FEAR AND FEARMONGERING
THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS, by Keith Donohue Three years after Jack Peter Keenan, the 10-year-old referenced in the title of Keith Donohue’s engrossing new novel, almost drowns off the coast of Maine, he develops a near-crippling fear of leaving his house. Narratively speaking, this is a risky wager. Donohue has essentially put his characters— and thus his readers—under house arrest, and yet the bet pays off again and again. The novel is a pressure cooker, an airtight room with limited oxygen, and an astute study of the mysterious demons that loss breeds.
There also may be real demons in The Boy Who Drew Monsters, and, to the author’s credit, that possibility is altogether more menacing than any concrete knowledge would be. Donohue suspends the characters—especially Jack…
