On 13 January 2002, George Pelecanos wrote:
: HOT SPRINGS, by Stephen Hunter
Hunter's well-liked on the list, and he fits in, but the more
I read the less I like. One, I wonder how well non-Americans
relate, and two, in HOT SPRINGS he does everything possible
to crank up the tension and it just turns ridiculous. At the
end (SPOILERS), Earl Swagger is taking care of business and
needs to get back to his wife, who's about to have a
baby
(little Bob Lee), but who went out looking for Earl and so
isn't at home, so he has to find her, and there's no
experienced doctor at the little hospital where she is, and
there are complications, so he has to go get a doctor, and
there are only minutes to save his wife's life, so he races
to get an old black doctor we met earlier in the book, but
the town his wife is in doesn't like black doctors and they
march on the hospital, so Earl has to go to the front door
and stand them down, and freedom and justice triumph over
hate as a new hero is born. It's ludicrous.
I did really like DIRTY WHITE BOYS, though.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 13 Jan 2002 EST