Read in 2006: books 58 and 59
Total Recall and Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky is my new favourite author. I cannot believe I have left it this long to start on her books. Of course, like Robert Rankin, she was one of those authors that I always knew I should be reading. But somehow, maybe for this very reason, I found her daunting. It didn’t help that I tried, a few years ago, to start my Paretsky reading career with Total Recall which I would imagine is anything but a typical book. I was stymied by the wealth of detail in the opening chapters on people I didn’t know anything about and so I put it back on the shelf. Several times it nearly went to the second-hand bookshop, or into the Bookcrossing pile. But something stayed my hand and now I’m thanking my lucky stars it did.
[Buy Fire Sale from Amazon]
I started out this time around with Fire Sale, Paretsky’s latest, after it caught my eye in Borders. (Alongside Louis Theroux’ Call of the Weird and Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories – this must have been a record for getting through three for two acquisitions.) I usually hate taking series books out of sequence but this time it has worked. And, indeed, many of the things I really liked about it were born of its position as the latest instalment in a very lengthy narrative. Fire Sale is an extraordinarily rich story, built on the framework of the classic hardboiled detective tale but containing elements of the psychological thriller, of social commentary, of coming-of-age narratives and even of family sagas. It’s got a very densely-drawn and consistent internal world which draws strongly on the series history. This includes previous character development, VI’s network of friends, old acquaintances and colleagues that keep her rooted in the world and allow her to function, and a strong sense of social injustice which is utterly explicable if you scroll down to the links at the bottom of this article and read a couple of the non-fiction pieces the author has published. But it’s also tightly-plotted, psychologically convincing, highly exciting and capable of getting you emotionally involved with its large cast of characters. It’s a long book, which some readers have complained about, but I was completely absorbed in it, and therefore quite happy with that.
It’s also got an incredibly strong authorial voice, which it’s important not to confuse with the voice of Vic Warshawski herself – author and character are, after all, not in any way obliged to be the same person. Paretsky is old enough and experienced enough a writer to know very well what she cares about and it’s all there for the reader to appreciate. It just happens that I’ve got a lot of sympathy for the world view that she (and, by extension, Vic) are expressing however I can see how it might not be to the taste of everyone. And it’s pretty upfront, so if you don’t share her concern for social justice and freedom of speech then you might find this book a little hard to take.
Having more or less inhaled Fire Sale I was immediately rummaging about for more Paretsky to read, which is how Total Recall came back into play. This time, with a bit of context to help me, I had no trouble with it whatsoever. This reminded me strongly of William Brodrick’s The Sixth Lamentation – a book with similar themes – which is so much more than just a mystery story that it probably makes it to the exalted category of actual literature. The story sees the heroine pushed to the limit as she tries to keep her bread-and-butter clients warm while looking into the case of an insurance policy that was cashed in years before the deceased actually died, sort out a problem that is making the life of one of her dearest friends a misery and prepare for her journalist lover to go off on an extended mission to Afghanistan. All these plot elements are handled superbly, coalescing as you would expect into one convincing whole.
VI’s biggest problem in this novel that she seems to rub every one she talks to up the wrong way. Driven and determined, she’s got no time for the soft touch and none for nice words either. It’s a brave move by the author to portray her leading lady in such unsympathetic terms, especially when the lady herself has no idea what she’s doing to put up the backs of everybody she speaks to. And once again the book’s an absorbing, tightly-plotted tale that keeps you turning the pages long after you should have put it aside and gone off to do something else – the kind of book that makes you impatient about reaching your stop on the train. It uses the device of an interspersed narrative from one of the other chapters to help expand the story and the sum of all its disparate parts add up to much more than just your run-of-the-mill genre novel and one that it might take you a little while to get out of your head. Definitely a recommended read. Next on my list is Blacklist – as soon as Christmas is out of the way and I can get to a bookshop to find a copy.
Bibliography (abridged from the author’s website)
Novels:
- Fire Sale, 2006
- Blacklist, 2003
- Total Recall, 2001
- Hard Time, 1998/9
- Tunnel Vision, 1994
- Guardian Angel, 1992
- Burn Marks, 1990
- Blood Shot, 1988
- Bitter Medicine, 1987
- Killing Orders, 1985
- Deadlock, 1984
- Indemnity Only, 1982
Short stories:
- Photo Finish, published exclusively in VI x 2, which includes as well the VI short story Publicity Stunts
- Windy City Blues, A collection of nine V I Warshawski short stories, 1995
- Editor: Women on the Case, Original crime stories by women, Virago, 1996
- Editor: A Woman’s Eye, Original crime stories by women, Virago, 1991
- Dealer’s Choice, The Man Who Loved Life and A Taste of Life, reprinted as a Penguin Sixty, 1995
- Freud at Thirty Paces in 1st Culprit, 1993
- The Great Tetsuji, in 2nd Culprit, 1994
Some links:
- A critical introduction from enotes.com
- Thrilling Detective entry (plus bibliography)
- Sara Paretsky: an interview by Bob Cornwell
- Truth, Lies and Duct Tape: Writing in an Age of Silence – an inspiring talk on freedom of speech given by Sara Paretsky and reproduced on her website
- Guardian article by the author
- Sisters in Crime