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A review by obscene_jack
Stone Junction by Jim Dodge
5.0
Rereading it was a wonderful experience, and it very clearly reminded me why Jim Doge is one of my favourite authors, even though Much Stone, Such Junction is not my favourite book written by him.
It just grabs you and drags you (with your permission, or possibly without) through itself, constantly surprising you, raining on you colourful people for whom you immediately open all the doors into your heart, a spirit of America so quirky and beautiful you can't help but fall in love with it, and things that are so right they make you want to cry.
This is a magical realist work, an alchemical thriller, a beautiful road book. This is a story from the man who knows a lot of things and knows how to tell them. This is a story about what's right, and what makes life worth living.
On the other hand, there's one thing that irks me a little.
It's clearly divided in the middle, and the parts don't exactly fit together, like two pieces of a puzzle you manage to insert into each other with a little force, and the picture just doesn't add up. When you look at the bare bones of the story in your head, it feels fine, but the execution lacks things. And nope, didn't guess, all the plotpoints are interesting and worthy, it's just it begs for more. In the first half of the book the protagonist is learning things, and then the thrillery fast-paced part comes in, and he just doesn't have enough space to use his multiple hard-earned skills. Some padding between the parts could have been an unnecessary distraction, but the situation the protagonist finds himself in just begs to come up with cargo ship loads of interesting things he could have been doing. If anything, it just undervalues the first part, making some awfully interesting things unnecessary to the story.
I partly wish this book made its way into the hands of some greedy tv producer, who would keep the original outline, but milk his new awesome show for additional episodes. Then it would get cancelled, like it happens with all the good shows, and the world would be heartbroken forever. Oh well, at least it'd still have the book.
It just grabs you and drags you (with your permission, or possibly without) through itself, constantly surprising you, raining on you colourful people for whom you immediately open all the doors into your heart, a spirit of America so quirky and beautiful you can't help but fall in love with it, and things that are so right they make you want to cry.
This is a magical realist work, an alchemical thriller, a beautiful road book. This is a story from the man who knows a lot of things and knows how to tell them. This is a story about what's right, and what makes life worth living.
On the other hand, there's one thing that irks me a little.
It's clearly divided in the middle, and the parts don't exactly fit together, like two pieces of a puzzle you manage to insert into each other with a little force, and the picture just doesn't add up. When you look at the bare bones of the story in your head, it feels fine, but the execution lacks things. And nope, didn't guess, all the plotpoints are interesting and worthy, it's just it begs for more. In the first half of the book the protagonist is learning things, and then the thrillery fast-paced part comes in, and he just doesn't have enough space to use his multiple hard-earned skills. Some padding between the parts could have been an unnecessary distraction, but the situation the protagonist finds himself in just begs to come up with cargo ship loads of interesting things he could have been doing. If anything, it just undervalues the first part, making some awfully interesting things unnecessary to the story.
I partly wish this book made its way into the hands of some greedy tv producer, who would keep the original outline, but milk his new awesome show for additional episodes. Then it would get cancelled, like it happens with all the good shows, and the world would be heartbroken forever. Oh well, at least it'd still have the book.