I started out hating Like a Hole in the Head. The book store
clerk lies when it would be easier to tell the truth and is
rude in language and deed. I was on the verge of quitting
after a few pages when I decided to continue a little in
order to see more of the structure, and because I know to
trust the titles reviewed here. Somewhere I got hooked and
wanted to know what would happen next. This is a book
difficult to like and then really interesting.
Victoria
Karin Montin <
kmontin@sympatico.ca> wrote:
I really enjoyed Jen Banbury's Like a Hole in the
Head. Check the archives (easy to search, lots to find) for
some conflicting opinions. She is apparently a freelance
journalist for NPR, Salon.com and others, and still doesn't
seem to have published another book.
This is what I wrote in July 2001:
A couple of months ago I came across Like a Hole in the Head,
by Jen Banbury. The back cover blurbs compare her to Hammett
(George Pelecanos delivers a rave review). She does not seem
to have written another novel yet.
The protagonist is a clerk in a used-book store, and one day
a strange dwarf sells her a rare Jack London first edition.
Trouble starts when he wants it back and she doesn't have it
anymore. A rather picaresque adventure ensues, as she stays
up for days on end drinking nothing but booze and coffee,
eating nothing but odd bits of candy and other junk. The cast
of characters is interesting and the tone is humourously
hardbitten. Motorcycles, cars, even guns, against the
backdrop of the second-hand/antiquarian book trade and the
movie industry. Reminiscent of the "bookman" books, but only
to a degree. I liked this one better. I thought it was great,
although the ending was a little murky for me.
At 02:36 PM 24/04/2007 +0000, "Willow Arune"
pangarun@telus.net wrote:
>As a book collector, I really get a kick out of the
five Janeway titles by John Dunning. John has a rather
negative opinion of signed first editions, which comes out in
"Sign of the Book". Also as a result, he signs (or did,
before his stroke) just about every book! One collector
quipped that it was getting difficult to find a first edition
that John had not signed, so the unsigned books should have a
higher value.
>
>And there is Bernie Rhodenbarr, the burglar of
Lawrence Block.
>
>There seem to be a number of other book dealers who
are part time detectives, but having samples some I had to
pass.
>
>Are there any other book dealer detectives out there?
Librarians?
--------------------------------- Be a better friend,
newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it
now.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Feb 2008 EST