Re: RARA-AVIS: Recent purchases and reads

From: Ron Clinton ( r-and-jclinton@email.msn.com)
Date: 01 Feb 2001


"Mark Sullivan"
> I also recently got (from Terrill's new store) and read Ice Harvest by
> Scott Phillips. This is a nice, contained narrative, with everything
> happening in one night, as the lead character's scam comes to a head.
> Although I still haven't decided whether or not a small twist at the
> very end was a bit too O'Henry, the book would have made a very nice
> Gold Medal paperback

I read ICE HARVEST a couple weeks ago and really *wanted* to like it. A harkening back, a homage, whatever you want to call it - to the old Gold Medal pbs - just the kind of stuff I like. But I found HARVEST too meandering as he goes from bar to bar to strip club to homes to etc etc - it seemed to be a loss of central focus and became a bit tedious. The motive for his flight (and meandering) didn't become known until halfway through the book - fine if you're building up suspense to that point, not-so-fine if you're having your protagonist meander around and expecting the reader to follow along with interest. And, yes, the ending was much to O'Henry'ish and way over the top - all in all, a disappointing read. And that's too bad - since they don't publish too many of these types of book anymore...and I doubt ICE HARVEST will be the spark that ignites public interest in this type of work.

On the other end of the quality spectrum, I just finished FAKE I.D., the newest one by Jason Starr - now *that's* a stunner!

Ron Clinton

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