Reading Odd Thomas, By: Dean Koontz 1-30

Summary:
On page one, the reader is plunged into the world of Odd Thomas as he explains himself saying that he is not a celebrity nor any one famous. He is in fact quite average. He then goes into detail describing his siblings and all of their nicknames, but insists that he is not interested in their affairs. He then, being odd, informs that reader that he is not a murderer and has done nothing evil. The story reads like a narrator telling his story. Tomas begins going through his day explaining that he will get to tell his story in good time. Here, the reader is introduced to his grandmother Pearl Sugars, his god bargaining relative who believed more in reconciliation than anyone he had known.
Odd Thomas is a non fiction account of a story that takes place in the 1970's and depicts the life a a small town man who is referred to as Odd Thomas. Dean Koontz goes out of his normal fiction world to interview and write a book about this man who had an occurrence that although seems unreal is true. Anyways, Odd then goes around and explains to reader his dis functional family. His mother who was always gone on "business" trips, his father who had been long gone since the age of 4, and his brothers who were swindling con artist and sold "real" genuine luxuries in their car. Odd Thomas was apparently normal in his family, but to the rest of the world he was strange.
Thomas woke up every morning at 5 oclock to work his daily shift down at the local diner where he cooked food for mainly tourist in the small town of Slaton, TX. Slaton is a very small town and at the time of the book it had an est. population of 1,300. In other words, every one knows everyone. Thomas didn't talk much to other people and he wasn't very attractive so his love life was non existent as well. After his shift at the dinner, Thomas would go the local dump to try to assemble parts for his "creation" as he calls it together. Little detail is said about this so I'm hoping this is explained further in the book. After the junkyard, Thomas goes out to Sal's Saloon to liquor up so he can go home and pass out all his troubles away. On page 30, Thomas finishes up his description of his daily routines and explains that one day something changed his whole world.
Response:
This book is....slow. I was surprised that after reading 30 pages I had learned nothing about the actual plot of the book and learned enough background info to write a biography on a man I've never met. Furthermore, this non fictional story sounds like the build up to a science fiction novel in which the good guy is swept away buy aliens. But who knows, this book could go a complete different direction and end up pleasing me. I must say I do like the narrative approach to the story because it makes me feel anxious for the tale that is going to be told. I'm nervously optimistic for this book.