Kevin Lopez’s Reviews > The Searcher > Status Update
Kevin Lopez
is on page 225 of 451
Cal Hooper (the annoyingly bland American expat and former Chicago cop who somehow managed to police one of the most crime-ridden and dangerous cities in the entire US for a quarter century while remaining every bit as vacuous, vanilla, & oddly unblemished as… well… as the sort of rural Irish Gardas who he so sanctimoniously looks down upon), is without a doubt the worst protagonist Tana French has ever created.
— Oct 01, 2022 10:40PM
4 likes · Like flag
Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Nataliya
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Oct 02, 2022 02:09PM
Have you read Witch Elm? Because that protagonist is a slimy brat. And yet still, despite the nature of protagonists, her books end up fascinating me.
reply
|
flag
I haven’t read “Witch Elm” yet, although I’ve had the paperback sitting on my shelf for at least a couple of years. The reviews for “The Searcher” just seemed much more positive that I figured I’d read it first. And yes—I definitely agree with you that her books are always fascinating. Darkly enthralling, I’d say! I guess I’d just come to associate her writing so strongly with her extraordinary talent for perfectly recreating the rhythms of the Irish vernacular that when I found an American protagonist at the center of this novel, I experienced a kind of cognitive dissonance that’s been pretty hard to kick. Nonetheless, as you point out, she does always manage to fascinate and engage—and I am thoroughly enjoying the story at this point!
Would you recommend “Witch Elm,” despite the slimy brat protag?
I struggled a bit with Witch Elm. The slimy brat protagonist grated on my nerves quite a bit, and it clearly was done deliberately. In the end I liked it, but it wasn’t love at first sight like it tends to be with me and her books.One of the things I found interesting about The Searcher is that French herself is an American transplant to Ireland.
Ahhhh—that makes total sense, too! Outsiders are often the ones best-suited to perceive and fully appreciate all the various tics and idiosyncrasies of a language or dialect with which they aren’t yet fully conversant. For native speakers, unusual attributes inherent to their patois are often difficult to identify or discern!
Kevin Lopez (on semi-sabbatical) wrote: "Ahhhh—that makes total sense, too! Outsiders are often the ones best-suited to perceive and fully appreciate all the various tics and idiosyncrasies of a language or dialect with which they aren’t ..."Right? I didn’t know when I started reading this series that French wasn’t from Ireland originally,