Put off reading this for a long time but I'm glad I finally did. I think seeing that it was a crime novel with a supernatural element put me off a litPut off reading this for a long time but I'm glad I finally did. I think seeing that it was a crime novel with a supernatural element put me off a little, not that I was worried that it wouldn't be wrapped up neatly (who cares about that?), but because to my mind good crime novels right now are about exploring place, and hearing there was a supernatural element made me guess there wouldn't be any of that. I was right, but this isn't a crime novel. It just has some cops and murder to kick things off. Anyway none of that matter because this one is good. It's really good.
Could be just the southern setting but this reminded me a bit of Charles Portis, although maybe it's just because they both wrote books that have some extremely funny bits but that would be spoiled if they were sold as comedies. ...more
I'm beating a tactical retreat here but I am not defeated. This book is going to require more of my patience than I can allocate right now. I will retI'm beating a tactical retreat here but I am not defeated. This book is going to require more of my patience than I can allocate right now. I will return in the future.
Merged review:
I'm beating a tactical retreat here but I am not defeated. This book is going to require more of my patience than I can allocate right now. I will return in the future.
Merged review:
I'm beating a tactical retreat here but I am not defeated. This book is going to require more of my patience than I can allocate right now. I will return in the future.
Merged review:
I'm beating a tactical retreat here but I am not defeated. This book is going to require more of my patience than I can allocate right now. I will return in the future....more
Nightmare Town: lot of action but it's just a guy with a walking stick, so it isn't really thrilling. Reveal is great (view spoiler)[the entire town iNightmare Town: lot of action but it's just a guy with a walking stick, so it isn't really thrilling. Reveal is great (view spoiler)[the entire town is a front for a bootlegging operation and about to burn for the insurance money (hide spoiler)] but just sort of blurted out at the end
House Dick: our first Continental Op story! Reads almost like a Dick Tracy comic, but I loved it. Three bodies fall out of a hotel closet, and it turns out (view spoiler)[it's all a case of mistaken identity in a sort of gang war (hide spoiler)]
Ruffian's Wife: a good crime story told form the POV of a wandering adventurer's stay-at-home wife
The Man Who Killed Dan Odams: the best story so far. Great forward action that keeps you guessing at what happened before the story started, and I didn't see the twist coming at all (view spoiler)[the woman whose house he invades is the widow of Dan Odams (hide spoiler)] which isn't just a twist but lends an extra poignancy to the proceedings. Or rather, it highlights a certain moral ambiguity which turns this into something more than a simple adventure. A western and a crime story, I'm surprised this has never been adapted into a movie.
Night Shots: A locked room murder mystery, or close to it, I guess. Starring the Continental Op. Atmospheric. The villain of the piece (gambling, adulterous, spendthrift scoundrel etc who jokes and laughs at the Op's work) is not the murderer, which is a nice touch. And the solution is inventive but plausible: the old man sick in bed was trying to kill his own nurse because he thought he confessed the years ago murder of his wife to her. He makes it look like an assassin is bungling the job trying to kill him. Even better punchline: the nurse says he didn't confess anything, just made her afraid because he was shouting obscenities while doped up....more
Better than the movie, which surprised me because I like Kubrick. There's actually two separate sniper scenes in this which get merged to one in the fBetter than the movie, which surprised me because I like Kubrick. There's actually two separate sniper scenes in this which get merged to one in the film, and the training stuff is over relatively quicker in the novel.
The novel, at its best, feels like it has a drumbeat under it, propelling you forward. At its worst it's just a bunch of jarhead dialogue, collections of sayings from psycho-killers and guys just trying to survive the war, not always as pithy as the speakers think. But there's some really great stuff in here, especially how the ethical dilemma of the novel's climax, when the enemy sniper is taking out their friends. I can't remember if the movie has the same resolution or not, but damn, what an ending.
Also, finally, the bit where he's confronted about his peace pin is better in the novel. I don't think they'd be allowed to show what happens onscreen, even though it's not that violent or shocking, but it's subversive in a way that very little in American culture is ever allowed to be....more
This starts as over-the-top as The Short Timers and keeps ramping up until it reaches a sort of CélineaA poetic and action-packed critique of empire.
This starts as over-the-top as The Short Timers and keeps ramping up until it reaches a sort of Célinean hysteria with the Black Confederacy leading a mutiny just as the Vietcong overrun the base. But after that comes the real shock: a sort of softness you would not have expected Gustav Hasford to exhibit. It becomes a non-SF Avatar, literally just Private Joker healing himself with life among the Vietcong. But that peacefulness can't last, and caring about people on both sides of the war is only going to rip you apart....more
Dogshit. And I say that as a fan of John Williams' Stoner and Butcher's Crossing. It's only a hundred or so pages but still I started zoning out afterDogshit. And I say that as a fan of John Williams' Stoner and Butcher's Crossing. It's only a hundred or so pages but still I started zoning out after the part where the gay guy tries hitting him up for money, a part that was at least a little memorable, and I really just skimmed the back half of the book, if that. Apparently he wrote this in a tent in Burma while waiting to be discharged after his plane was shot down in WW2, so I guess that's cool. And also to be fair he himself personally disowned it in later years. That trivia comes from the interview with his widow at the back of the book, which is more interesting than the novel itself....more
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