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August 06, 2009 |
INHERENT VICE by thomas pynchon |
just finished reading INHERENT VICE. i'd read a fair amount about the book, how pynchon's slumming it with this latest, of even selling out. just seems to me like he's a great writer having a great time writing about a period and place in his own life that he found wonderful and unique.
in many ways, INHERENT VICE treads territory similar to that of his other works: unseen and far-reaching organizations pulling strings and getting away with murder, little guy sees all, but can do only so much to defend himself and life as we know it.
i just love the way pynchon writes/thinks, and any new work by him is reason for celebration. reading this was a different, more accessible than usual, pleasure.
long may he wave.
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News + Thoughts
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August 02, 2009 |
GOD SAVE THE MARK - donalad e. westlake |
just finished reading another great westlake novel. this one was an edgar award winner, the tale of hapless fred fitch, perpetual target of scammer and shysters. story of my life.
highly recommended.
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News + Thoughts
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July 31, 2009 |
PYGMY - chuck palahniuk |
just finished reading chuck's latest, PYGMY, succinctly blurbed as 'the manchurian cnadidate meets south park'. apt description. the terrorist/narrator's voice is a robotisized, party-line stilted english; sounds like it was fed into a mandarin translation program and then translated from that back into english. gives the word-flow a very halting rhythm, but the irony and humour is much accentuated thereby.
great bam-pow success, operative chuck!
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July 25, 2009 |
discovering andrew vachss |
andrew vachss' name comes up often among noir masters; i remember joe lansdale including a vachss story in an anthology he curated, and joe's latest novel finds hap at home reading a vachss novel. megan abbott and ken bruen, among others, have also invoked vachss' name.
i finally got a bunch of things, and, against my usual pattern of leavening my reading list with variety, so i won't burn out on a writer's work, no matter how much i'm enjoying it, i read three in a row: DEAD AND GONE, DOWN IN THE ZERO, and SHELLA.
the first two are part of his 'burke' series of novels, featuring the hitman with a heart of gold/stone, an orphan who's name was an afterthought by the hospital where his mother abandoned him as an infant. the thread of child abuse and the crusade on behalf of children's defense runs through all of vachss' books, himself an attorney advocating youthful defendants exclusively.
highly recommended, though SHELLA spends a little too much time with aryan brotherhood/racist drivel, even as its mercenary is infiltrating a cell to kill the leader, to comfortably recommend to the faint of heart.
DOWN IN THE ZERO finds burke in the CT suburbs looking into a rash of teen suicides, links to international larceny, blackmail, fetishism, abuse, and a teen mental health clinic all figuring in the mix.
DEAD AND GONE has burke himself as the target. he works undercover, from beyond the grave (having been found nearly, but not quite dead, and recouperating as a john doe) to find his assassin.
his noir is compassionate but just as spare and incisive as jim thompson.
there's lots more. i know i'll get to 'em all.
andrew vachss' official website:
http://www.vachss.com/
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News + Thoughts
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July 25, 2009 |
purrfect piano voicing method (tm) |
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