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A review by usbsticky
The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart by Lawrence Block
3.0
Spoilers ahead:
This is a terrible plot formula that Block has been using in the last few Bernie books.
Part 1) Bernie steals something and dead bodies appear which is he then framed for.
Part 2) Bernie does something. He meets people, breaks into apartments, calls people. None of this is explained and therefore none of it is interesting.
Part 3) Bernie calls everyone into a meeting where he explains everything.
Basically Block creates a complex and convoluted plot which we are supposed to ooh and aah at, but is actually the opposite of interesting to me. The complexity of the plot isn't interesting to me. It's all made up anyway. It's the characters, the setting and the relationships and the way the characters interact with each other which makes books interesting. As a veteran author Block seems to have forgotten this.
I mean this is why I still persist in reading this series. I like Bernie and his relationships with the characters in the book. The plot and the mystery sucks, frankly. Block also has a way of stretching short conversations into long pieces, but I've learned to fast read through that.
As to the plot of this story, it's about a fictional country that tried to appear out of the chaos of WWI (or WW2 or Cold War). The ruling family got exiled with a bunch of securities which some ex-Cold War spies are trying to steal. They try to get Bernie to steal it and chaos and "hilarity" ensues.
I'm now going back to read book #1 in the series which I dnf'd at 36% to see if I feel any different about it. I dnf'd two of Block's series before I read the Scudder series which I liked. Because I liked the Scudder series I also became more tolerant of Block's annoying writing idiosyncrasies so I'm going back to finish the other books I hadn't finished before.
This is a terrible plot formula that Block has been using in the last few Bernie books.
Part 1) Bernie steals something and dead bodies appear which is he then framed for.
Part 2) Bernie does something. He meets people, breaks into apartments, calls people. None of this is explained and therefore none of it is interesting.
Part 3) Bernie calls everyone into a meeting where he explains everything.
Basically Block creates a complex and convoluted plot which we are supposed to ooh and aah at, but is actually the opposite of interesting to me. The complexity of the plot isn't interesting to me. It's all made up anyway. It's the characters, the setting and the relationships and the way the characters interact with each other which makes books interesting. As a veteran author Block seems to have forgotten this.
I mean this is why I still persist in reading this series. I like Bernie and his relationships with the characters in the book. The plot and the mystery sucks, frankly. Block also has a way of stretching short conversations into long pieces, but I've learned to fast read through that.
As to the plot of this story, it's about a fictional country that tried to appear out of the chaos of WWI (or WW2 or Cold War). The ruling family got exiled with a bunch of securities which some ex-Cold War spies are trying to steal. They try to get Bernie to steal it and chaos and "hilarity" ensues.
I'm now going back to read book #1 in the series which I dnf'd at 36% to see if I feel any different about it. I dnf'd two of Block's series before I read the Scudder series which I liked. Because I liked the Scudder series I also became more tolerant of Block's annoying writing idiosyncrasies so I'm going back to finish the other books I hadn't finished before.