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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
This is by far one of the more visually appealing books I own. I bought this hoping for more answers after finally watching the 3rd season. While there were some answers I certainly didn’t walk away with everything I wanted to know... that however is pretty par for the course in a Lynchian enterprise. That said the answers I did get were probably better found through a google search for me. I found most of this book uninspiring and therefore I did not return to pick it up with any regularity, instead it languished into my nightstand for months.
Perfect for those who needed closure after the recent season.
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An interesting and concise look into some loose ends left by the finale of Twin Peaks: The Return. David Lynch doesn't really regard these books as canon, but as a co-creator, it's hard to ignore the compelling theories Mark Frost posits in this dossier style novel.
Audiobook
Solid narration that fits the style of the book.
My memory is foggy with some characters so a bit of this made little sense to me.
If you’re craving a little more Twin Peaks then check it out but it’s definitely just for fans of the tv series.
Solid narration that fits the style of the book.
My memory is foggy with some characters so a bit of this made little sense to me.
If you’re craving a little more Twin Peaks then check it out but it’s definitely just for fans of the tv series.
You know, I really wanted to like this book. I was looking forward to it ever since I heard it was coming after the show, and especially given the high quality of The Secret History of Twin Peaks. I knew that the show's return had surpassed any expectations I'd had by a mile, and surely the book must deliver more of that magical mojo, right?
It didn't work out that way.
First things first: I think Frost is a great writer - I've read some of his non-TP fiction, which is a lot of fun -and I loved the first tie-in for this series. I appreciate that the expectation for this book was massive - I know my disappointment is the result of preconceptions of the work that are mine alone. That's fine. I know a lot of TP fans will five-star this through the roof, and I'm pretty sure Frost isn't going to be too phased by my criticisms. But I still can't shake the feeling that the author was kind of tired of that little town in the Pacific Northwest when he came to be finishing this one off.
What the book presents is a series of more-or-less official dossiers, compiled by agent Tamara Preston as part of her gig as a Blue Rose taskforce member. There are canonical answers to some of the queries raised in the show, including the debate about whether Cooper prevented Laura's murder in the final episode of The Return, and who that frog/bug girl was. There's a lot of information about favourite characters, and several who do not receive much fill-in in the new series - Doctor Jacoby, the Hornes, James Hurley - are given potted histories, conveniently offered under the auspices of a sniffing-project instigated at Gordon Cole's behest.
Some people who've had important roles throughout most of the show - Major Briggs, Philip Jeffries - are given their own folders, as is the town itself. There's autopsy reports that throw shade at some of the dodgier moments of the second season, an explanation of the ruins of the Hayward family (more or less) and concrete definition of what illness it is that Harry's suffering from.
The problem for me is that the tone doesn't seem to fit with what we know of the characters. I found the first book was more or less a stickler for presenting articles in a voice that fit their provenance. Here, that's ignored: Preston's files are weirdly informal, and without the rigour you'd expect. They seem to not fit with her character as it's been presented before.
The same is true of the autopsy report written by Albert: while it proudly shows his acerbic approach, something makes the reader think that he'd perhaps not put that bitchiness on the page. In casual conversation, absolutely. In black and white for perpetuity? I think Rosenfield's character exhibits a love of protocol in extremis, and to have him breaking that seems a misstep.
You could argue Preston's voice is the way it is because it's an informal arrangement between her and Cole, but that doesn't sit well with the official-file design of the work. It also doesn't sit with how Preston was presented on the show: clipped and businesslike, a stereotypical just-the-facts Fed. There were hints of intimacy with Cole, and these are indeed continued here - there's a familiarity revealed in the loose questioning of her Chief throughout - but something seems off.
Perhaps the strangest omission is that Gordon Cole doesn't really feature in the work. Yes, the files are all aimed for him, but it seems odd that Cole - who it's inferred knows much more than he ever lets on - is so absent in the work he's masterminded.
(Interesting sidebar: when referencing Joudy, the malevolent puppet-master behind a lot of the TP lore, the dossier informs us that the deity is Sumerian. This is, of course, the same neck of the woods as Ghostbusters’ Gozer the Gozerian. I hope this means that Coop and Venkman are soul brothers.)
Something I found both irritating and intriguing, though, is the idea of performance, of being in a role that crops up now and again in the book. Sure, having a narrator with the initials TP is as on the nose as Angel Heart's Louis Cyphere, but it seems to go along with the parts of Lynch that buck against the success of Twin Peaks as an example of great TV. You know, the smashed-in TV at the start of Fire Walk With Me, and the resolute fuck you, you can never go home again that's displayed in the unnerving, unsettling version of the show that was presented this year. I think in the book, Frost explores this idea a little: when we've come to the end of the files, Preston talks of feeling foggy, of the uncertain effects of being too close to the material. It reads as hackneyed if you're thinking in terms of literature, but viewed as stage directions: exeunt, pursued by mist it makes a lot more sense. Later, in her final thoughts, she explicitly speaks of being a performer - being on stage, mystified, not knowing her part in the performance.
This kind of stuff - this uncertainty, this world of doppelgängers and intentionally-odd acting - is part, for me, of the appeal of Twin Peaks. I was disappointed there wasn't more of a sense of this in the book.
Years ago, when I watched the original two series of Twin Peaks as a teenager, I dreamed of having a book that explained everything that went on: something to say what the creators had been thinking, to give a definitive viewpoint on what went on. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier offers that, to a degree, and it turns out youthful me was wrong.
Perhaps Lynch's approach - leaving canonical meaning hanging - may have been a better approach.
I really wanted to like this.
It didn't work out that way.
First things first: I think Frost is a great writer - I've read some of his non-TP fiction, which is a lot of fun -and I loved the first tie-in for this series. I appreciate that the expectation for this book was massive - I know my disappointment is the result of preconceptions of the work that are mine alone. That's fine. I know a lot of TP fans will five-star this through the roof, and I'm pretty sure Frost isn't going to be too phased by my criticisms. But I still can't shake the feeling that the author was kind of tired of that little town in the Pacific Northwest when he came to be finishing this one off.
What the book presents is a series of more-or-less official dossiers, compiled by agent Tamara Preston as part of her gig as a Blue Rose taskforce member. There are canonical answers to some of the queries raised in the show, including the debate about whether Cooper prevented Laura's murder in the final episode of The Return, and who that frog/bug girl was. There's a lot of information about favourite characters, and several who do not receive much fill-in in the new series - Doctor Jacoby, the Hornes, James Hurley - are given potted histories, conveniently offered under the auspices of a sniffing-project instigated at Gordon Cole's behest.
Some people who've had important roles throughout most of the show - Major Briggs, Philip Jeffries - are given their own folders, as is the town itself. There's autopsy reports that throw shade at some of the dodgier moments of the second season, an explanation of the ruins of the Hayward family (more or less) and concrete definition of what illness it is that Harry's suffering from.
The problem for me is that the tone doesn't seem to fit with what we know of the characters. I found the first book was more or less a stickler for presenting articles in a voice that fit their provenance. Here, that's ignored: Preston's files are weirdly informal, and without the rigour you'd expect. They seem to not fit with her character as it's been presented before.
The same is true of the autopsy report written by Albert: while it proudly shows his acerbic approach, something makes the reader think that he'd perhaps not put that bitchiness on the page. In casual conversation, absolutely. In black and white for perpetuity? I think Rosenfield's character exhibits a love of protocol in extremis, and to have him breaking that seems a misstep.
You could argue Preston's voice is the way it is because it's an informal arrangement between her and Cole, but that doesn't sit well with the official-file design of the work. It also doesn't sit with how Preston was presented on the show: clipped and businesslike, a stereotypical just-the-facts Fed. There were hints of intimacy with Cole, and these are indeed continued here - there's a familiarity revealed in the loose questioning of her Chief throughout - but something seems off.
Perhaps the strangest omission is that Gordon Cole doesn't really feature in the work. Yes, the files are all aimed for him, but it seems odd that Cole - who it's inferred knows much more than he ever lets on - is so absent in the work he's masterminded.
(Interesting sidebar: when referencing Joudy, the malevolent puppet-master behind a lot of the TP lore, the dossier informs us that the deity is Sumerian. This is, of course, the same neck of the woods as Ghostbusters’ Gozer the Gozerian. I hope this means that Coop and Venkman are soul brothers.)
Something I found both irritating and intriguing, though, is the idea of performance, of being in a role that crops up now and again in the book. Sure, having a narrator with the initials TP is as on the nose as Angel Heart's Louis Cyphere, but it seems to go along with the parts of Lynch that buck against the success of Twin Peaks as an example of great TV. You know, the smashed-in TV at the start of Fire Walk With Me, and the resolute fuck you, you can never go home again that's displayed in the unnerving, unsettling version of the show that was presented this year. I think in the book, Frost explores this idea a little: when we've come to the end of the files, Preston talks of feeling foggy, of the uncertain effects of being too close to the material. It reads as hackneyed if you're thinking in terms of literature, but viewed as stage directions: exeunt, pursued by mist it makes a lot more sense. Later, in her final thoughts, she explicitly speaks of being a performer - being on stage, mystified, not knowing her part in the performance.
This kind of stuff - this uncertainty, this world of doppelgängers and intentionally-odd acting - is part, for me, of the appeal of Twin Peaks. I was disappointed there wasn't more of a sense of this in the book.
Years ago, when I watched the original two series of Twin Peaks as a teenager, I dreamed of having a book that explained everything that went on: something to say what the creators had been thinking, to give a definitive viewpoint on what went on. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier offers that, to a degree, and it turns out youthful me was wrong.
Perhaps Lynch's approach - leaving canonical meaning hanging - may have been a better approach.
I really wanted to like this.
Rating this book sparked a heated internal debate in my head. On one hand, Mark Frost gives closure to a lot of beloved characters from Twin Peaks and further explains some of the more esoteric events from the previous three seasons. On the other, Frost's prose as Tammy Preston is grating and induced many eyerolls throughout my reading; there are some glaring grammatical errors which make you wonder how rushed the editor was, and some characters get no closure at all. There are two different moments where Tammy will go off on a tangent during one character's case file to talk about a related character, only to quickly note that she will have "more on that later", but it never comes.
Having said that, I still greatly enjoyed reading this and it easily held my attention the whole way through. I just can't help but feel that some things were rushed and not expanded on as well as they could have been. "The Secret History" was an overall more engaging and exciting read, owed to the way the book was formatted like an overstuffed file filled with newspaper clippings, old journal entries, and government reports altered with notes from The Archivist. In contrast, "The Final Dossier" is set up much more like a novel with each 'chapter' being a character's case file and voiced solely through Tammy Preston.
Highly recommended for fans of the show who are chomping at the bit for any more scraps of information they can get out of the property, but be prepared for some disappointment.
Having said that, I still greatly enjoyed reading this and it easily held my attention the whole way through. I just can't help but feel that some things were rushed and not expanded on as well as they could have been. "The Secret History" was an overall more engaging and exciting read, owed to the way the book was formatted like an overstuffed file filled with newspaper clippings, old journal entries, and government reports altered with notes from The Archivist. In contrast, "The Final Dossier" is set up much more like a novel with each 'chapter' being a character's case file and voiced solely through Tammy Preston.
Highly recommended for fans of the show who are chomping at the bit for any more scraps of information they can get out of the property, but be prepared for some disappointment.
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A