Ollie Benson is a computer genius. He’s been working for years on a computer program to help people create movies at home, and as soon as he gets all the bugs worked out, he thinks it will be pretty cool. His ambitions don’t go much further than that, though – Ollie is a hundred pounds overweight and he doesn’t have very much self-esteem. He’s tried blind dating, but his appearance seems to repulse most women, and his hang-dog attitude doesn’t help, either.
His program finished, he sends it off to a major software corporation and sits back to see what they’ll have to say. Before he can do that, though, a man named Dane knocks on his door, tells him that he’s an agent who works with these kinds of things, and that he can get Ollie a deal like he’s never dreamed. Ollie takes a chance and signs with Dane, and soon he is richer than he ever dreamed. Hugely expensive watches adorn his wrist, he drives great cars and wears wonderful clothes. He has everything he’s ever wanted, but he’s still fat and he still feels terrible about himself.
Purchasing a new home doesn’t hold any pleasure for him because it’s not him. Nothing feels comfortable, nothing matches his personality. At a party Dane insists he throw, Ollie meets Marlene, an interior decorator, and as she works on his house, he falls in love with her. He can hardly believe it when she says “yes” to a marriage proposal.
But after a short time of marriage, Ollie comes home to find that Marlene and Dane are having an affair. What’s even worse, they set this whole thing up to take Ollie’s life and his money. He survives the attempt they make on him, but just barely. He’s left for dead in the mountains, where a hermit named Eli finds him and nurses him back to health.
Restricted to a diet of grains and greens and whatever else Eli can rustle up, Ollie starts dropping the weight like crazy. As he regains strength and realizes how much his appearance is changing, he comes up with a plan, a nasty, evil plan. He’s going to change everything about himself – his appearance, the way he talks, everything – and he’s going to go back and make Dane and Marlene pay.
After leaving Eli’s home, he goes to a gym and gets a personal trainer. He then sets himself up in the exclusive community where Marlene and Dane now live, married, and spreads the story that he’s a rich playboy, just there for some relaxation. His plan takes off as Marlene draws closer to him, trusting him, and he sees ways that he can bring everything about the way he’s dreamed. But his housekeeper, Joelle, is losing a husband to Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and as he talks to Ollie about faith and the hereafter, Ollie’s heart is softened and he finds he can’t go through with his plan.
I found the first part of the book pretty repetitive. We see a lot of Ollie’s disgust with his body, to the point where it was overdone. The end was too quick – Ollie’s conversion to the gospel happened within just pages, and Dane and Marlene’s repentance was too convenient for words. But I enjoyed the middle portion, watching Ollie plan and scheme, seeing how the anger he holds changes his life. This book is a little more gritty than your typical Christian novel, but it was gripping and suspenseful.
(This book was published by Zondervan in 2005.)
Related Blogs: