1. In chapter four, Lou says he can't get Amy pregnant
because he'd
had a vasectomy. When asked why, he says,
"Oh, I was kind of run down and nervous, and he [Lou's
father] thought--"
"Why, you were not! You were never that way!" [says
Amy]
"Well," I said, "he thought I was."
I must be missing something here. Why would a vasectomy be
performed
for someone who was tired and on edge? Is the suggestion that
he was
some kind of non-stop masturbator?
2. When the hell did Lou have time to write the book? It ends
with
his death. Is it supposed to be an internal monologue, or
him
replaying his story in his last moments? Lou says:
In lots of books I read, the writer seems to go haywire
every time he reaches a high point. He'll start
leaving
out punctuation and running his words together and
babble
about stars flashing and sinking into a deep dreamless
sea.
And you can't figure out whether the hero's laying his
girl or a cornerstone. I guess that kind of crap is
supposed to be pretty deep stuff--a lot of the book
reviewers
eat it up, I notice. But the way I see it, the writer
is
just too goddam lazy to do his job. And I'm not lazy,
whatever else I am. I'll tell you everything.
It certainly sounds like he's writing it, but dead men tell
no tales.
This is something that bugs me about some PI and cop fiction:
when
do these guys find the time to sit down and write 60,000
words about
their last case?
Does anyone have any comments about the book? It's been a
long time
since I read it, and it was as twisted and cutting as I
remember.
Bill
--
William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/ | Caveat lector.
"It is better to incur a mild rebuke than to perform an onerous task."
-- "Uncle" Oswald Hendryks Cornelius
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