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Using a crisp, biting, time-warp prologue (or first chapter acting as a prologue) is a classic way of opening a P.I. mystery. I admire the artistic feel of this opening style, yet I generally have a hard time getting into a story which doesn?t sit me right down into an ongoing, ?right-now? narrative.
I slid fairly easily into Kinsey?s ?I am a...? intro in chapter 2, with the bar/lunch scene in which Millhone reluctantly met her client over a ?to drool for,? scrumptiously described grilled kaiser roll with salami and pepper-cheese, fried-egg, innards. The melted white cheese infused with red-pepper-flakes definitely hot glued me onto a bar stool along with the characters. The usual Quarter Pounder with cheese would have worked, too, but, for whatever reasons, Kinsey somehow got the gourmet bug in ?S.?
Once the flow of the flashback chapters seated into the flow of the ?I-Kinsey? narrative, the Third Person narratives were engrossing as well as intriguingly and stylishly written. Maybe Grafton had an itch to explore thought patterns inside-the-heads of characters with varying degrees of anti-heroic traits, who would be vastly divergent from Kinsey in behavioral motivation. With tremendous panache, Grafton painted these psychological portraits from ?inside-the-hearts-of-sinners-and-saints,? and she blended them so seamlessly into the 1987 reality that I began to lose track of the 30-yr-cultural-gap, even though the 50's icons, idioms, and inlets-to-the-past were firmly crayoned into each July 1953 chapter.
Though some of the facts uncovered held a dark horror more like King?s work than Grafton?s, and though that ambiance was released abruptly, I felt no let down with the ending. The full circle, yummy symbolism of the kimono and the kaiser roll was awesome.
?S? is more a work of literary art, a true and classic novel with an experimental edge in the narrative machinations of the psychological profiling chapters, than it is a standard offering of detective fiction, though, for me, it also satisfied the cravings of that genre. I was left with a compulsion to reread several parts, then with a desire to reread the whole. This book has too much psychological pith to get it all in a single run through.
The epilogue left me with the peaceful, haunting essence of the first sight of cherry blossoms after an extended, bone chilling winter.
Only one question remained as I closed the book: Sue has earned the most exquisite, leading-edge, oil-painting renditions of the thematic essence of each of her books. Why is one of the classiest, most astute and revered publishing houses putting out Sue Grafton?s phenomenal series with no artwork on the book-jackets?
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Linda Shelnutt, May 27, 2006
Using a crisp, biting, time-warp prologue (or first chapter acting as a prologue) is a classic way of opening a P.I. mystery. I admire the artistic feel of this opening style, yet I generally have a hard time getting into a story which doesn?t sit me right down into an ongoing, ?right-now? narrative.I slid fairly easily into Kinsey?s ?I am a...? intro in chapter 2, with the bar/lunch scene in which Millhone reluctantly met her client over a ?to drool for,? scrumptiously described grilled kaiser roll with salami and pepper-cheese, fried-egg, innards. The melted white cheese infused with red-pepper-flakes definitely hot glued me onto a bar stool along with the characters. The usual Quarter Pounder with cheese would have worked, too, but, for whatever reasons, Kinsey somehow got the gourmet bug in ?S.?
Once the flow of the flashback chapters seated into the flow of the ?I-Kinsey? narrative, the Third Person narratives were engrossing as well as intriguingly and stylishly written. Maybe Grafton had an itch to explore thought patterns inside-the-heads of characters with varying degrees of anti-heroic traits, who would be vastly divergent from Kinsey in behavioral motivation. With tremendous panache, Grafton painted these psychological portraits from ?inside-the-hearts-of-sinners-and-saints,? and she blended them so seamlessly into the 1987 reality that I began to lose track of the 30-yr-cultural-gap, even though the 50's icons, idioms, and inlets-to-the-past were firmly crayoned into each July 1953 chapter.
Though some of the facts uncovered held a dark horror more like King?s work than Grafton?s, and though that ambiance was released abruptly, I felt no let down with the ending. The full circle, yummy symbolism of the kimono and the kaiser roll was awesome.
?S? is more a work of literary art, a true and classic novel with an experimental edge in the narrative machinations of the psychological profiling chapters, than it is a standard offering of detective fiction, though, for me, it also satisfied the cravings of that genre. I was left with a compulsion to reread several parts, then with a desire to reread the whole. This book has too much psychological pith to get it all in a single run through.
The epilogue left me with the peaceful, haunting essence of the first sight of cherry blossoms after an extended, bone chilling winter.
Only one question remained as I closed the book: Sue has earned the most exquisite, leading-edge, oil-painting renditions of the thematic essence of each of her books. Why is one of the classiest, most astute and revered publishing houses putting out Sue Grafton?s phenomenal series with no artwork on the book-jackets?
Terms and Conditions
We welcome your comments and ideas, but we ask that you refrain from:- Obscenity
- Spam
- Illegal content
- Copyrighted material
- Commercial solicitations
By posting your comments you are granting the good people of Powells.com the right (but not the obligation) to make your comments available to others over the Internet, and to copy and distribute your comments via other media, in each case on a royalty free basis. These terms govern the rights and obligations of the person posting comments and Powells.com; there are no intended third party beneficiaries of these terms. Posted comments are subject to monitoring, editing, and removal at any time. Please see our Terms of Use for our complete terms and conditions.Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
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