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My Criminal World
A clever, witty crime novel in the vein of Kate Atkinson's celebrated Jackson Brodie series. In awe of his wife, hounded by his agent and ignored by his editor, mild mannered crime novelist David Slavitt finds his life is spiralling out of control. He needs to do something -- but just how far is he prepared to go?
In awe of his wife, hounded by his agent and ignored by his editor, mild mannered crime novelist David Slavitt finds his life is spiralling out of control. He needs to do something -- but just how far is he prepared to go?
My Criminal World introduces us to struggling crime writer, David Slavitt. Living in constant fear that his editor might drop him in favour of the next new talent, David juggles house work and child care alongside plot twists and character development.
But as his wife grows increasingly distant and his agent insists that his new book needs more violence -- a lot more violence -- David is getting worried. He needs to do something if he is to save his career, and his marriage. But just how far is this most mild mannered of crime writers prepared to go? And who is the person really pulling the strings in this story? Interspersed with David's story are extracts from the crime story he is currently writing, which grow increasingly darker as they progress. Does this change in tone reflect the demands of David's agent or is there something more sinister at work? In this clever literary crime novel, there is more than one mystery to be solved.
In awe of his wife, hounded by his agent and ignored by his editor, mild mannered crime novelist David Slavitt finds his life is spiralling out of control. He needs to do something -- but just how far is he prepared to go?
My Criminal World introduces us to struggling crime writer, David Slavitt. Living in constant fear that his editor might drop him in favour of the next new talent, David juggles house work and child care alongside plot twists and character development.
But as his wife grows increasingly distant and his agent insists that his new book needs more violence -- a lot more violence -- David is getting worried. He needs to do something if he is to save his career, and his marriage. But just how far is this most mild mannered of crime writers prepared to go? And who is the person really pulling the strings in this story? Interspersed with David's story are extracts from the crime story he is currently writing, which grow increasingly darker as they progress. Does this change in tone reflect the demands of David's agent or is there something more sinister at work? In this clever literary crime novel, there is more than one mystery to be solved.
- GenresCrime
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2013
About the author
Henry Sutton
34 books9 followersDavid Rytman Slavitt (born 23 March 1935 in White Plains, New York) is a writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his first writing teacher was Dudley Fitts. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University (where he studied under Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and was elected class poet, "Scholar of the House," in 1956), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), and then a Master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1957
Before becoming a full-time free-lance writer in 1965, Slavitt worked at various jobs in the literary field. These included a stint in the personnel office of Reader's Digest in Pleasantville, New York; teaching English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (1957–1958); and a variety of jobs at Newsweek in New York. Slavitt began there as a mailroom clerk, was promoted to the positions of book reviewer and film critic, and earned the position of associate editor from 1958 to 1963. He edited the movies pages from 1963 to 1965.
Okla Elliott, a professor and Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has written of Slavitt that he "served as an associate editor at Newsweek until 1965, teaching himself Greek on his 35-minute commute. In his last two years at Newsweek, he had a reputation as an astute, sometime cranky, but always readable 'flicker picker' and gained some notoriety for his film reviews there."
Slavitt taught as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1977, and at Temple University, in Philadelphia, as associate professor from 1978 to 1980. Slavitt was a lecturer at Columbia University from 1985 to 1986, at Rutgers University in 1987, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and other institutions. He has given poetry readings at colleges and universities, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and at the Library of Congress.
His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961.
In the 1960s, Slavitt was approached by Bernie Geis & Associates to write a big book, a popular book, which he agreed to if he could use a pseudonym. As Henry Sutton, in 1967 he published The Exhibitionist, which sold more than 4 million copies. He followed this with The Voyeur in 1968 and three more novels as Henry Sutton. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus.
Slavitt has published numerous works in translation, especially classics, from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and French.
Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, has written, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."
Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Georgia Jones-Davis, a poet and journalist, has said, "Slavitt is brilliant and he writes with grace, passion and humor."
Awards and honors
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel for Paperback Thriller, 1976
Grant from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1985
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, 1988
Literature award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1989
Rockefeller Foundation artist's residency, 1989. Slavitt used the time period of the retreat (November 3 - December 12, 1989) to work on a translation of the curse poem Ibis by the Latin poet Ovid.
