Mr. Obvious

by Lileks

A tantalizing recipe for a spicy mystery from the author of Falling Up The Stairs. James Lileks offers a new tale of a gourmet food critic's taste for crime that lands him in a simmering stew of murder.

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[melydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of Lileks's humor books, I was curious to see how his fiction read. Pretty well, as it turns out. After food critic Simpson is accidentally shot in the head, he finds himself on the trail of a mass murderer of decidedly minor media personalities. Don't let the inane food puns on the back cover blurb fool you: this book really isn't about food at all. Sure, his scathing critique of hospital fare was pretty funny, but it's far from the main plot. Actually, the first three quarters of the book are almost nonstop laughs. I was reading the first few paragraphs to some friends and had to pause after every sentence so we could giggle. The ending is a huge let-down, though, vague and meta and generally kind of lame. That said, everything leading up to it is pretty great, so it certainly did not put me off Lileks in general. If you come across a copy, it's worth a look.

Note: This is evidently the second book starring Simpson (the first being Falling Up the Stairs), but I haven't read the first book so I don't see why you should have to either. Also, this book is thoroughly out of print and I am shocked that I managed to stumble upon a copy at all.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I knew we were unfit for one another the night we were watching Casblanca. I remarked how it was good that the Germans didn't win the war, and she got mad at me for spoiling the ending."

This is the opening paragraph of the book. Lileks keeps up the intelligent, penetrating, and entertaining humor pretty much non-stop. I never got tired of it--each subject was fresh, and the humor pointed, with much satire on the worlds of journalism, pop culture, and pop subculture. A good mystery carries the humor, though the end was a bit too much of a twist for me.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Lileks has done it again with another excellent novel. Much like its predecessor, "Falling Up the Stairs," this novel is full of suspense and nonsense in order to keep the reader both interested and smiling. The only drawback to this particular book is the anti-climax. The unfortunately abrupt and off-plot ending made this book a 4 star rather than a 5. Still, it is worth a good read and can easily be enjoyed.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Mr Lileks writing non fiction that is wanted to try a mystery written by him. Funny quirky but a bit over plotted