The Pocket and the Pendant response

I found out about the audiobook version of the Pocket and the Pendant
by complete fluke. My friend Kelsey, who recommended it to me found
it by a complete fluke. The reason I’m saying these wild, crazy and
zany things is that the two stories of discovery are very
synchronistic which is one of the themes that the book explores.
“Ahhhhh, that’s brilliant” I most surely hear you saying.

The book focuses around a young teen named Max Quick. The book starts
off with Jack McNulty denying Max Quick a seat on the bus. Time then
freezes, leaving only a few conscious beings to roam around the face
of the earth. Max finds Casey, a girl also unaffected by the time
stop, or the pocket as they begin to call it. Together, they travel
eastward towards the suspected source of all this madness. The book
is about finding out about what the hell is happening, finding out
who the characters really are in their innermost selves, Max
especially among the others.

One of the reasons that I love this book so much, and that it’s
different than most that I’ve gone through is that I listened to it
in audiobook form. This book gave me faith in the world of
audiobooks, showing that I can enjoy and concentrate on one. The
Pocket and the Pendant in itself was done with a lot of spirit; it
was free, the music that went along with it was superb (a soundtrack
ran throughout the entire thing) and was all in all very enjoyable to
listen to. The way I preferred to listen to it was with wrapping a
bedsheet around my head to let my mind flow with the heaping amount
of superb imagery.

Imagery is created from great ideas, which this book was formulated
from. One of the most memorable chapters was the one focusing on the
lovely Mr. E. It was basically a conversation between Max’s group and
the philosophical, god type person. It stressed how much of a dream
we live in, with a memorable line being “Life is a dream and you are
the dreamer”. The book is formulated with ideas that are very down to
earth and creative. Mark Jeffery has a really interesting theory on
how the world was created, with us humans originally being slaves.
The reason it’s so interesting is that he’s formulating ideas for
things that we think we know, and also bringing to the surface things
he’s really been interested in throughout his life and presenting
them in a real interesting way.

One of the feelings I left with from just having finished the book
and listening to the question and answer period was “Wow, this guy is
flippin’ great, he has a life, and he’s doing what he loves!” I was
just so happy and proud of him that he has a life, when so many
people having lost theirs. He’s thinking below the surface,
theorizing and being receptive to all sorts of great things. I really
loved the question and answer period and I’ll definitely tell you
why. First of all, he reads the questions out and then answers them
in long and winding answers, going to the depths of his mind to
retrieve thoughtful answers. He openly shares his interests and
presents them in a way which we can understand. A piece that piqued
my interest in the q&a period was on the subject of time. He says
that time is a system that was created because humans cannot
understand eternity, it’s these sort of things that play the role of
the base guitar in the book. I’m just real happy that Mark Jeffery
hasn’t been seduced by $$$, has a life and is openly willing to share
it in a very creative way.

So overall, I’d definitely recommend this book to you, with it being
very deep, the author being a great person and the story being very
entertaining. (get it on itunes as a podcast to listen to).

- Joel Christopher Penner