Kevin Kline Award, 2011, for Outstanding New Play or Musical
Slavitt attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his first writing teacher was Dudley Fitts. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University (where he studied under Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and was elected class poet, "Scholar of the House," in 1956), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), and then a Master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1957
Before becoming a full-time free-lance writer in 1965, Slavitt worked at various jobs in the literary field. These included a stint in the personnel office of Reader's Digest in Pleasantville, New York; teaching English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (1957–1958); and a variety of jobs at Newsweek in New York. Slavitt began there as a mailroom clerk, was promoted to the positions of book reviewer and film critic, and earned the position of associate editor from 1958 to 1963. He edited the movies pages from 1963 to 1965.
Okla Elliott, a professor and Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has written of Slavitt that he "served as an associate editor at Newsweek until 1965, teaching himself Greek on his 35-minute commute. In his last two years at Newsweek, he had a reputation as an astute, sometime cranky, but always readable 'flicker picker' and gained some notoriety for his film reviews there."
Slavitt taught as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1977, and at Temple University, in Philadelphia, as associate professor from 1978 to 1980. Slavitt was a lecturer at Columbia University from 1985 to 1986, at Rutgers University in 1987, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and other institutions. He has given poetry readings at colleges and universities, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and at the Library of Congress.
His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961.
In the 1960s, Slavitt was approached by Bernie Geis & Associates to write a big book, a popular book, which he agreed to if he could use a pseudonym. As Henry Sutton, in 1967 he published The Exhibitionist, which sold more than 4 million copies. He followed this with The Voyeur in 1968 and three more novels as Henry Sutton. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus.
Slavitt has published numerous works in translation, especially classics, from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and French.
Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, has written, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."
Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Georgia Jones-Davis, a poet and journalist, has said, "Slavitt is brilliant and he writes with grace, passion and humor."
Awards and honors
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel for Paperback Thriller, 1976
Grant from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1985
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, 1988
Literature award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1989
Rockefeller Foundation artist's residency, 1989. Slavitt used the time period of the retreat (November 3 - December 12, 1989) to work on a translation of the curse poem Ibis by the Latin poet Ovid.
Kevin Kline Award, 2011, for Outstanding New Play or Musical
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 21, 2017
Although I liked the premise of the story and could relate to the protagonist's ongoing, often amusing issues as a contemporary author, I found the author's writing style irritatingly rambling, long-winded and verbose. And I found the ending confusing.
April 20, 2014
David Slavitt is a man whose life is in slow decline. He’s a full time writer of crime novels – his debut was a smash, but since then each has sold in smaller and smaller quantities. As Slavitt’s star has waned in the crime world so has his relationship with his agent, Julie and publisher, Peter. But despite it all Julie hasn’t quite given up on Slavitt yet, convinced that increasing the violence in his work is the answer. Being a bit more like Jo Nesbo might improve sales. When he’s surprisingly nominated for crime novel of the year, Slavitt begins to wonder if Julie might be right.
As Slavitt’s success has dwindled so has his waistline expanded. These days he’s an unfit, fat lad, more likely to eat than type. His relationship with his wife, Maggie, an attractive woman who’s far too good for him, has also slipped into the doldrums. A lecturer at a nearby university, Maggie is about to become a professor. However, she is under a cloud at the institution and rumours abound in the community and among university staff that she’s having an affair with a student or two.
Even where they live, in the Norfolk countryside, what should be a rural idyll, is a sham. Slavitt misses city life. As well as writing he’s a stay at home husband, having to deal with the housework and the kids whilst plotting his new bestseller. It’s Maggie who brings home the bacon.
Slavitt becomes obsessed with his wife’s supposed affair, even abandoning a book tour in the US to spy on her. He has to do something to turn his life around, but how far is the author prepared to go?
This is an intriguing novel. The Slavitt element of the narrative is written in the first person, which quickly draws you into his sad little world. Writing for him is like pulling teeth, slowly and without painkillers. If you happen to be an author, a lot of his issues will be familiar to you – trying to come up with a second winner after an unexpected success is difficult. It’s harder to see, however, that any author could have less confidence than Slavitt.
