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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
One hell of a noir. Crackling writing, some really good stuff. Bleak and nauseating.
I'm hooked. I feel like I'm following the main characters in this story like a documentarian.
Two people living on the edge. The reader is being teased into wanting to know more about this unlikeliest or likeliest duo. I'm hoping to finish this in the next day or so..I'll be back with a full report.
"In Dallas I got turned around somehow and drove out through a plush Home-and-Garden Club kind of neighborhood, where all the houses were of long thin wafers of Roman brick or blotchy fieldstone and were set far back from the road, their picture windows shining like gold foil in the late sun. We passed what must have been some kind of club, and there were limber-legged young kids on a strip of fine clay, stroking brand new white tennis balls with a beautiful laziness, their expensively coached strokes almost insolent. Then we came out of that part of town and there were some grubby youngsters battling an old gray ball around a gray asphalt court, a public one with ragged chicken wire backstops. These kids played aggressively, jumpy and fast, the movements ugly and determined. They beat the ball as f they were killing a snake.
"It's funny, " said said to me "they can be playing the same game and yet an altogether different one" "It's the money"
"Yes"
"Everything stinks without the money"
"Almost everything"
"Some day I'm going to wallow in it again. I'm going to strip down buck naked and bathe in cool green hundred-dollar bills"
"You said again"
Two people living on the edge. The reader is being teased into wanting to know more about this unlikeliest or likeliest duo. I'm hoping to finish this in the next day or so..I'll be back with a full report.
"In Dallas I got turned around somehow and drove out through a plush Home-and-Garden Club kind of neighborhood, where all the houses were of long thin wafers of Roman brick or blotchy fieldstone and were set far back from the road, their picture windows shining like gold foil in the late sun. We passed what must have been some kind of club, and there were limber-legged young kids on a strip of fine clay, stroking brand new white tennis balls with a beautiful laziness, their expensively coached strokes almost insolent. Then we came out of that part of town and there were some grubby youngsters battling an old gray ball around a gray asphalt court, a public one with ragged chicken wire backstops. These kids played aggressively, jumpy and fast, the movements ugly and determined. They beat the ball as f they were killing a snake.
"It's funny, " said said to me "they can be playing the same game and yet an altogether different one" "It's the money"
"Yes"
"Everything stinks without the money"
"Almost everything"
"Some day I'm going to wallow in it again. I'm going to strip down buck naked and bathe in cool green hundred-dollar bills"
"You said again"
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have to admit I was warily of this book when I found out it was to be the NYRB Book of the Month for January. Noir and I do not get along very well. It’s just a fact of life.
However this book – I can see why people like it.
Because Chaze writes a quick moving story that avoids being the in your face moral fable or women as cheap floozies.
And what it says about how law enforcement values life is rather interesting.
What really sells the book is Chaze’s writing. There is an economy to the prose. There is not a wasted word, not an over blown description, no conveying of irrelevant information. It is more of an unfolding than anything else.
(NYRB Book of the Month Jan 2016)
However this book – I can see why people like it.
Because Chaze writes a quick moving story that avoids being the in your face moral fable or women as cheap floozies.
And what it says about how law enforcement values life is rather interesting.
What really sells the book is Chaze’s writing. There is an economy to the prose. There is not a wasted word, not an over blown description, no conveying of irrelevant information. It is more of an unfolding than anything else.
(NYRB Book of the Month Jan 2016)
Can’t say I’m well versed or even a particular fan of noir but this was a fuckin TRIP and a highly enjoyable read
A nice heist novel where the heist is the least important part of the novel. The lead character was pretty good (the novel was told on the first person) and i never felt like I had a handle on the femme fatale. But there were lots of interesting things going on and it is definitely worth reading.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes