October 2007

I guess it is true what they say: "You can take the boy out of Europe, but you can't take Europe out of the boy." Or something like that. In this case that boy is me, and the saying is a bit backwards, because it seems I can't be kept out of Europe. Next week I will be flying over to Brussels to take part in a general conference held for representatives of the different Erasmus Mundus programs along with some of the members of the old Launch and Liaison committees. So the decision to join this thing so many months ago is still paying dividends in respects to my involvement in shaping the creation of an Erasmus Mundus Alumni Association. I suspect however, that this will be the last of it. I have finished my program, graduated and moved on. Not quite working yet, but with employment even if I haven't technically started.

If I'm not mistaken, part of our role, or more accurately, the policy team's role was to determine what process be involved with choosing representatives and handing over the reigns of the executive core of the association from year to year. Since it is one association covering over 80 different courses, that gets a bit tricky from a logistical perspective. Right now there is no executive because we only have a launch committee which was tasked to get this off the ground. It has certainly been an interesting and cultural experience, and I have met some very great people along the way.

Armed with my experiences and, in the case of my role in the IT team, my knowledge, I hope that I can contribute as much as possible. There will be a lot of people at this meeting since each program will be sending two students and one coordinator. I hope that with all the people things don't get lost in the shuffle, and that so many cooks don't ruin it for everyone. Because if it is anything like the last general meeting I was at... the balance is precarious and it wouldn't take much.

I have had mixed success in the past with Dean Koontz’s novels, so this is not an author I am necessarily going to go easy on out of the gate. The Husband, like the few other books I’ve read from the author, is a psychological thriller. Instead of taking the reader on some exotic adventure to far off locales, Koontz prefers to explore around your own neighbourhood, and show you the dark side of the human psyche. This approach can lead to books which are a bit more real, and therefore less of an escape. However, they are captivating.

In this case a husband, a lower-middle class gardener of modest means, is forced to face his worst nightmare and raise two million dollars to save his wife’s life. Confronted with this impossible situation, the husband, Mitch, is forced to see just how far he is willing to go to cherish and protect the one he loves. The book takes you along as this naïve gardener is transformed into a man of action. Sound like a good story?

I had this book for a while before starting into it. I was a little apprehensive after my last Koontz book couldn’t hold my interest, even on a plane. Appropriate I suppose that I started this book at an airport while waiting at my gate to board a plane. Boredom will make many people seek out any possible entertainment, regardless how weak, to help pass the time. This didn’t happen this time. In fact, my failure to pack more than one book on this trip had me faced with the dilemma of whether to finish the book sooner and risk not finding another one, or to ration my reading over the trip so as to have something to do on the way home. The trip wasn’t very long, but I still ended up finishing off the book in the hotel a day or two before leaving.

I honestly can’t find many bad things to say about this book. It did seem a bit over the top at times, but I can’t say that I know what a situation like this would feel like, perhaps this is a spot on representation. The book was engaging and fun despite the stress of the situation. About halfway in, it takes a bit of a turn and the action shifts a bit from purely psychological to physical and dramatic. It is a nice touch that helps keep the story alive and engaging. The story seemed quite credible, at least in the beginning which is one of the elements which makes it that my more exhilarating, the notion that this is something which “could” happen to you. Nothing alien or fantastical, just human avarice, which is a common theme, but only because it is very real.

Overall, I’m going to say that this book gets an eight because it was quite engaging and there wasn’t any flaw which distracted from the story. Not mind blowing, but a great read if you want something a bit more real than the adventures I usually read.