To read a sample from When Vapors Vanish from the book's web site, click here.
Review
Mike Alvut is a computer programmer with an up-and-coming company who has everything the world can offer. But things aren't perfect. He fantasizes about a female coworker. He's got another coworker who has turned into a Christian and is warning Mike about some dream that's too scary to even give details about. At home, Mike has a wife he loves immensely but doesn't appreciate (you'll understand when you read it). Then, one day on the way home from work, he picks up a homeless man and his life is never the same again.
Though a cursory glance at the above paragraph may make you think the theme of the novel is similar to a Frank Peretti story, it's actually not. Still, the style is somewhat reminiscent of Peretti. Calvert uses frequent similes, especially in the early-going of the book, which at first seem overdone but as the story goes on the reader realizes they are just one more glimpse into the false world Alvut has created around himself.
The most prominent minor character in the novel is Katie, Mike's wife. At first meeting, I thought she was too perfect. But this, too, is done to great affect. For, as we learn more of her we find that she has a hard edge to her that brings her alive and makes for a wonderful contrast to the "perfect" illusion Mike is battling within himself. He wants her to be perfect, suspects deep down she is, but still manages to project his own failings onto her.
Calvert does a superb job throughout the novel of first presenting the reader with the two-dimensional characters, plots and themes we think we're expecting, then adding in the other dimensions until our expectations are shattered and the real story and the real characters come forward.
This is a hard book to write a review of without giving away any spoilers. Suffice to say that, once you get reading, it's not going where you think it is. "When Vapors Vanish" is also an unquestionably Christian book. I should warn all readers that this book will violate the first rule of most popular fiction (too often, ESPECIALLY Christian fiction) and will make you think! Agree with him or not, you won't come away from Calvert's book unchanged.
Additional Notes:
This is Calvert's first published novel. Like many first novels, what it lacks in literary polish it more than makes up for in zeal, inspiration and good story-telling.
