Doug said,
I just note in passing, as a sort of tic, that I had a
>little trouble getting past Helm's code name Eric,
which seems so bland and
>characterless, and it never seems to operate much as a
code name.
I too tripped on this small thing. But early on, in this
first Helm novel
for me, I must say I am impressed by the efficiency of the
storytelling,
and the style. I like the awareness of style too, as when
Helm comments,
in the motel room where he and Jean are talking for the
hidden microphones,
"Don't blame us for the dialogue." One reflects that the
dialogue is
exactly the sort of dialogue one has put up with in lesser
fiction, too--a
comment with an extra bite.
I followed the Bond-Helm thread earlier, but Helm's
professionalism seems
also to have kinship with the dark, cold war sensibilities of
early Le
Carre novels--especially when things don't go well, and he
turns
independent or goes cowboy on the agency. [My only concern
there is that
if he goes cowboy in book after book, would it be credible
that the agency
would keep him on?]
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.