A special Independence day bonus for my loyal readers. Enjoy this big beautiful day!
Review of Who Okayed This?! The riveting life of Grant Davis, a novel by Philip E. Barrington*
Paperback/eBook
Palmetto Publishing
January 7, 2021
170 pages
ISBN-10 : 1649909314
ISBN-13 : 978-1649909312
6 x 0.36 x 9 inches
Having authored a thriller, I like to read in the genre, and am especially in debt to the work of John le Carré for inspiration. Other thrillers, with underwhelming characterizations and overloaded with adrenaline, rarely satisfy as much. Unfortunately, such is the case here.
We read that our hero Grant Davis was born in Brooklyn New York, the only son of an insurance agent and a housewife. Until high school, his middle-class childhood was uneventful, just a few rough spots that seemed to leave no psychic scars. Halfway through the book, we learn he has a brother, Stephen, who only shows up briefly when their mother is dying. Other characters come and go equally casually.
Narrated in first-person, Grant’s adventures begin in boarding schools, both of which closed on him. In one, his schoolmate Melvin (a.k.a. “Mr. Troublemaker”) tattles on him, and again at the public school they both transfer to. They meet again in a town near Woodstock they both unaccountably moved to, which is where Grant’s real troubles begin.
He gets several threatening calls from an inmate of Sing Sing penitentiary who’s never identified and plays no further role in the story.** By then, Grant has been targeted by an “alphabet agency” operative for refusing to talk about what his neighbor Jack is up to. We never find out what that is, but apparently it was serious enough for an agent to invade Grant’s home and inject him with a deadly, slow-acting microorganism that has no known antidote, like the government used to do when they gave syphilis to blacks without consent.
The bug, unknown to medical science, attacks his immune system. Most of the rest of the book follows Grant’s search for a cure. His quest leads him to a spa in Bavaria and a cabin in the backwoods of Georgia via leads from people he befriends along the way. He drinks an invigorating “formula” the German doctor prepares, and completes his recuperation by activating a small device someone gives him powered by occult forces. All this, according to Barrington, is based on a true story.
Grant has a knack for making friends, all of whom have simple first names like Jack, Russ, Steve, Robert, Marie, Ann, Kathy, and so on, at least fifty of them, never with last names. The onus is on the reader to keep track of them in case they show up again, but almost all pass through within a chapter to soon be forgotten. The little dog he adopts, Scotty, lasts a bit longer, as Grant takes with him wherever he moves. Scotty mysteriously dies like Grant’s mother did, from a botched medical procedure. Again, Grant wonders, “Who okayed this?” but never finds out.
Grant generally trusts people he meets and tries to learn from them. This sometimes leads to trouble, but never more than he can handle, often by relocating, either to upstate New York, Miami, Hawaii, Bavaria, or back to Brooklyn. But wherever he goes, including back to 1980s Miami, he finds a lot to like. Yes, his picaresque journey includes time travel, and sure enough, he hooks up with an enticing woman there and then. I frankly don’t believe that episode adds much to the story, but as the plot is billed as based on real events, who knows?
Speaking of making friends, Grant meets many famous people, such as actors and musicians, or befriends people on a first-name basis with them. However, he never identifies any of them. This crypto-name-dropping adds nothing to the narrative. In this respect Grant is a little like Woody Allen’s Zelig, always happy to conform.
Each chapter brings a surfeit of superlatives: Grant is treated to the “best” hot chocolate, cider, whipped cream, shower, era (the 1980s), and has several best friends. He also experiences the most “beautiful,” “exquisite,” “delicious,” “fabulous,” and “wonderful” things. Grant is one impressionable dude.
Grant is very eager to please, especially ladies. Here he is at breakfast in a Miami luncheonette:
I was hungry after the long walk. I decided to stop in for a bite to eat.
A beautiful waitress came over to the table I had chosen. She smiled and said good morning.
I replied in the same fashion and placed my order. Then I asked “What’s your name?”
“Lee” she replied.
“Lee, with a smile as nice as yours, how could I ever have another waitress?”
She laughed. I said, “I mean it. I guess I’m just going to have to sweep you off your feet and make you my wife.”
Lee laughed again and said, “Let me go get your eggs before they’re cold. I want them to be hot for you.”
“You are the best!”
She smiled and hurried off to the kitchen. When she came back, my eggs were steaming hot, along with the cup of coffee she poured for me.
When I asked her where she was from, she replied, “Arkansas.”
I said, “They’re sure doing something right in Arkansas.”
“What do you mean?” “
If there were more women like you in the world, this planet would be a much sweeter place to live.”
She laughed. “Well, thank you. Are you always so nice to people you’ve just met?”
I shrugged. “This happens on the rare occasions when a certain someone piques my interest.”
Lee blushed and said, “I better tend to the other customers before they get cranky.”
We both laughed. (p. 105)
He never sees or even thinks about Lee again. He’s promiscuous, but in such an upfront and charming way that you can forgive his shtick. This, and many other chance encounters demonstrate how urbane yet guileless he is. So okay, why would a federal agent poison such a nice guy with debilitating microbes just for refusing to rat on someone (Jack) he barely knows?
A few chapters in, I wondered who Barrington expected to read this novel. The prose, while often tersely descriptive, tends to be flat. Sentences are short and direct. For a while I felt it was written for a YA audience, but by the end it seemed more like fiction for middle-schooled adults. In an oddly affecting way, It melds elements of thrillers, crime novels, science fiction, and new age escapism. Apparently, Barrington’s muse* never cautioned him not to do that.
One might say Who Okayed This?! is a coming-of-age novel on steroids, a Bildungsroman hurtling along the Autobahn. Things certainly happen fast. I am truly sorry that Grant or whomever this story is about had to go through all this. As an author, I understand how hard it is to betray one’s characters, but it has to be done to prevent readers from being bored and turning away. You won’t turn away from Who Okayed This?! unless you succumb from exhaustion.
The author has done his best to help Grant Davis prevail over aggressors, assholes, bio bugs, and happenstance. It must not have been easy for Barrington to come up with this yarn and prepare it for publication, and I identify with him on that. Still, were I his publisher, I would hand him back his manuscript and ask him what editor okayed it.
*Here’s what we know about this book’s author, from his website:
“Originally from NYC, P.E. Barrington worked in the world of luxury goods at “The Jewel of the City” on “The Plaza” in Manhattan. As a novelist, Barrington travels the world for inspiration. He finds this greatly stimulates his imagination and creative facility for writing.”
He goes on to say that after suffering severe bodily injuries in an auto accident, a disabled author of self-help books told him he should simply start writing — anything. Thusly Barrington became an accidental author.
“The more I wrote the more momentum developed and more things came to mind to write about. This went on for a several years until my first book “Who Okayed This?! The Riveting Life of Grant Davis” was completed. … I made a full recovery since the accident. My love and passion for writing has grown. Presently, I’ve been active in learning the art of photography as well as studying cell physiology and Geo/ Bio physics.”
Cool. Who knew the act of writing could heal broken limbs?
**The convict’s threats seem to have nothing to do with what subsequently happens, but are played up big in Barrington’s flashy person-of-interest-type trailer for his book.
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