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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
The book seemed disjointed going between the "thriller" aspect and the boring, moody brooding of Gabriel and his backstory. All of the backstory was completely skippable. It was definitely not actually a thriller and it felt the book within a book aspect fell flat. Much of the plot points were too ridiculous to be taken seriously and reading this just left me irritated.
I've been interested in reading Maupin's Tales of the City for several years, but this became my first Maupin book when I learned about it on, of all places, an episode of 20/20 about the real-life case of Anthony Godby Johnson, which the book fictionalizes. I actually feel like I would have liked the book more had I not known about its inspiration going in, as it sticks extremely close to reality until the final third, where it takes more generous liberties. For this reason, there was very little sense of drama or suspense for me. I think the writing style is also partly to blame for this. I could tell that Maupin is used to writing less heavy fare, as there's a certain lightness to the prose that contradicts the gravity of the situation. Even though the story is, by necessity, largely dependent on phone conversations, I also thought that Maupin relied too heavily on dialogue in place of other forms of characterization. Finally, the extreme meta-ness of the novel was a bit much for me to take: it was often frustratingly difficult to figure out where Maupin ended and Gabriel Noone as a self-contained entity began, and I know that this partially serves the story's purpose of showing the blurriness of truth vs. fiction, but it could have done with a lot more nuance and subtlety in that regard. The afterword, particularly, was so heavy-handed that all I could do was roll my eyes. Overall, this wasn't a bad novel - it was interesting if not exciting, moved along at a brisk pace and was immensely readable (like many noted, I also liked that it featured gay characters whose gayness was not essential to the plot while remaining an important part of their characters) - but I think it could have been a whole lot better.
dark
mysterious
Fascinating. Some of the dialogue is stiff and seems contrived but that may have been deliberate. Make sure you read the New Yorker article about the book by Tad Friend AFTER you finish it. It pulls everything (almost) together. The paperback version of the book I read had a copy of the article in the back.
Very well done psychological novel. I appreciated the way the plot moved--there were no surprise twists and what a lesser author might have made the shocker became part of the evolution of Gabriel. I also appreciated the end--the tension, ultimately, is unresolved and we have to decide for ourselves what we think "really" happened. Were there jewels on the elephants?
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
I almost didn't pick this up at the library, since I had seen the movie (which I normally don't do), but I am glad I did. It's so thought-provoking and incandescent. I wanted more, but was satisfied with how it ended. I will be reading more of Mr. Maupin in the future; better late than never!
Three stars seems oddly too high for this book, so take my 2 stars to mean 2.5ish. I really couldn't say it was in the slightest bit believeable nor particularly gripping. The only thing keeping me reading at points was an inability to sleep on my part.
Firstly, speaking as someone with some knowledge of the profession of psychologists and someone also aware of child protection protocols, there's a whole lot of suspension of disbelief required for this story.
I have to admit it's pretty passable as some "thrillers" go, but nothing I'd whole or even half-heartedly endorse.
Firstly, speaking as someone with some knowledge of the profession of psychologists and someone also aware of child protection protocols, there's a whole lot of suspension of disbelief required for this story.
I have to admit it's pretty passable as some "thrillers" go, but nothing I'd whole or even half-heartedly endorse.