As with a lot of polarizing books which people are supposed
to either
love or hate, I fell somewhere in the middle. The "shocking"
scenes
were not that shocking to me and except for a few
calculatingly
disgusting images (Case's memories of being put in the belly
of a cow
when she was younger) most of them are barely hinted at, or
happen
offstage, only to be mentioned cryptically later on.
Although, I
concede someone's earlier complaint about the use of andiron
as a verb,
I thought it was generally well-written.
My problem with the book came in the characterization. None
of these
characters has much depth, each filling out a stock character
and some
not even that. So for me the book lagged somewhat in the
middle, during
the long drives in which Case and Bob discuss their
philosophies and
slowly come to know and eventually respect and trust each
other. Also,
to make Bob's turning away from his religion dramatic, I
would have to
have been more convinced of his faith in the first place. He
simply
changed from being extremely judgemental of "scum" like Case,
to being
extremely judgemental of the hypocrisy of upright citizens.
John
Wayne's character was far richer and more complex -- I found
his
simultaneous revulsion and joy at finally finding his niece
Natalie Wood
far more moving than Bob's less conflicted response, even
though Case
had warned him of just that possibility many times.
Still, I would recommend the book to anyone who likes
multiple
storyline, lots of action, Stephen Hunter-type books. I'm not
a a big
fan of the subgenre, greatly preferring Elmore Leonard, Ross
Thomas or
Carl Hiaasen to Hunter (although I think his movie writing
is
excellent), but I did enjoy this book.
Mark
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