Koot Hoomie "Kootie" Parganas is an eleven-year
old boy who is growing up in Los Angeles in the 1992, but his parents won't let
him do anything normal, as the parents worship the spirits of the dead Mahatmas
and believe Kootie to be a great spiritual leader. As far as the boy is concerned,
they’re crazy. So he decides to run away, but not before purposely breaking a plaster
bust of Dante just to show his parents how angry he was. This one act of
defiance will unintentionally set in motion major events that will change not
only his own life, but everyone else's.
Because within the bust was a box that contains a glass
vial, and when the seal is broken on it, Kootie unwittingly ingests the ghost
of Thomas Edison. However, because Kootie hasn't yet reached puberty, he isn't
able to digest it. In its undigested state, the ghost of Edison will function
as a helper to Kootie.
For Los Angeles is filled with ghosts who are basically just
the moronic shells of the dead; fascinated by coins, palindromes, and
chalk-drawn circles, and sometimes substantial enough to eat bottle caps and
stones, they're easily trapped by acquisitive ghost-sensitives, who snort them
to augment their own lives. There is a magical system surrounding these ghosts
- their behavior, how they are ingested, how to catch them so that they may be
ingested, and even a mysterious market where the bottled ghosts are bought and
sold. In their ready-to-be digested state, they are known as "smokes"
or "cigars".
Elsewhere, electrical engineer Pete Sullivan, pursued by
ghost-sniffer/filmmaker Loretta deLarava, conceals himself behind Houdini's
``mask''; and a psychiatrist named Angelica Elizalde, having in a bungled séance,
killed a patient by accident, and is seeking the ghost's forgiveness; and
ex-child actor Nicholas Bradshaw's ghost continues to reanimate his own corpse.
Because of Edison's powerful personality,
his ghost is particularly sought after by filmmaker deLarava (who is also pursuing
the ghost of Pete Sullivan's father and Bradshaw, who “lives” under the name of
Solomon Shadroe) and a one-armed ghost hunter named Sherman Oaks (who could be
in the range of 130 plus years old).
As with previous books I’ve read by Powers, Expiration Date
it is a characteristically weird ghost fantasy. It’s highly original with an often
amusing scenario, which seems painstakingly researched, but also seems to be a
bit overlong and totters off its wheels when dealing with some of its internal
logic. Mostly, though, the book takes way too long to connect all
the characters –even though it’s brilliantly executed in the way he does it. Yes
the characters are interesting, but none of them, including Kootie (who sometimes
acts like the eleven year old, and then acts like an adult. Even though the 84
year-old Edison ghost resides in the boy, I feel the ghost can’t account for
everything), seem likable. Put the pacing kept me interested, even if I didn’t completely
understand everything that was going on here.
Expiration Date is also the second book in Powers Fault Line
series, even though this book is barely connected to Last Call –the only
connection seems to the characters desires for immortality. Earthquake Weather
is next, and supposedly will feature characters from the previous two.
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