More painful than funny.
A few twists and turns fail to lift this unimaginative novel out of boredom and turgidity.
A predictable assortment of lowlifes inhabits the book. The narrator is Benny Bunt, the “snitch” of the title, a denizen of the Greasy Tuesday, a dive housing a collection of other lowlifes. Benny is a fount of arcane and useless information, mainly owing to his having memorized all the cards from Trivial Pursuit (which edition is uncertain). Because his marriage to Donna has become a “loveless cage,” he finds social (certainly not intellectual or sexual) fulfillment at the Tuesday. There he comes under the spell of Gus “Mad Dog” Miller, nominally a Vietnam vet and self-described badass. What brings them together as metaphorical brothers is “nothing more complicated than [Gus’s] desire to tell stories and my desire to hear them.” Problem is, Gus is both more and less complicated than he seems. After getting Benny deeply involved in a bizarre hit scheme—with appropriate but predictable allusions to The Sopranos—Gus is eventually revealed to be Gerry Finkel, a drifter and Vietnam vet manqué, who had taken over Gus’s identity in a distorted admiration to be someone who’d actually had some Real Life Experiences. To his credit, Benny retrospectively realizes that if someone says “a thing with enough fire and conviction [and adds] a few fistfuls of Svengali charisma…just about anything sounds true.” Benny bewilderingly finds himself accused of a double murder, and Walter Goins, his public defender who wears Looney Tunes and Three Stooges ties, doesn’t inspire confidence. Goffard mixes up narrative structures by including “transcripts” from Benny’s trial and a sensationalized account called Murder on the Edge!, the result of a prison interview Benny gave. This is the kind of novel with dialogue like “You’ve really lived life. I love your tats, man. You’ve done time?”
More painful than funny.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58567-954-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Rookery/Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
The real-life events of the War of the Currents are exciting enough without embroidery. Still, readers who care more about...
The great tech innovators of the '90s—that’s the 1890s—posture, plot, and even plan murder in this business book–turned–costume drama.
In the late 19th century, as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse began wiring America for electricity, the titans locked horns over which electrical standard would prevail—AC or DC—in a struggle that came to be known as the “War of the Currents.” Novelist (The Sherlockian, 2010) and screenwriter (The Imitation Game, 2014) Moore chops up and rearranges a decade’s worth of events, squeezes them into two years, adds a few crimes, and serves the result up in a lively if unsurprising legal thriller. He tells the story from the point of view of Paul Cravath, the young attorney charged with defending Westinghouse against a potentially devastating patent suit brought by Edison. The key to winning, Cravath decides, is to get Nikola Tesla—the mad scientist to end all mad scientists—to invent a better lightbulb. Subtle this isn’t. A devastating lab fire! An inexplicable disappearance! A beautiful diva with a mysterious past! An attempted murder! An electrocuted dog! The characters mug and posture like actors in a silent film with dramatic captions: “She turned her glare to Westinghouse. 'You’re a co-conspirator in this villainy?' " Tesla, a Serbian, talks funny: “My accent is wide. Perhaps you have been noticing.” Eventually, inspired by the innovative business practices of Westinghouse and Edison, Cravath invents the 20th-century law firm and wins the hand of the lady.
The real-life events of the War of the Currents are exciting enough without embroidery. Still, readers who care more about atmosphere than accuracy will enjoy this breezy melodrama.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-812-98890-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
As fast, feisty, and full of personality as its heroine.
A chronic meddler meddles some more in the business and personal lives of friends. No lessons are learned.
Reflecting on her life, Miss Julia Murdoch thinks the time has come for her to set her pride aside, judge less, and learn to live and let live instead of trying to tweak the world around her to become the best version of itself. But like a police officer called back to one last case, Miss Julia’s got a thing or two to do before she gives up her meddling ways—or, as she thinks of it, doing the Lord’s work in everyone’s best interest. First off is helping neighbor Mildred Allen, who has her hands full of her husband Horace’s memory problems, which are a real burden for Mildred, as she likes to remind people. Mildred’s estranged daughter, Tonya, has sent her a young girl whom Tonya apparently adopted and abandoned, a bit like a care package but more like an I-don’t-care package. Mildred generously allows the girl, whom Tonya calls Penelope, to act as a nursemaid to Horace during the times she isn't being watched by Miss Julia and Lillian, her household help. Miss Julia and Lillian are on the verge of getting Penelope to open up when she informs them that her name isn’t Penelope but Alicia. Just imagine! In addition to getting Mildred to bond with the girl, Miss Julia’s also determined to help poor Etta Mae Wiggins, the best certified nursing assistant at the Handy Home Helpers. When Etta Mae finds out that her boss, Lurline Corn, may be ready to clean house and sell the business, she’s beyond worried, but Miss Julia has a plan or five up her sleeve to make sure Etta Mae comes out on top.
As fast, feisty, and full of personality as its heroine.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-56051-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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