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Jack el oso (Coleccion Literatura 9) door Dan McCall

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archivomorero | Jun 27, 2022 |

Messenger Bird (A HARVEST BOOK) door Dan McCall

I thoroughly enjoyed McCall's effortless storytelling skills in this haunting book about love, politics, and the human body.

Gripping from the first moment to the last sentence, my only regret is that I did not discover this author sooner (he passed away this year). It would have been wonderful to have met the man behind the words.

A must read for anyone who enjoys fine literature in the style of Melanie Rae Thon.

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AngelaLam | Feb 8, 2022 |

Bluebird Canyon door Dan McCall

Picture southern California. Now picture the star of a soap opera star named Rex Hooker with a penchant for self-destructiveness. The two go together in a stereotypical way, don't you think? What isn't so typical is Bluebird Canyon's narrator, Oliver Bodley. Better known as "Triphammer" or "Trip", Detective Bodley is a not so ordinary city police officer who gets caught up in Rex's struggle to keep from losing it all. Interestingly enough, Rex and Trip go way back, as in high school way back. As the story unfolds, we find that Trip and Rex had been through quite a bit together back in their younger days. Just to give you an example. Rex and Trip are accused of partaking in the gang rape of a drunk girl. The victim's brother and five of his friends proceed to kick the crap out of Trip and Rex...in detail. There's more where that came from. Fast forward 20 years. Trip has been called to the Hooker estate for an apparent suicide attempt. Trip hasn't seen his friend in those 20 years and Rex was rumored to be the victim. Be prepared. It gets nutty from there. Turns out, Rex is fine but 45 pages later his girlfriend's sister accomplishes what he didn't. Rex still lives with his parents but has a son, an ex-wife and a girlfriend. Meanwhile, at 37 years old, Triphammer is adrift. He doesn't have a steady relationship, hates his exwife, in fact; he lives in a trailer on the beach (think Chris the DJ on Northern Exposure), he's constantly losing his hat, and he doesn't have a problem doing drugs in uniform (minus the hat). What he does mind, however, is being spit on.

All in all, some of Dan McCall's plot was a little annoying. As I mentioned before, Trip is called to Summer Snow because Rex Hooker is trying to commit suicide. 45 pages later, another character hangs herself. It is mentioned the Hooker family is petrified of fire. 51 pages later Summer Snow is burning, thanks to an arsonist. I never grew to like Trip at all and I thought the writing was rambling and disconnected. At times the behavior of all the characters were exaggerated and ridiculous. Other times their actions were too sedate for the scene: two dogs were murdered on two separate occasions, two different houses were set on fire, two different suicides occurred...it all seemed a bit much. If McCall was trying to bring Rex's soap opera to life in Bluebird Canyon he succeeded.… (meer)

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SeriousGrace | Sep 15, 2014 |

Melville's short novels : authoritative texts,… door Herman Melville

Unless you're desperate for any Melville criticism at all, don't bother with this Norton Critical Edition. It's one of their less-successful volumes. Lots of crit is included but it's all so chopped up, edited into very tiny chunks and some things (Barbara Johnson on Billy Budd, for instance)that you'd expect to see aren't here at all.

The textual notes are even worse, routinely giving away plot points. I recommend a nicely annotated Penguin or Oxford World Classics edition instead.

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susanbooks | 1 andere bespreking | Jun 19, 2012 |

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