--- Ed Lynskey <
e_lynskey@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've enjoyed reading GORKY PARK (Ballantine
Books
> released a
> nice softcover edition in March). I saw the
movie
> years ago,
> but the book is better, if I trust my memory.
Arkady
> is a
> likeable, relentless crime investigator.
****************************************************** Yes,
it's a great book. I read an article in which Smith talks
about how he finished the novel. Apparently he was fairly
sure he was on to a great story but he was uncertain about
the beginning chapter, whether it had a sufficient hook to
grab the reader. By the time he was writing the last chapter
he was writing white-hot and he could feel the ending was
very good. He still had plenty of energy, so he rewrote the
first chapter last, bringing all his new found energy to the
beginning as well as the end. Who knows if it really made a
difference, but Smith certainly believes it did. It was his
first huge success and remains perhaps his most successful
and engaging plot. I, too, thought the movie was great but
the book blows it out of the water.
Patrick King
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