L.A. Mental

If there were any homeless mentions in Neil McMahon's L.A. Mental I missed them. I guess we all have a bit of craziness inside of us, causing some to say, "I am mental," rather than "I am anal."

I never spent a night sleeping in Los Angeles, except at the New Image Shelter. I almost went back to hang out with a lady I met near the train station. No longer remember where she slept, but she had a lot of young homeless men sleeping nearby as if the older woman could protect them from harm. Her story was kind of like my own, and she was about as brave as I was. She would have liked some female company.

Anyway, thinking back to days spent in Los Angeles, my mind did wander to one sane woman that might be described as mental. She was large, I am guessing 6' tall and wore a large parrot hat. That woman wanted to be noticed as if her height alone would not have her stand out in the crowded shelter rooms. I hated most parts of sleeping in the shelters, but did enjoy people watching.

Below the title, L.A. Mental says: A Thriller. The library stamps on the spine say Danger, Suspense. I would say Sci Fi Mystery. Might even be a psychological suspense thriller. Main character is a psychologist. Other than profiling personalities drawn to cults and info as to why it is so hard to deprogram them, there was not a lot of psychology in the book.

I learned why it is so hard to reason with bigots, through information presented about cult behaviors. Very interesting book; held my interest start to finish. I did a web search after finishing the novel, and yes, there is a possibility that what is going on in this work of fiction could become a scary reality.

One thing puzzled me about the story. A man leaves L.A. for China where he has business. Singapore. Later, the psychologist tells his mother the man went to Indonesia. Later still, Singapore was mentioned as to where the man had traveled to.

There was a time I had no idea where Indonesia was. A nephew "ran away to Indonesia" to get away from the rat-race so to speak. I am sure the author knows China and Indonesia are two separate places. I am thinking, he changed up on location and missed changing the locations throughout the book. Editing is a royal pain and it sounds exactly like something I would do ~ if I wrote a novel.

I have not sought more information yet on retrograde amnesia. As explained in the novel, it sounded a lot like what I went through in 1998, hence my interest.