I just read this one last week myself. It was my third
Scudder novel, after "Hope To Die" and "A Dance At The
Slaughterhouse", and I think the best of the three. I kind of
liked the treatment of the drinking.
These guys are heroically hard drinkers, but it
obviously isn't sustainable, and they screw up in various
large and small ways. I don't know where this story fits into
the narrative of Scudder's eventual decision to get sober,
but there seem to be signs that things are getting out of
control. And I thought the retrospective narration, '70s as
recalled from the '80s, was very well done, and interesting
to read in 2007. It also allowed quite naturally for
the
"what happened to the characters afterwards" sort of coda at
the end.
If/when I read another of these novels, it will probably be
one of the earlier ones. I think the flawed, drinking Scudder
makes an interesting protagonist.
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