A journey into madness as seen from the eyes of Charlie Fox. Charlie is the oldest son of ingenius inventor Allie Fox who has an opinion on, and an answer for, everything. When Allie tires of modern America he takes his wife and family of four children to the Honduran Jungle to start a new life free of encumbrance. He creates a type of Utopia in the small community of Jeronimo, eventually building a huge ice making machine ‘bringing civilization to the jungle’.
However, Allie needs more challenges and as time goes by Charlie becomes disillusioned with his father. He battles with conflicting emotions as he loves his father dearly but begins to realise that his mindset is dangerous and that he is leading them to a certain death.
We are introduced to some lovely characters in this book my favourite being Mr Haddy who owns the launch which takes the family to Jeronimo when they first arrive. He reveres Allie at first but soon becomes wary of his ‘spearmints’ (experiments). Although fearful of Allie’s temper he takes it upon himself to look out for the safety of Allie’s wife and children.
We are not told much about Allie’s wife, who is referred to as ‘mother’ throughout the book. She protects her children from Allie now and again, but on the whole she would have followed her husband to the end even if it meant their eventual deaths, which is why it falls to Charlie to make a stand against his father.
A dark thoughtful tale.
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