“Quickie” Reviews
THE
SAVAGE DETECTIVES
by Roberto Bolano
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $27.00 hc
If you can imagine a mixture of Borges, Pynchon and a little Hunter S. Thompson then you have at least a small inkling of the literary roller-coaster that is this novel. Bolanos (who died in 2003) was a very popular author in Chile and other Latin lands but his posthumous reputation is just beginning to build here with the publication of some of his works in translated form. Here we follow Arturo Boolano (said by some to represent the author) and his friend Ulises Lima (said to represent the author’s poet friend Mario Santiago Papasquiaro as they galavant not only through various hard-to-describe adventures but weave in and out of what may or may not be a true underground literary revolution called Visceral Realism. Not everyone’s cup of tea but if it is yours you’ll know from just these tea leaves.
MISTER B. GONE
by Clive Barker
Harper Collins Publishers: $24.95 hc
I have never really understood why Clive Barker never became as popular as Steven King. Some of his earlier works such as WEAVEWORLD contain not only the sort of horror that keep your reading with the all the other lights on in the house as well but his characterizations are second to no one. In this novel he tackles the task of presenting a first-person narrative from a demon. An accomplished artist as well as an author, Barker has clearly designed even the look of the book with its purposefully yellowed pages, simulated foxing and various touches that make you feel you really are reading a very old and cursed book. But don’t follow the instructions in the first sentence of “Burn this book.” We’re betting you’ll not only really survive you may well come away from it with a new, favorite author with a nice backlog of material for you to read.
INTERWORLD
by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Harper Collins Publishers: $16.99 hc
You are going to find this in the Children’s section of the bookstore but even if you have an empty nest it will worth the trip. Gaiman is, of course, the author of THE SANDMAN series in the world of comics as well as fantasies such as STARDUST and THE ANANSI BOYS. Reaves is a screenwriter with credits on some of the top scifi shows. Together they have penned what deserves to become a classic. Joey gets himself a little lost. In fact, he walks out of this dimension into a strange new world where Magic and Science are at war. Luckily, in many other dimensions there are Joeys and so he bands together with himself to fight the Good fight.
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