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Harvey's has once again created a character who at once is extremely likeable and flawed, who after a life of underachieving is given the greatest of gifts, a second chance. In his journey, he finds justice and redemption...and the wisdom to appreciate it.
The themes of unfinished business, unsentimental journeys into the past, and the art worlds of today's London and yesterday's New York moves along to a rich and satisfying conclusion.
The author's gift for characterization and dialogue is dead on. In a few lines we know enough to to embrace wholeheartedly or loathe to death the people who populate his worlds. I don't know if Sloane will star a new Harvey franchise, but I wouldn't mind meeting him again in his midlife adventure.
Sloane is a 60ish painter, just out of prison after a several year stretch for art forgery. He worked for a slimy art dealer, who he refused to drop the dime on. Now out, he works to rebuild his lonely life and wrecked studio, making friends with the local Malian café owner. He receives a letter from a lover from his youth-back when he was a bright young thing, and she ran with the big names in modern painting (Pollock, de Kooning, etc.). On her deathbed, the former flame (and one suspects his everlasting regret), reveals the existence of their daughter, stunning him.
Sloane ventures to New York to track her down, tasked with delivering her mother's last words. The woman is a jazz singer, under the thumb of a nasty semi-connected mobster type, who is also being investigated by a pair of homicide cops for the brutal murder of another woman. As Sloane searches for his daughter, he runs into old friends and a possible romance starts. The story builds its multiple strands steadily, only to erupt in a terrifying burst of nasty violence in the final chapters.
Unlike some crime writers who try to take on settings other than their native ones, Harvey exhibits total command of Manhattan past and present. His clean meditative prose unmasks the fears and desires of his characters and propels the deceptively simple story to its inexorable conclusion. Great stuff, can't wait for the next. BTW, this is a hundred times better than the last art/crime novel I read, David Ramus' vastly overhyped Thief of Light.
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As such, however, it is an excellent book. If you've never read Carl Oglesby, you should try him. His work is characterized by laser-like intelligence and crystalline, energetic writing. He is always a pleasure to read. If I had to characterize him in terms of better known writers, I'd call him a cross between Robert Christgau and Renata Adler (in terms of both content -- Christgau for politics, Adler for analytic ability -- and style).
This is an ideal starting place. After this, scramble to find a copy of The Yankee and Cowboy War, his major work. For me at least, the lack of a steadily accumulating body of work by Oglesby over the last two decades is a gap in our national intellectual life. With any luck, the Y2K coup will get him writing again.
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Un GRAN LIBRO !
I hate that ! And I have beaten my "brother " in law twice!
Useless! Because Anita, my sister, even got mad at me...He had beaten her so badly that she had two broken ribs!
WE MUST PUSH OUR WOMEN TO LEARN SELF RESPECT AND DIGNITY...AND THIS IS THE BOOK !
It is not a book on agression, but on DIGNITY
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