At 12:55 PM 02/09/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>ICE HARVEST was very close and tight and linear, and
Phillips exploded for
>this book. The narrative is complicated and there are
so many characters,
>related by blood, marriage, adultery or history, that
it takes a while to
>get it all figured out.
I'm about a third through WALKAWAY and my feeling is that
this is a much more ambitious book than ICE HARVEST, possibly
in a larger, even more ambitious project. This seems to be a
social history of post-war Witchita, and the effect of rapid
industrialization on a community and its citizens.
I agree with Bill that it's complex. I've had to go back and
remind myself of who's who, and their coiling relationships.
Phillips also changes voice. Most of the book is written in
the third person, with the focus of the narration shifting.
This is interspersed with chapters written in the first
person, shifting the points of view among different major
characters.
THE WALKAWAY is also very funny, with some excellent
one-liners and lost characters. It is also hardboiled, but so
far I'm not sure its a crime novel- not in its main focus
anyway. Not that that impedes enjoyment. If I weren't
married, with a wife who firmly believes sunny holiday
weekends should be spent out-of-doors visiting friends and
relatives, I would have finished this book by now.
Kerry
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