Cut into the Slavitt narrative is the novel he is working on, titled Kristine. Slavitt admits, rightly so, that he’s not particularly good at selecting titles for his novels. This is a third person, police procedural crime novel concerning the investigation into a murdered woman, found naked, washed up on a beach. Police corruption plays a large role. Both stories can be read as stand-alones. So in effect My Criminal World is two – albeit individually short – books in one. Initially, switching between the two stories can be challenging. The two books are literally spliced together – there’s no chapter based distinction between them, no clear signposting, beyond a different font. Towards the conclusion of My Criminal World I was more interested in what was happening to Slavitt than the events occuring in Kristine.
That said, this is a cleverly crafted novel. Slavitt is incredibly dull, riddled with angst, which makes the relatively ordinary events occurring around him seem all the larger. Taken at face value the doomed author’s challenges are pretty ordinary, but Sutton is smart enough to make them loom them large in Slavitt’s mind while at the same time making them meaningful to the reader. Overall it’s witty, entertaining and compelling.
**Originally reviewed for Crime Fiction Lover.**
As Slavitt’s success has dwindled so has his waistline expanded. These days he’s an unfit, fat lad, more likely to eat than type. His relationship with his wife, Maggie, an attractive woman who’s far too good for him, has also slipped into the doldrums. A lecturer at a nearby university, Maggie is about to become a professor. However, she is under a cloud at the institution and rumours abound in the community and among university staff that she’s having an affair with a student or two.
Even where they live, in the Norfolk countryside, what should be a rural idyll, is a sham. Slavitt misses city life. As well as writing he’s a stay at home husband, having to deal with the housework and the kids whilst plotting his new bestseller. It’s Maggie who brings home the bacon.
Slavitt becomes obsessed with his wife’s supposed affair, even abandoning a book tour in the US to spy on her. He has to do something to turn his life around, but how far is the author prepared to go?
This is an intriguing novel. The Slavitt element of the narrative is written in the first person, which quickly draws you into his sad little world. Writing for him is like pulling teeth, slowly and without painkillers. If you happen to be an author, a lot of his issues will be familiar to you – trying to come up with a second winner after an unexpected success is difficult. It’s harder to see, however, that any author could have less confidence than Slavitt.
Cut into the Slavitt narrative is the novel he is working on, titled Kristine. Slavitt admits, rightly so, that he’s not particularly good at selecting titles for his novels. This is a third person, police procedural crime novel concerning the investigation into a murdered woman, found naked, washed up on a beach. Police corruption plays a large role. Both stories can be read as stand-alones. So in effect My Criminal World is two – albeit individually short – books in one. Initially, switching between the two stories can be challenging. The two books are literally spliced together – there’s no chapter based distinction between them, no clear signposting, beyond a different font. Towards the conclusion of My Criminal World I was more interested in what was happening to Slavitt than the events occuring in Kristine.
That said, this is a cleverly crafted novel. Slavitt is incredibly dull, riddled with angst, which makes the relatively ordinary events occurring around him seem all the larger. Taken at face value the doomed author’s challenges are pretty ordinary, but Sutton is smart enough to make them loom them large in Slavitt’s mind while at the same time making them meaningful to the reader. Overall it’s witty, entertaining and compelling.
**Originally reviewed for Crime Fiction Lover.**
May 13, 2013
David Slavitt, crime writer, is the typical home worker mired in and distracted by domestic drudgery. When he should be writing a stylish denouement to a book, he's emptying the washing machine and thinking about his next dinner, stressing about how to be more successful and how to stop his agent and publisher ignoring him. And then there's his wife. She's stylish, on top of her game and increasingly distant. Slavitt begins to fear that the wife he loves so much might be going cold on him in the same way his agent and publisher ignore him. There are only so many unanswered emails a crime writer can write, and so many distracted conversations a man who thinks about murder can have with the woman of his dreams.
Something is about to give in David Slavitt's world, and being driven to the brink can be the best thing for his career after all...
My Criminal World is a crime story and a funny observation on a marriage under strain that's beautifully written. So often thrillers are devoid of any humour or lightness at all, but Sutton uses it with great effect here. This book is so much more than a sum of its parts, a genre mash-up that is fresh and exciting and very well executed.
Something is about to give in David Slavitt's world, and being driven to the brink can be the best thing for his career after all...
