I'm about half way through Panic Attack and I was struck (once again) by how well Jason writes about such a wide variety of different characters from bartenders, thugs and drug dealers to housewives, metrosexuals and Vassar coeds. He's like a friggin' Houdini the way he gets into the minds of all these types of people. And he's convincing.
I still remember being impressed by the Peter Wells character in the last novel, The Follower, when he was expounding on the different movies based on Jane Austen novels. Gold bless, Jason, he must have sat through all those goddamn Jane Austen movies. Me, I'd rather stick bamboo shoots under my nails.
Problem is, if you consider it a problem, not one of his characters in 11 novels is very sympathetic. He keeps you turning the pages only because you know the characters are going to make a train wreck of their lives and you just can't turn away. (Wait a minute, there was Mickey Prada in Tough Luck. He tried to be a good boy and you felt sorry for him.)
Has anyone else read or started to read Panic Attack yet? I noticed that 11 people marked it as "to read" or "currently reading" on GoodReads.
Jeff
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