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Andrew Klavan's Crazy Dangerous and The Moral Imagination

     There are those lovers of Great Books who would speak so well of the fine, beautiful and good letters, that they implicitly denounce common letters. I am not in that camp. I still remember my sweet, dear grandmother Lila, giving me money from her tips where she worked at a local restaurant, so I could buy the most recent edition of Spiderman, Thor, or Daredevil comics. For a number of years of my youth, that was all I read, but read hundreds of comic books, I did.
     If I were teenager today, I would hope that I had a family member who would encourage me to read the young adult fiction of novelist Andrew Klavan. Why? Beyond being true page turners, they are peopled with characters who are often driven by a keen and accurate moral purpose. Sam Hopkins, while flawed in his youthful misdirected desire to be accepted, has a turning point where not only does he do the right thing, he does lots of little things that are right. Popular works that ultimately are morality tales can help shape the moral imagination of the readers. 
     One could defend the YA fiction of Andrew Klavan on the same ground that G.K. Chesterton defended the penny dreadful. Chesterton noted this key point about the penny dreadful, "It is always on the side of life." That is why lovers of Great Books can love good books that are so "on the side of life " When young Sam comes to the conviction that he must, "Do Right. Fear Nothing" he is on the side of life. When Sam defends "mentally disturbed" Jennifer, he is on the side of life. When Sam, aided by "mentally challenged" Jennifer, realizes that the bully thug and the most popular jock in the school are essentially the same, he is on the side of life. 
     Similar to some of Klavan's adult fiction, there is a this world--other world blending and blurring of lines that in the subtlest of ways is reminiscent of Russell Kirk's ghost stories or Charles Williams's spiritual thrillers.  Klavan is a master of the psychological thriller. This is a powerful and thoroughly sympathetic portrayal of a person struggling with hallucinations. In an insightful manner, Klavan demonstrates that even a person suffering from schizophrenia may not be completely broken from reality and how not all mental illnesses are the same.
    Among the key points of redemption within this work is the poignant way Klavan depicts the power and magic of real friendship and how God uses friendship to manifest His presence as God protects and assists us through others. Klavan does not seem to set out to write morality tales, but when people aspire to do the right things, in the right manner, toward the right ends, spiritual fables unfold.
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