My Criminal World is a crime story and a funny observation on a marriage under strain that's beautifully written. So often thrillers are devoid of any humour or lightness at all, but Sutton uses it with great effect here. This book is so much more than a sum of its parts, a genre mash-up that is fresh and exciting and very well executed.
February 25, 2014
I was immediately intrigued by the concept of this book and couldn’t wait to read it. The main character, David Slavitt, is a struggling crime writer with marital problems, who narrates in the first person. His life is on the slippery slope, but his narration is well written, witty and enjoyable. In addition there are excerpts of David’s latest manuscript interspersed throughout in different font and written in the third person, but unfortunately I could not get into this part of the book at all, as it was not a gripping story and not as well written as the rest. Maybe that was the point, to show us that David wasn’t much of a crime writer, but it spoilt the flow and I was always looking forward to getting back to David’s narration. Even with the events in David’s life influencing his manuscript, it continued to fall short of its true potential, as did the last few chapters. It started off as a four star, but sadly ended up as a three star for me.
October 7, 2020
A mediocre crime writer is under pressure from his agent to make his books more grisly and gruesome to improve his sales. When he gets mixed up in a murder investigation himself, however, his books are flying off the shelves. It’s billed as a metafictional satire of the crime writing industry and, while there are some amusing observations and parodies of the genre’s recent penchant for gratuitous violence, I thought this could’ve (and should’ve) been a LOT funnier. Also, the actual murder plot is rather unimpressive all things considered, and the author resorts to a brazen cop-out at the end to clean everything up.
October 31, 2018
Really really great premise, executed… not even poorly, it wasn’t executed at all. Murder plot on which the whole story hinges wrapped up in one sentence. Too many thoughts in parentheses - and dashes - that made the thinking seem jerky and ruined the flow. Not coherent plot. Good stuff: finding aspects of the real world, whether an entire character or just an object, in the not-real world of the fictional story.
December 28, 2019
A dastardly criminal lurks behind the mild manners of David Slavitt. Everyman really but for modest success as a novelist.
A fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the crime publishing world. Having spent much time in the world Sutton describes (Harrogate and Bristol as buzzwords), I related and I laughed.
That straight crime novels are increasingly out of fashion is his beef but he presents that beef under the cloak of a straight (or crooked) crime story.
A must for crime aficionados.
A fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the crime publishing world. Having spent much time in the world Sutton describes (Harrogate and Bristol as buzzwords), I related and I laughed.
That straight crime novels are increasingly out of fashion is his beef but he presents that beef under the cloak of a straight (or crooked) crime story.
A must for crime aficionados.
May 7, 2017
Enjoyed this although the sub-plot kind of lost me. Too many characters.
August 30, 2013
Picture this: You are wandering through your local library and see a book that looks right up your street. It looks intriguing, the plot seems appealling and original, and a quick dip shows it seems to be well enough written. You open it up, and find yourself enjoying the first few chapters and then, suddenly - pah! Something dies and you just loose the mood! Sound familiar? Well, that's exactly what happened to me with this one.
The idea of a "meta novel," with a very "shrink lit" version of a police procedural thriller, intersperced with a third person viewpoint diary of the author as he pens it seemed a most interesting concept. The first few pages seemed to draw me in, and then... before long I found myself having to force myself to open it, and skipping over passages and having to reread them.
Normally I try not to review a book unless I have finished it. After all, there's always the very real possibility it's me, not the author, that's at fault. Maybe a plot that's seeming to go nowhere interesting actually comes alive at a certain point, and makes all that's gone before worthwhile. For the sake of more tenacious readers, the sort of person who find themselves honor bound to read every work they start to the end, I hope this is the case.
OK, let's have a look at the plot. It's about a crime writer called David Slavitt (I don't think the name is a conincidence) who is a thriller writer who isn't quite good enough to make the top drawer. If the "tale within a tale" that appears in this book is any guide, I can only say "no wonder." It's about as interesting as watching paint dry, and shows as much skill in composition as a 12 year old's English essay.
Of couse, this wouldn't matter if one could accept that Sutton was deliberately writing it this way in order to illustrate how inept his character is at his chosen profession, which would have made the story an amusing comedy. Unfortunately, the "real" part of the book, that deals with Slavitt's daily life is no more inveigling, making the reader suspect that the "framed" story really does represent the best that Sutton can do.
