Complicated. Challenging. Mysterious.

Mind-blowing.

These all describe Kelland, Paul G. Bens's dazzling debut.

Imagine coming upon a jigsaw puzzle that's only been partially put together. The box is nowhere in sight so you have no way of knowing what the whole picture is, but the outer edge is complete and a few recognizable sections have been assembled. So now it's up to you figure out how those seemingly disparate segments are connected. Little by little, the pieces start coming together...

Two Vietnamese immigrant brothers living in the United States with their parents after the war. A lovelorn teenager writing unanswered letters to his sweetheart back home. A chubby, misfit Catholic school boy with aspirations to serve God. A middle-aged couple drifting apart after a terrible loss. Their stories are told in short, easily digestible chapters which are deliberately placed out of chronological order, all of them cleverly sequenced in order preserve the mystery and maximize the impact of the story's climax. This intricate construction is one of the book's most impressive features.

But it wasn't merely the writer's craft, my curiosity or even the suspense that kept me glued. It was the characters, an authentically complicated group of people, who won me over. Each one has a particular allure and I felt emotionally invested in how things worked out for them. That said, you can rest assured this is no artless Nicholas Sparks tear-jerker; it's literature and if Bens is manipulating the reader's emotions, it's only in service of his message.

A rather timely message, too.

Boy, it's hard to review Kelland without giving too much away, but suffice it to say, the ending builds to a heart pounding crescendo, as the cuts between scenes get shorter and shorter, building momentum until the final, critical confrontation. Bens' experience in the film industry certainly comes through in his writing; these final scenes are grandly cinematic.

This is a very accomplished work of fiction and highly recommended ( )

No light snack, 'Kelland' is a novel you can sink your teeth into, chew on for a good while, and still have more for later. This is good news, since its dark, mysterious, smoky flavor is worth savoring.

Bens introduces us to a collection of disparate characters. Led by his confident, unobtrusive prose, we follow their stories, seeking a reason for bringing this seemingly random grab-bag of people and events together.

The key to the mystery is Kelland, a protean being who appears in each character’s life in some unexpected way. As various strands of narrative are pulled artfully together, the story reaches a climax in which a violent act expresses the grief and rage and guilt of these characters, and brings a different outcome to each.

It is up to the reader, finally, to decide who or what Kelland is. Nemesis? Agent of change? Fate personified? It says a lot for this novel that it leaves us with questions that are well worth pondering.

'Kelland' did contain some disappointments for me. A few scenes had a perfunctory feel, as if the author were rushing to establish some plot points and move on. And I ached for Lucas, a 15-year-old, to show some trace of personality in his online journal, which is quoted numerous times. I would have loved to come away from the book with a sense of Lucas as a memorable character.

The most developed character in the book is Toan, a Vietnamese immigrant with a difficult past and uncertain future. A gay man and a musician, his life is going about as well as can be expected when more misfortune strikes.

Toan works and lives in a Hollywood neighborhood that is rich in detail and atmosphere; If the novel consisted solely of his story, it would be well worth reading. We’re lucky that Bens gives us more—much more—in this generous and ambitious book. ( )

I'm true, I was scared to read this novel. It's true, I have a pink glasses perspective on the world, but not since I don't know how scary and cruel the world can be, but since I prefer to not read and see what it's too painful to accept. And so I was scared by Kelland; I knew this is a novel very near to the author's heart and I feared to be too moved by the author's voice... strange isn't it, when you avoid what it's too good.

Another reason why I have always delayed to read this book was that I was not expecting for it to have hope, I was ready to being plunged deep into a dark drama and not having even the small hope of an escaping light somewhere. It's not like that, Kelland is that light. Kelland is the guiding light of all the characters in the book, all of them tainted by the dark, but who found a way to escape that darkness. All of them other than two, who fell victims, but their sacrifice helped the others, and one of them will put an end to the evil circle.

The novel is both simple and difficult to read. At first the reader is perplexed, there are a lot of jumps in time, and the characters seem all different and disconnected. The only common element, Kelland, is not the same for all of them, and so, even it gives the idea of being lost in a labyrinth. But the writing style is linear and not oppressive. Once you get the thread of the story, it's easier to follow it, and every piece falls in the right place. There is an evil character and Kelland is out there to help all the other characters to find their right way out of the labyrinth.

Minh and Toan are two brothers from Vietnam who built a new life in America. Minh married Theresa, and he seems happy and balanced, a typical average America man; instead Toan, gay, is living in Los Angeles and always seems to pick up the wrong man to love. Kelland appears in Toan's life and Toan at first believes to have finally found the right man, someone who will not leave him, like his brother Minh did and later also Calvin, the first boyfriend Toan had and his childhood friend. If Kelland appears to Toan, it means that it was Toan who was tainted by the darkness, but this is the first mystery the reader will have to follow down.

George is a 9 years boy, who is starting to realize that he is different. He loves Jesus, he was instilled from his family that he has the vocation, he will go to seminary... but George has forbidden desires in his heart, when he sees Jesus on the cross, he sees not a God but a man, and his love for Jesus is not a 'pure' love. Probably due to the self-condemnation George already did to himself, when the taint reaches him, George at first sees it like a right punishment. But George is strong, stronger that he believes, and way stronger that the other boys tainted before him. Kelland appears to George like an angel, but he only pushes George to take the last step towards the right path George already envisioned in front of him.

Lucas is probably the most sad part of the book, with the story of another boy I cannot tell since it's essential you find for yourself. Lucas is a suicide teenager who died almost at the beginning of the book, but which story will follow all the other characters till the end. On the contrary of George, Lucas had not the force to fight against the evil, probably since Lucas believed that no one loved him. George loves Jesus, and in God and Jesus he finds the force to fight; it's not a coincidence that Kelland appears to George in the guise of an angel, since an angel is someone George is willing to hear. An angel represents the purest imaginary of faith, not tainted by what the men did and built around that faith. God, through Kelland, chooses to save George and sacrifice Lucas... no one has never said that God is magnanimous; in his wrath god is tremendous, and he needed Lucas' sacrifice to reach his purpose. Melanie and Gareth are Lucas' parents. They are not bad parents, but probably they were not ready or available to listen to their son's trouble. Kelland appears to Melanie, and he will use Melanie as a tool for God's avenge.

Kelland is not an easy book to read, most since you have to find the strength to start it. Once you do, it's easier, since you are immersed in the life of the characters and you are trying to find what links them. And it's not Kelland, instead Kelland is who will help them to break that unhealthy bond.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934081191/?tag=elimyrevandra-20