Quake by Richard Laymon
- Purchase it here
- Published September 1995 (Headline Book Publishing paperback edition)
- Finished reading it on August 20, 2006
- As is usual, Laymon does an awesome job. He squeezes so many things happening to his characters in a single day that it's amazing. Maybe some of the coincidences and events are a little too much but generally you're having so much fun reading the book that you don't notice until the end. The story is about the Banner family and what happens to them after a huge quake hits Los Angeles. The mom is trapped at home in the bathtub that saved her life but, of course, is naked. Dad is at work and starts heading home across the valley. And daughter was in driver's education and had the instructor panic and drive them further from home. The events and happenings are all true to life and what I would expect from people placed in that type of situation. It's this combination of interesting story and true characters that is part of every Laymon novel. And what makes them great! The only negative that I have to say is that near the end of the book some events seemed to be glossed rather than described in detail as Laymon had done in the rest of the book. What previously took twenty to thirty pages to go over in loving descriptions would instead be summarized in a quick paragraph. I put that down more to the length of the book. At 567 pages, Laymon probably had to pare the book down, keep it from getting too large and too intimidating.
Send comments or your opinions on these books to mike@kazba.com.