Richard Brot is an idealist. "I believe in certainty," he begins, "Something is Right, or it is Wrong." In the course of this fairly short novel, we follow him as that certainty disintegrates under pressure from his repressed sex drive, exacting a terrible toll on his mind. Christopher Fyles' first book is a dark, disturbing and moving account of the cost of setting oneself impossible standards, but also of the dangers of abandoning them. Richard, lonely, bullied, vengeful as he is, finds himself catapulted into the adult world when he is unfairly suspended from his school. Encountering the feet of clay of those around him, he can never quite fully articulate to himself why he believes what he does, if indeed he does. With the internal tension building, the threat of violence becomes ever more acute- repelled by violence though he claims he is, he can never cast it from his thoughts.
The growing doom is quite palpable, as the voice of Richard (brilliantly realized) leads us ever downward on his spiral path to self-destruction. The hubris of youth competes with the fear of adulthood, a fear that Richard might, in fact, be as unimportant, as meaningless as his persecutors. Despite the youthfulness of the main protagonist, the book's concerns are broader and deeper than teen angst- the meaning of courage, self-control, right and wrong.
Currently unpublished, "The Boy Who Ate Himself" is available online at www.bookhabit.com where it won its heat (week 7) in Round 1 of the unpublished competition. It will surely not remain without a conventional print outlet for long.
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