The thriller genre is one that I find much more palatable when it is framed by the lens of a camera. I've never read John Grisham, but I've watched and enjoyed most of the cinematic adaptations of his novels. But if you're one who enjoys being pulled to the edge of your chair (or bed) by a novel, "The Keep" by Jennifer Egan has all the makings of a thriller.
There are dark secrets in the pasts of Danny and the narrator, Ray, a prison inmate. Mystery permeates the surroundings, and most of the action takes place against the backdrop of a very spooky castle, vaguely situated somewhere in Europe. Egan keeps the suspense high throughout the novel and complicates the simplicity of the thriller with the prison life of the narrator and his unknown connection to the Keep.
The presence of a castle never fails to lend a certain aspect of the fantastic to a story. The reason Danny is there is not entirely clear, however, even to him. He is contacted by his extremely successful cousin, Howard née Howie, who he has not seen in years and on whom Danny played a cruel, injurious, and childish prank years ago. An unspoken memory between them, Danny's fear of his cousin's need for vengeance leads his mind to play tricks on him and enfolds the reader into what might be a complex orchestration of retribution or a figment of imagination.
The mind games take on another level when it is revealed that Danny seems to be a figment of Ray's imagination. The story that unfolds at the Keep is the one he is writing for a creative writing program inside prison. The levels of reality are further stratified by this added presence of Ray as the creator of the Danny, Howard, castle saga. It becomes increasingly difficult to discern what is fact and what is fiction.
Danny will resonate with the modern reader. He is incapable of unplugging. He insists on lugging a satellite phone to the recluse refuge of the Keep. The only reason he considered disconnecting from his heady world of hipster New York is because of a recent scuffle with some nasty characters. The loss of his phone and ultimate disconnect from cyberspace prove to be more than Danny can bear and only intensify his paranoia.
Danny and Ray are the most developed characters in Egan's novel. Howard never really takes a tangible shape and the supporting cast of characters struggles to make itself distinct (though Ray's cell mate is memorable in his possession of a bow of hair through which he speaks with the dead).
The fact that Danny and Ray can be envisioned most clearly is, perhaps, the author's intent. They both share an attraction to power. Neither is capable of filling the position of alpha male; they are better suited to being the alpha's right hand man. The trouble is, right hand men are dangerous to each other. The question is, in what sphere of reality do they collide?
Egan ensures that the reader stay engaged with a number of plot twists. The presence of an ancient member of the noble family who inhabited the Keep appears to the great discomfort of Danny among others. She adds to the slightly fantastic quality of the novel; Danny's perception of reality is so skewed that the facts start to slip farther from the horizon, even as the truth emerges.
Egan's novel has been compared by some to those of John Fowles. Egan demonstrates a similar ability to make the unreal and the mystical seem plausible. Fowles's book, "The Magus," was another I had trouble with. Although there were moments when the prose jumped off the page for me, the division between what was real and what was smoke and mirrors was too indistinct for my taste. If this speculative quality is one that appeals, the thrills of Egan's "The Keep" are well-crafted and retain an element of surprise.