We see Slavitt go through his daily life, dealing with demanding children, a wife whom he suspects of infidelity and losing interest in him (and frankly, one can hardly blame the poor thing) and the other boring elements of domestic life.
Now, I repeat, there's a very good chance the fault is mine, and not the author's. As an unmarried and child-free person, accounts of ferrying children to school, ironing their clothing and entertaining the wife's cronies don't provide too much reader-identification for me, but I can't help feeling that a better writer would have forced me to be interested in what was happening, keeping me hooked until the more interesting part of the story kicked in.
As it was, I ran out of steam long before the dramatic events promised by the blurb came to pass.
Judging by other reviews at this site, others have indeed read the work to its conclusion, and enjoyed it. It could be that they had less trouble identifying with the hero, that they are better at sticking to unpleasant tasks than I am, or simply that they were on a desert island with nothing else to read... whatever, I give it a single shiner, though be free to disagree with you're one of those that rated it higher.
The idea of a "meta novel," with a very "shrink lit" version of a police procedural thriller, intersperced with a third person viewpoint diary of the author as he pens it seemed a most interesting concept. The first few pages seemed to draw me in, and then... before long I found myself having to force myself to open it, and skipping over passages and having to reread them.
Normally I try not to review a book unless I have finished it. After all, there's always the very real possibility it's me, not the author, that's at fault. Maybe a plot that's seeming to go nowhere interesting actually comes alive at a certain point, and makes all that's gone before worthwhile. For the sake of more tenacious readers, the sort of person who find themselves honor bound to read every work they start to the end, I hope this is the case.
OK, let's have a look at the plot. It's about a crime writer called David Slavitt (I don't think the name is a conincidence) who is a thriller writer who isn't quite good enough to make the top drawer. If the "tale within a tale" that appears in this book is any guide, I can only say "no wonder." It's about as interesting as watching paint dry, and shows as much skill in composition as a 12 year old's English essay.
Of couse, this wouldn't matter if one could accept that Sutton was deliberately writing it this way in order to illustrate how inept his character is at his chosen profession, which would have made the story an amusing comedy. Unfortunately, the "real" part of the book, that deals with Slavitt's daily life is no more inveigling, making the reader suspect that the "framed" story really does represent the best that Sutton can do.
We see Slavitt go through his daily life, dealing with demanding children, a wife whom he suspects of infidelity and losing interest in him (and frankly, one can hardly blame the poor thing) and the other boring elements of domestic life.
Now, I repeat, there's a very good chance the fault is mine, and not the author's. As an unmarried and child-free person, accounts of ferrying children to school, ironing their clothing and entertaining the wife's cronies don't provide too much reader-identification for me, but I can't help feeling that a better writer would have forced me to be interested in what was happening, keeping me hooked until the more interesting part of the story kicked in.
As it was, I ran out of steam long before the dramatic events promised by the blurb came to pass.
Judging by other reviews at this site, others have indeed read the work to its conclusion, and enjoyed it. It could be that they had less trouble identifying with the hero, that they are better at sticking to unpleasant tasks than I am, or simply that they were on a desert island with nothing else to read... whatever, I give it a single shiner, though be free to disagree with you're one of those that rated it higher.
November 23, 2014
I might be biased here, being a Norfolk resident, but this was a really entertaining read despite the possibly unnecessary dissing of Yarmouth and King's Lynn in one fell swoop. I'll give Sutton the benefit of the doubt and suggest this simply reflects Norwich's snobbish attitude towards its neighbours rather than his personal views.
The concept is clever, as might be expected of a creative writing professor: a crime story wrapped up in a domestic drama, as author David Slavitt attempts to deal with the pressures of being an almost famous author and a house husband.
I imagine Sutton has insight into being writer and parent, which is probably why it worked. 'Write what you know', as the advice goes.
The crime novel element was a kind of sub-plot if anything, and to my mind was not a serious attempt – though it worked as a standalone novella of sorts – but rather a kind of wry look at the genre: how intertextuality and zeitgeist must play on the minds of authors, agents, editors; how villains are formulated in the author's mind; how items of daily trivia such as the name of his local butcher can lead to the naming of characters; how the sexuality of women is portrayed in police procedurals, and so on.
