Re: RARA-AVIS: *L.A. Requiem*

From: Al Guthrie ( allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk)
Date: 06 May 2003


----- Original Message ----- Jack Bludis wrote:
> There were some confusing point of view scenes in
> which Elvis pulls back and observes a scene so
> objectively that I didn't realize that those
> parts of the book were in first person.

It's not a first person novel. There are scenes recounted where Elvis could not have been present. Crais uses multiple viewpoint narration and its effectiveness is debatable . I'm not entirely convinced that third and first person can sit comfortably side by side. It's an easy way to circumvent all the usual hurdles of first person narration and can come across as a bit of a cheat. Harlan Coben uses the same technique in "Gone For Good" with similarly ambiguous results. However, despite the unusual POV switching, I have to confess, like Jack, that I didn't let it stop me enjoying the book.

> Joe Pike? To me, he seemed as over the top as
> Spenser's Hawk, but in context this is a nit and
> not a major complaint.

We have a Hawk. We have a Pike. What's next? A mammal? Whale, the bloated sidekick? Pitt-Bull, the loyal sidekick? Or just Bull, the shit sidekick?

Al

Hump, another monosyllabic sidekick: www.allanguthrie.co.uk/dennis.htm

--
# To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
# majordomo@icomm.ca.  This will not work for the digest version.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 May 2003 EDT