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A review by booksny
A Family Affair by Rex Stout
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I was gifted a book containing seven Nero Wolfe novels by a friend who knew I l liked mystery novels. I've now read all seven, this being the last one, and unfortunately my dislike of Nero Wolfe has steadily increased with each novel.
The one thing I appreciated about this novel was some dramatic scenes - rex stout could occasionally write tension very well.
The things which I did not like about this novel was:
1. a lot of the dialogue. Stout enjoyed dense, unnatural wordplay. For example, this was a line in the novel "Your first him's opinion of your second him is about the same as yours"
2. Nero Wolfe's convoluted tactics, which makes for a lot of scenes that are pointless red herrings. He has a fondness for getting all his suspects into the same room to ask them obvious questions and be the one talking the most as some kind of odd power play.
3. Archie Goodwin, the narrator. He displays a dangerous level of sexism in this novel which, aside from one character mentioning "he looks like a chauvinist", otherwise goes completely unchallenged. This sexism leads to
- lines like "If I was a male chauvinist pig in good standing I'd say you might try raping her. As I say, she has good legs."
- his belief that a woman who takes care of her appearance could only be doing it to appeal to men
- A grieving widow meets him for the first time, puts her arms around him with her shoulders trembling and his response to that was he "gave her fanny a couple of pats"
- his ideal woman (Lily Rowan) can best be described as a low maintenance partner - someone there to give unconditional affection but never challenge or cling
4. Some very deux ex machina aspects of the plot - this was particularly obvious in the last scene featuring the maid
Now I'm done, this is going straight to the charity shop, and I'm definitely not trying another Stout novel.
The one thing I appreciated about this novel was some dramatic scenes - rex stout could occasionally write tension very well.
The things which I did not like about this novel was:
1. a lot of the dialogue. Stout enjoyed dense, unnatural wordplay. For example, this was a line in the novel "Your first him's opinion of your second him is about the same as yours"
2. Nero Wolfe's convoluted tactics, which makes for a lot of scenes that are pointless red herrings. He has a fondness for getting all his suspects into the same room to ask them obvious questions and be the one talking the most as some kind of odd power play.
3. Archie Goodwin, the narrator. He displays a dangerous level of sexism in this novel which, aside from one character mentioning "he looks like a chauvinist", otherwise goes completely unchallenged. This sexism leads to
- lines like "If I was a male chauvinist pig in good standing I'd say you might try raping her. As I say, she has good legs."
- his belief that a woman who takes care of her appearance could only be doing it to appeal to men
- A grieving widow meets him for the first time, puts her arms around him with her shoulders trembling and his response to that was he "gave her fanny a couple of pats"
- his ideal woman (Lily Rowan) can best be described as a low maintenance partner - someone there to give unconditional affection but never challenge or cling
4. Some very deux ex machina aspects of the plot - this was particularly obvious in the last scene featuring the maid
Now I'm done, this is going straight to the charity shop, and I'm definitely not trying another Stout novel.