The domestic drama that forms the main narrative was very British, I thought, or should that be very English? It's that tone of self-deprecation; the kind of sense of wonder at how such a sexually attractive reliable bread-winning wife could be out all day without managing to have a bunk-up with her young virile students, while the not-quite-successful rather slobbish husband stays at home all day writing books and occasionally makes himself useful by doing some domestic chores, yet the marriage all hangs together, somehow.
Of course much of the book is about the doubts engendered by the above scenario; how he tortures himself into believing that she is having it off with a student, and for anyone daft enough to read this review before reading the book itself, hey, maybe the dirty cow is and maybe she isn't.
The writing itself is relaxing and gave me a sort of warm glow of a smile as I was reading; one that would be barely discernible yet I could feel it playing on my lips. The writing was entertainment and subtlety all rolled into one. I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'LOL lit' but it did somehow remind me of reading Tom Sharpe's stuff when I was a teenager, stuff like Wilt, which, having reminded myself of its existence, I shall now try to get hold of from the library.
The concept is clever, as might be expected of a creative writing professor: a crime story wrapped up in a domestic drama, as author David Slavitt attempts to deal with the pressures of being an almost famous author and a house husband.
I imagine Sutton has insight into being writer and parent, which is probably why it worked. 'Write what you know', as the advice goes.
The crime novel element was a kind of sub-plot if anything, and to my mind was not a serious attempt – though it worked as a standalone novella of sorts – but rather a kind of wry look at the genre: how intertextuality and zeitgeist must play on the minds of authors, agents, editors; how villains are formulated in the author's mind; how items of daily trivia such as the name of his local butcher can lead to the naming of characters; how the sexuality of women is portrayed in police procedurals, and so on.
The domestic drama that forms the main narrative was very British, I thought, or should that be very English? It's that tone of self-deprecation; the kind of sense of wonder at how such a sexually attractive reliable bread-winning wife could be out all day without managing to have a bunk-up with her young virile students, while the not-quite-successful rather slobbish husband stays at home all day writing books and occasionally makes himself useful by doing some domestic chores, yet the marriage all hangs together, somehow.
Of course much of the book is about the doubts engendered by the above scenario; how he tortures himself into believing that she is having it off with a student, and for anyone daft enough to read this review before reading the book itself, hey, maybe the dirty cow is and maybe she isn't.
The writing itself is relaxing and gave me a sort of warm glow of a smile as I was reading; one that would be barely discernible yet I could feel it playing on my lips. The writing was entertainment and subtlety all rolled into one. I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'LOL lit' but it did somehow remind me of reading Tom Sharpe's stuff when I was a teenager, stuff like Wilt, which, having reminded myself of its existence, I shall now try to get hold of from the library.
June 11, 2013
2.5*
This book was a bit of a weird one for me.
I started off absolutely loving it. The crime thriller equivalent of the movie ADAPTATION (which is one of my all time top 10 faves), it seemed like the perfect book for me, and I really enjoyed the opening chapters. But I have a little reading tick whereby my eyes are primed to glaze over text that appears in the book in a different font from the main 'text' (I just can't stand, for reasons unknown even to me!) and so the extracts from the book David was writing, which appear throughout the text, got boring for me, and I sped read them, hurrying on to the next installment of David's life. Therefore I lost a chunk of the book, as those extracts were supposedly telling me things *about* David's life. In the end it was just a big much ado about nothing, I felt, and a missed opportunity—because from the blurb, I got the impression that in order to write a crime novel, David was actually going to enter the criminal world, or let himself be courted by it, which is a book I'd really want to read. Mere martial strife was not really what I was expecting, and I also felt the narrator's voice, especially towards the end, became a bit muddled and confused for me. I think my take-away from this though is more to do with me as a reader than the book itself, so maybe you'll love it...
This book was a bit of a weird one for me.
