Title: Happiest One!
Author: D.C. Koh
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-52458-010-0
Pages: 262
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
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Author D.C. Koh has reached back into the past to create a novel that seems newer and fresher than most of what’s found in digital or brick-and-mortar bookstores today. Depicting Cincinnati and Maryland in the mid 1930’s, this one-of-a-kind tale is alive with energy—not only in the story it tells but also in the way it is told, plus the marvelous characters it brings to life.
Koh has chosen to spin this yarn through the mouths and minds of the people on the pages. From chapter to chapter, readers get a different point of view depending upon who is speaking. And speak they do—each with a unique voice and attitude that breathes flesh and blood into the narrative. Purists, unable to cope with anything less than disciplined spelling and grammar, may find Koh’s stylistic approach off-putting. But the adventuresome reader will immediately grasp, enjoy, and appreciate the scope of each character’s understanding and the “sound” of how each character speaks.
The plot is simple, yet involving. An Italian immigrant has trouble with a rowdy Irishman in a bar. Later the Irishman winds up dead in the Italian’s apartment. The immigrant, convinced the authorities will never believe his version of the events that unfolded, flees the city. He winds up at a boarding house in a small town, where his personality, his innate honesty, and his all-consuming life force effects everyone who comes in contact with him. Eventually, his past begins to catch up with him, but will it be in time to match what his future has in store?
The players in this drama spring from each page in imminently believable form. Felix is the Italian, strong, straight, optimistic, yet realistic. Mike is his brother, troubled, lost, doomed. Redhead Red is a woman of questionable morals but unquestioned loyalty. Roberto is a sly Cuban as stealthy as he is smart. Hargrove and Levi are young black boys as talented as they are mischievous. Henrietta takes in boarders but can’t seem to take in change. Plus there are many more, as interesting as their handles, Big Frankie, Lulu, John Law, and Joe Doakes, just to name a few.
Koh’s is a book filled with all that we encounter in life—comedy and tragedy, exultation and desolation, love, lust, friendship, prejudice, betrayal, despair, and hope. Just as in life, there is a measure of sadness, but fortunately for readers, it can be overcome and looked back on fondly when remembering time well spent with Happiest One!
