Define Out Of Books When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6)
| Title | : | When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6) |
| Author | : | Lawrence Block |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 272 pages |
| Published | : | 2000 by Orion (first published 1986) |
| Categories | : | Mystery. Crime. Fiction. Detective. Noir. Thriller. Mystery Thriller |
Lawrence Block
Paperback | Pages: 272 pages Rating: 4.17 | 4800 Users | 255 Reviews
Narrative Conducive To Books When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6)
This is a fine entry in the Matt Scudder series, but fans of conventional mystery novels may be somewhat disappointed, for it involves not one particular case, but three: the armed robbery of an after-hours joint, the extortion of a tavern for the return of its cooked books, and the murder of the wife of a patron of one of Matt's usual haunts. Scudder does eventually connect two cases and solve them, and he sort of solves the other case too, but there is a lot of conversation not germane to the detective work, and their connection and solution are almost beside the point.
Well, just what then is the point? These three cases are a decade in the past, narrated by what is a now sober Matt in a meditative farewell to drink: to its taste, to its effects on the drinker, to the world where it is served and the colorful people found there, but, most of all, to the bond between drinker and world, a bond which the determinedly sober man may never experience again.
As Scudder tells us, during the summing up:
...when I look ten years into the past I can say that I would very likely have handled things differently now. Everything. All changed, changed utterly. I live in the same hotel, I walk the same streets, I go to a fight or a ball game the same as ever, but ten years ago I was always drinking and now I don't drink at all. I don't regret a single one of the drinks I took, and I hope to God I never take another.
Point Books Supposing When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6)
| Original Title: | When the Sacred Ginmill Closes |
| ISBN: | 0752836994 (ISBN13: 9780752836997) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Matthew Scudder #6 |
| Characters: | Matthew Scudder |
| Literary Awards: | Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel (1987), Shamus Award Nominee for Best PI Hardcover (1987), Falcon Award (1987) |
Rating Out Of Books When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6)
Ratings: 4.17 From 4800 Users | 255 ReviewsArticle Out Of Books When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6)
This is a fine entry in the Matt Scudder series, but fans of conventional mystery novels may be somewhat disappointed, for it involves not one particular case, but three: the armed robbery of an after-hours joint, the extortion of a tavern for the return of its cooked books, and the murder of the wife of a patron of one of Matt's usual haunts. Scudder does eventually connect two cases and solve them, and he sort of solves the other case too, but there is a lot of conversation not germane to theMore solid gold from Block here. Dude really seems to just get noticeably better and better with every book, which is saying something because even the first Scudder novel was remarkable stuff. Its really something when you get ahold of a work like Eight Million Ways to Die which seems to be as good as things get and powerfully weighted with its own sense of accomplishment and finality, then a followup comes along and is just as good or even arguably better. The Godfather Part II is a good
This is among the best of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, which is saying quite a lot. Set in the mid-1970s, it finds Scudder divorced, working as an unlicensed P.I. in New York City and essentially living in the bars that dot the neighborhood around his small hotel room.The book opens with the brazen robbery of an after-hours saloon that happens to be owned by some scary Irish brothers that no smart person would ever think to screw around with. Matt is present at the time of the
A few years ago it became somewhat fashionable for like a month or two to talk about how Stephen King deserved to win literary awards. Because I'm lazy I'm not going to look it up, but I think he was even given some kind of lifetime achievement award from the folks who provide us with the National Book Award. It was around the same time that McSweeney's and Michael Chabon were flaunting their genre fiction cred and releasing the pretty much unreadble anthology of adventure stories. It's been
In the end i liked how different this book was from the 5th book that is so highly rated,award winning. I liked the flasback story mostly because of the gang of friends that hanged around with Matt in 1975. I liked Skip and co, the first Scudder book that hade lines that made me laugh. They tend to be more bleak,complex character study.I liked how beliavable Block ended the different cases, how Matt worked without being some super detective. I liked the different things that the title was a
An after hours bar is robbed by two masked men. A bar buddy's wife is murdered and he's the prime suspect. The clean set of books from another friend's bar is stolen. What, if anything, do Matthew Scudder's three cases have to do with one another?After Eight Million Ways to Die, I wasn't that impressed with this one in the first few chapters but it really picked up. It takes place while Scudder is still drinking, back in 1975. Once again, Block had me guessing right up until the end. It never
Wasn't sure that I was going to like this Scudder book as much as the others to start with as it started off a bit slowly. However, it got better the further I read and had a really clever ending so was right up there with the best. What a great series this is ! On to the next one...
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.