One of Us
A hodgepodge of influences looms throughout, from the genre masters Chaon acknowledges in his dedication (Ray Bradbury, Reginald Gibbons and Peter Straub among them) to Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love and even nods to William Wordsworth and Carl Sandburg. The book’s omniscient narrator mimics the era’s hyperbolic advertising and slang, stepping in and out of characters’ heads, shuffling chronology and breaking the flow with newspaper copy and historical digressions. It works! As One of Us gleefully samples multiple registers—comic, tragic, satiric, elegiac, poetic—its mesh of archaic and contemporary styles becomes something quite arresting, a joy to read ... Chaon’s beautiful novel insists on answers. We must not look away.
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Atmosphere is crucial to his books, and it’s usually a combination of hope and page-turning dread ... His books are so gripping.
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Read this novel in a well-lit place and with friendly people around you. One of Us by Dan Chaon is a masterpiece of macabre storytelling ... Chaon traces this journey with delicate pathos.
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