J.H. M. Okthos

I’ve just finished reading OMO by Johnny Okthos, just finished as in 2 minutes ago. I was going to leave this review until tomorrow, it is late now. But if I do that the subtle subthread of this amazing piece of fiction will have eluded me.

Running right through, over and under this text is this idea that life is more than we think, that possibilities are more accessible than we think, that there is form and there is content but they are seldom the same thing, that things are never as simple as we think and yet at the same time they are, indeed that we ourselves are more than we think. If all that sounds vague and contradictory then I have got close to describing what happens in this book.

This is a book about cycling in the same way that Star Wars was a film about space. This is a book about cycling in the same way that The Old Man And The Sea is a book about fishing. This is a book about cycling in the same way that Breaking Bad was a series about drugs.

This is a book about cycling but it is also about a lot of other things or maybe just one other thing but I cannot name it with words but deep inside of me I know exactly what it is. This is a book that speaks to the ghost in the machine.

So lets stick to the more prosaic stuff. It is about a group of people who go on a bike ride but as they are riding they realise that it is more than a bike ride but they cannot say what it is or how they know. As they cycle along, other people join them, drawn as if by some invisible force. And along the way other stuff happens. That’s as much as I can say without getting it wrong or missing it completely and putting you off.

After the first short paragraph I was hooked and devoured it ravenously, thankfully it is not a short book. It is an easy read but having said that I had to go back over some parts to make sure I never missed anything. There is one bit about borders that is really profound but the words are so simple you could easily read over it and miss what is happening there.

I found the main characters interesting, well drawn and their transformations totally believable. Well written, engaging, I enjoyed being along for the ride.

Declaration of Interest.
Myself and girlfriend once got on our common old bikes that had no gears and went on a bike ride that lasted 5 months, covered 2200 miles, crosses 4 countries and 3 autumns.
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