I started off absolutely loving it. The crime thriller equivalent of the movie ADAPTATION (which is one of my all time top 10 faves), it seemed like the perfect book for me, and I really enjoyed the opening chapters. But I have a little reading tick whereby my eyes are primed to glaze over text that appears in the book in a different font from the main 'text' (I just can't stand, for reasons unknown even to me!) and so the extracts from the book David was writing, which appear throughout the text, got boring for me, and I sped read them, hurrying on to the next installment of David's life. Therefore I lost a chunk of the book, as those extracts were supposedly telling me things *about* David's life. In the end it was just a big much ado about nothing, I felt, and a missed opportunity—because from the blurb, I got the impression that in order to write a crime novel, David was actually going to enter the criminal world, or let himself be courted by it, which is a book I'd really want to read. Mere martial strife was not really what I was expecting, and I also felt the narrator's voice, especially towards the end, became a bit muddled and confused for me. I think my take-away from this though is more to do with me as a reader than the book itself, so maybe you'll love it...
June 23, 2015
In the main this was a good read, I loved the descriptions about my local city and surrounding areas, and despite a few name changes I could guess a number of the locations quite easily, which is always fun, and means it was well described!
I liked the pace of the book, and the backwards and forwards nature between the writers life and the book he was writing, it flowed really well, and I read it quite quickly. BUT I read the second half of the book in one sitting, and this for me really is where it did fall down. The ending, whilst interesting and had a good twist to it, was once again "rushed" almost to the point of "oh I've hit my page count i had better sort this out and cut out bits" and I think some stuff was cut that shouldn't have been (or maybe was just never written) and other non essential stuff just left floating around, then there was the final ending, and it just felt a bit... M'eh... like what the hell did you do that for, have you left it open for a sequel, or is that deliberate because of the sequel nature of the writers book... it was just a let down at the end I am afraid, and maybe just a little pretentious.... Such a shame.
I liked the pace of the book, and the backwards and forwards nature between the writers life and the book he was writing, it flowed really well, and I read it quite quickly. BUT I read the second half of the book in one sitting, and this for me really is where it did fall down. The ending, whilst interesting and had a good twist to it, was once again "rushed" almost to the point of "oh I've hit my page count i had better sort this out and cut out bits" and I think some stuff was cut that shouldn't have been (or maybe was just never written) and other non essential stuff just left floating around, then there was the final ending, and it just felt a bit... M'eh... like what the hell did you do that for, have you left it open for a sequel, or is that deliberate because of the sequel nature of the writers book... it was just a let down at the end I am afraid, and maybe just a little pretentious.... Such a shame.
February 8, 2014
I really enjoyed this book. i was lucky to attend Henry Sutton's workshop on plot at the 2014 Geneva Writers' Conference and was interested to read his work.
The author cleverly mixes the first person narrative of the unsuccessful crime writer with the book he is writing. Admittedly the publisher has used two different fonts to avoid misunderstandings, but the voices of the two stories are also very different. It offers great insight into the thoughts and feelings of the lonely crime writer. Highly recommended.
The author cleverly mixes the first person narrative of the unsuccessful crime writer with the book he is writing. Admittedly the publisher has used two different fonts to avoid misunderstandings, but the voices of the two stories are also very different. It offers great insight into the thoughts and feelings of the lonely crime writer. Highly recommended.
July 31, 2014
A clever, amusing story of a crime writer struggling to produce his latest book while around him his life is apparently crumbling. The outline of his new book is cleverly interwoven into the story and as time goes on he finds life and fiction combining in a very unsettling manner! The author obviously has a good grasp of police procedure when investigating serious crime as well ie arrest on the flimsiest of evidence and use extended bail to actually look for some!
May 30, 2013
A really good read. Clever story of a crime novelist struggling to complete his latest work. Riveting. What a great read. This book is really something different, following a crime drama and the author's own story in writing it, but is all as it seems? Even if the ending left me a little stunned, this is a book that was hard to put down.
June 17, 2013
Really enjoyed this - interesting idea too, a struggling crime writer getting caught up in his work a little too much. I liked the way you got snippets of the fictional author's book throughout the main story, and got to experience some of the frustrations of being a writer, seeing how it all pans out. Great fun.
April 2, 2014
Very clever, tongue-in-cheek, with dark yet self-effacing English humour. A delight for writers everywhere, this is the meta-book of crime fiction. A gentler, funnier version of Pierre Lemaitre's Irene (Travail soigne). Not that the two books have anything in common other than references to crime fiction writing and the not being sure who is inventing what.
December 7, 2015
Interesting.
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