Recently, I read William Peter Blatty's "Legion". Or, maybe not read it... I devoured it; cover-to- cover, every page, in order, word-for-word. That's the sign of love in my reading experience. I don't finish most of the books I start, and rarely do I read them with so much enthusiasm and commitment. Very often, I read them out of order... perhaps it's an un-diagnosed dyslexia? But Legion was too good. Blatty made it too easy to read this novel and to love every minute of reading this novel."Legion" is the sequel to Blatty's 1971 best-seller "The Exorcist". Originally, "Legion" was written as a treatment for a movie sometime in the late-1970's. The movie, however, did not come to fruition then and so Blatty reworked it as a novel. "Legion", the novel, was published in 1983, and I've had to privilege of reading a 1983 print of the book.
Set in the Georgetown area of Washington D.C., Legion centers around Lieutenant William Kinderman, the supercilious, wry homicide detective from "The Exorcist", as he investigates a string of bizarre murders fitting the MO of a long-dead serial killer, explores the nature of evil and divinity, and finds that he is dangerously close to the homicides.
Like almost all of his work, both in film and literature, William Peter Blatty injects a wry wit and dark humor into this work, which, like "The Exorcist" is filled with the most entertaining, enlightening, and engulfing conversations between some very believable characters. One can tell that Blatty knows the setting and content well and he treads them with an abundance of verisimilitude. He manages to make the most far-out plot totally convincing. You can feel the cold of March. You can feel the damp weariness of these characters. You can picture the pale, ambient light of colorless hospital corridors. You can picture shadowy, oak paneled Catholic spaces.
There is, however a very surreal quality to Legion that I enjoyed thoroughly. Like "The Exorcist", Blatty takes the reader to the edge of a dark and bottomless chasm and lets us peer in. The corridors of the book's hospital are stalked by something of a malevolent nature. Like the demon from "The Exorcist", this specters watches... it sees... it prays. It sees the inner world of those who confront it and uses it like a weapon and a sign. It inhabits the shattered and uses the useless at a weapon. But like The Exorcist, Blatty never confirms or denies or suspicions. He tells us what we wan to hear but plants seeds of doubt in our mind, He lets us look into the abyss and judge for ourselves.
As much as I love this book, and would read it to my kids before bedtime... if I had kids... I must say that I feel that the plot is a little unbalanced. The antagonist of the book is only really revealed to us in the last quarter of novel. He's not even hinted-at before then. There is only an unknown entity that may or may-not be human committing this series of ritualized murders. Blatty just sort-of drops the reveal on us out of nowhere. And while I understand the need to build mystery and suspense behind the reveal, I feel that it doesn't work as well in a book as it might in a short-story or a film.
Given all, I must say that I recommend "Legion" to anybody looking to read a solid, well-written, dark, intelligent novel. As a writer, I highly respect Blatty's use of the medium. He doesn't describe every little thing. He explores the unknown and the unknowable and forces us to face it ourselves. He forces us to turn-on our minds, our imaginations, and our hearts.
