OCD dominates man’s life in ‘Unexpectedly, Milo’
At 33 years old, the home health aide knows his marriage is circling the drain. He’s not sure exactly why his wife’s unhappy, but he knows he’s probably to blame. After all, he has been a slave to the U-boat captain in his mind who demands that Milo perform certain tasks to relieve the pressure in his head.
Milo has kept the U-boat captain’s demands a secret from his wife and everyone else, carefully arranging his life to be able to respond to his bizarre urges: opening jelly jars; bowling a strike; cracking ice cube trays; karaokeing “99 Luftballons” in German.
Milo's world revolves around his obsessive compulsive disorder, which leaves him isolated and lonely. But when he stumbles across a video camera with confessional tapes, he sets off on a path of discovery that will challenge him on most every level.
The tapes turn out to be a video diary of a young woman. Milo recognizes the personal nature of the material but feels compelled to watch. As he studies them, searching for clues to the woman’s identity, he begins to realize he’s not the only one with secrets. He decides he must return the tapes to their owner and becomes obsessed with finding and helping her.
Matthew Dicks again crafts a charming, quirky character in his new novel, “Unexpectedly, Milo.” Obsessive compulsive disorder is not new territory for the author, as his previous work, “Something Missing,” centers around a thief with OCD proclivities. The plots of both novels are fairly similar, but the endearing characters will worm their ways into readers’ hearts.
Though “Unexpectedly, Milo,” doesn’t break new ground for Dicks, it’s still a humorous story about self-acceptance and the realization that everyone has his or her own eccentricities.
