But you seem to be missing that the whole thing was a
psychotic episode. There was very little going on outside the
protagonist's fantasy. That, I think, was the point of the
book. This was how this person dealt with the fact that he'd
been committed to Shutter Island, telling himself he was
there "in a professional capacity," and making up a scenario
close to his real life before the psychotic break. This is
not occult, this psychological fact. That's how, according to
current medical belief, these types of personalities deal
with this kind of situation. Yes, if you believe anything
this person is relating is true, the story is unbelievable.
But if you see the whole book as a little like the first
chapter of The Sound & the Fury, I think it begins to
look like a great book, certianly an original story.
Patrick King
--- Dave Zeltserman <
dz@hardluckstories.com> wrote:
> SPOILER ON SHUTTER ISLAND!!!!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I find the whole premise of the book
"cheating"
> since there's no way
> any prison hospital would give a dangerous
inmate
> free reign, and
> create the scenario that was given, and I did
find
> other smaller
> cheating, such as his convenient psychotic
episodes
> imagining a
> woman inmate, and there were others. That said,
none
> of this
> cheating and utter preposterousness of the
story
> would've bothered
> me if this were a Stephen King book. Maybe even
that
> innanely hokey
> rules of nine, or whatever that code was,
wouldn't
> have bothered me
> (nah, I still owuld've found it too precious and
it
> still would've
> bugged the hell out of me). That was kind of
my
> point in that its
> all readers expectation--if I was expecting a
horror
> novel, I
> probably would've enjoyed Shutter Island.
Expecting
> a crime or noir
> novel, I was disappointed and felt cheated. All
that
> being said--I
> did find this Lehane's best novel, and it's
not
> Lehane's fault how
> the book was marketed, reviewed (as a
crime
> novel--at least by the
> reviews I read), or the expectations I ended
up
> having. And in a
> way, I'm guilty of the same--I intentionally set
up
> Fast Lane for
> the reader to think it's a PI novel, which it
isn't
> by any means,
> and I'm sure some readers were equally annoyed
once
> they figured
> what the book really was.
>
> --Dave Z.
>
>
>
>
>
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