, and his own mother. But he is also on a mission to save our overheating world, find the lost Musaquontas' River, and make contact with the mythical Dutchman.
This is a finely spun story about one of life's discards, the close relationship between love and hate, and the utter confusion of a truly "beautiful mind".
William Heller, or Lowboy as he likes to be called, is taking a vacation from his meds and the hospital he is supposed to be safely tucked up in.
He is a 16-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who likes nothing more than to ride the subway, hang out with Emily, who he once tried to murder, and ruminate about old Jacques Cousteau underwater movies, because he finds solace beneath the surface, in the cavernous depths, out of sight.
Meanwhile, his dis-traught mother seeks help from veteran detective Ali Lateef. It is Lateef's business to find the missing, a task he acknowledges rarely ends with good news.
Lateef and "Violet" strike up an uneasy companionship - he is attracted to her, and she admires his compassion. Together they set off on the seemingly futile task of recovering the quickly deteriorating William before something "bad" befalls Emily, again.
Emily and Lateef are mere pawns, however, in the real game of love that dominates this novel - albeit a platonic one between mother and son. Lowboy and his mother are overtly co-dependent, and more than happy to break whatever rules they must to protect each other. Thus, Emily and Lateef are sucked into a dangerously psychotic world neither of them is prepared for.
While Lowboy is peppered with its fair share of plotting cliches, they all dissolve in the wake of Wray's immaculate prose. The writing is powerful and intense, never skipping a beat from start to finish.
Wray has produced a rare commodity - a literary work wrapped up in the guise of a crime novel.
Steve Scott is an Auckland writer.
