William Denton (buff@pobox.com)
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 00:01:00 -0400 (EDT)
Well, this time I made sure I got the book of the month. It's
the first Pronzini I've read in quite a while. I read three
or four of his Nameless books several years ago, then never
got around to reading anything else. I know he's held in high
regard by many on the list so I was looking forward to this
one.
For those who haven't read it, it's the story of a bored,
lonely accountant who becomes mildly obsessesed with a woman
he sees in a restaurant. She eats the same meal, night after
night, and she's very depressed and utterly lonely. Within a
couple of weeks she's killed herself, and the accountant sets
off the find out why she ended up as she did. He tracks her
back to a small, dusty town and his investigation there
upsets a lot of people and sets a lot of things in
motion.
It's a good story, and well written, although the solution
and revelation of the killer was a bit weak. Aside from that
the end was satisfying and I was pleased the accountant ended
up happily. I was reminded, like I always am when a guy hits
a small town and proceeds to tear the lid off, of _Red
Harvest_. It's been so long since I read _Harvest_ that I
can't compare the two, though.
Pronzini does a fine job of describing the loneliness and
solitary existence of some of the characters, with their
empty lives and dead futures. Beulah itself is one bleak,
depressing place, too. But as I said, it ends up happily,
which I much prefer to some kind of depressing, open-ended
close where people just wandered off and nothing
changed.
I'm sure others have more interesting comments to make on
it.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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