Lone Star Library: ‘Veronica Mars’ blueprint from Texas

Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas (Originally published 1996, by Aladdin Paperbacks, published in 2007 by Simon Pulse, $6.99)

Few fans of the television noir series Veronica Mars realize the strong Texas connection to the WB network program set in Neptune, Ca.

Mars creator, producer and occasional scriptwriter Rob Thomas spent many years in the Lone Star State, attending college, teaching high-school journalism and playing bass in a variety of bands. The Texas connection is never more clear  than with his first book, Rats Saw God, a “young adult” novel that presages many of the themes he would later explore further with the Mars (2004-2007) series. (Michael Muhney, who played Sheriff Don Lamb in Mars, is also from Texas, growing up in Bedford.)

The novel examines the causes of the descent of high school senior Steve York. York, once a gifted, straight-A high school student in Texas, has moved to California to live with his mother for his senior year, where he becomes an apathetic drug user. He is fleeing his astronaut father, who he blames for the breakup of his parent’s marriage and a romance that ends leaving York feeling like, in his words, his “heart had been run through frappé, puree, and liquefy on a love blender.”

To complete an English course to graduate, York is asked by a guidance counselor to compose a diary of his high school years. That is the form the novel takes, allowing the reader to enter YorkÂ’s adolescent mind. Thomas ups the ante in tension by shifting from YorkÂ’s successes at his high school in Texas to his lethargic, angry year in California. The novelÂ’s title comes from a group of non-conformists York is involved with in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, the Grace Order of Dadaists (GOD) club. The efforts of GOD, a sanctioned high school club, to spread the Dadaist manifesto in the priviledged, upper-middle class world of Clear Lake, Texas, provide much of the humor of the book.

Like the Mars series, Thomas proves adept at taking adolescent characters, giving them a full range of emotions and treating them with empathy and humor. While Rats is not a mystery like Mars, the revelation of who ultimately betrays York and sends him into a downward spiral is certainly reminiscent of the most effective and moving Mars plots.  

For Mars enthusiasts, the York character has several similarities to both the character Veronica Mars and her occasional boyfriend, Logan Echolls. But the novel is well worth seeking out whether one is a fan of Mars or not.

Rats was recently reprinted in 2007 and all three seasons of Veronica Mars are available on DVD. Thomas has recently been discussing the possibility of a Veronica Mars feature film with star Kristen Bell.

rfrancis@bizpress.net