Karin, you must be the one who told me about this book. It's
odd and unique, the protagonist is a conscientious,
courageous flake, and I liked it very much.
I never cared for the bookman
books. Joy
Victoria Two
>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.
and
> 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.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Feb 2008 EST