The Book of Lost Souls

The Book of Lost Souls is a dark romantic comedy. Most romantic comedies are rather lighthearted and wouldn't offend anyone between the ages of fifteen and ninety, but the Book of Lost Souls could offend many of the moralists who seem to be quite prevalent nowadays. These people—let me call them the choir—can be very vocal and tend to insist that the good be rewarded and that those who transgress certain boundaries should be punished. Particularly offensive to the choir is the use of drugs especially when there is the slightest hint that the author may be advocating the use of drugs.

Here, in The Book of Lost Souls, we have an interesting artistic and psychological battle between alcohol, barbiturates, and cocaine—with a little bit of prostitution thrown in to spice things up. Which drug will gain the approval of the author and reign supreme at the end of this charming farce? Will, Jenna, who has recently become discreetly enamored of Rainbows—barbiturates—finally marry the man of her dreams? Or will Damon, who is addicted to cocaine and prostitutes, manage to hide his unsavory habits from Jenna as he makes a desperate attempt to marry a woman who is the daughter of a multimillionaire? Or will Jenna's father, the drunken old buzzard, be able to successfully intervene before his daughter is ensnared by all the vile habits of Damon?

Contrary to what a superficial reading of this book might tell you, the author sneaks around behind the scenes and delivers an ending that probably no one could have foreseen. Unfortunately, the choir will have long since fled the scene and will, in their outrage, feel compelled to leave an irascible review or two about how the author is trying to corrupt the young and seduce everybody else in his relentless pursuit of fame, glory, and a thirty-five cent royalty, but the careful reader will eventually stumble onto an amazing fact: This weirdly comical book was ghost written by an avant-garde member of the choir.

Originally, The Book of Lost Souls began as a murder mystery, but I eventually ran into an obvious problem: Who was going to be the victim? Among my characters, no one seemed like a likely victim, and I couldn't come close to coming up with a realistic suspect. I tried my best, but I must admit that I failed. Looking back on it, I think I felt all murdered out—being a relatively peaceful person, it can be a little depressing to pull the trigger on one of my characters just so I can collect my bloody royalty. It's not that I'm a complete fool because I do realize that dead bodies are, for the aspiring author, the ticket to success. Because of that, I've probably murdered at least twenty people in my many murder mysteries, but I guess my subconscious felt like taking a break from all the vicarious violence that goes with dead bodies.

What remained was a novel that is both half serious and half ludicrous. But please remember that The Book of Lost Souls was originally intended to be a murder mystery, so the humor isn't really rampant or overpowering at the beginning of this novel. But eventually, this novel descends into a bizarre comedy where bad intentions and massive overindulgence are transformed into something that could almost pass for nobility.