Friday, August 20, 2010

The great library challenge: Bazell, Josh Beat the Reaper

Posted by lea at 3:02 PM
You're right, there have been a lot of 'greats' in the titles of my blog posts recently. Hopefully the content will one day catch up to the overuse of the word.

But back to my great library challenge. Author 'B' (Josh Bazell) is now down and out for the count. So was it the 'ice cold and ferocious read' we'd been promised? Yes, yes and more yes!

The plot begins like a whip held overhead, ready to crack. When it comes down, it takes you with it on a heartpounding ride that races back and forth from his past to the present. It's enough to give you whiplash.

The hero of the book is Dr. Peter Brown, a seriously tough guy in witness protection with a mafia background who is now a doctor. His first person narrative is punchy, informative (complete with footers for the detail-minded) and intelligent. He's a man who's got it all: the smarts, the toughs and a history worth hiding from. But when a patient from the past intrudes into his present, he finds himself in a race to... you guessed it: beat the reaper.

When I googled it for the cover image, pictures of Leonardo Di Caprio abounded, being apparently it's being turned into a movie with Leo playing the main role. Woot woot!

So onto author C of the great library challenge: I chose C for Classic, C for Capote, Truman Breakfast at Tiffany's.

5 comments:

Caesar on August 20, 2010 at 4:57 PM said...

Hey Lea, I'd like to ask you a question - maybe not one for you to answer right now, but for you to consider as you go through your great library challenge (I reckon your posts are already "great" enough to qualify for the title):

With the incredible amount of written material already out there, is your "challenge" proving to be encouraging or discouraging to your own (previously mentioned) novel-writing aspirations?

lea on August 20, 2010 at 5:10 PM said...

Hey Caesar, to be honest I kinda lost my writing mojo a long time ago. One day I realised it just.. diminished. These days I just don't have the time or inclination to write fiction anymore. It's kind of a good thing because I can admit I wasn't very good at it anyway :)

The great library challenge is really proving to be great b/c it's stretching my literary horizons as I discover new authors I've never read before. No matter how much written work is out there already, I reckon most readers (not to mention publishers) are willing to sift through a pile of crap to find another great author, so if you plan to write one day, i say GO FOR IT!

lea on August 20, 2010 at 5:12 PM said...

@Caesar: woops! I re-read my comment and realised it might sound like I'm saying what you'll write is crap, but I meant it the other way round - that yours could be the diamond in the rough. LOL

Caesar on August 20, 2010 at 7:10 PM said...

Haha, thanks. That's kinda exactly what I was thinking - behind the tsunami of published content is another, even bigger torrent (by several orders of magnitude) of unpublished stuff.

Therefore "because I can" doesn't cut it as a reason any more, and "because I have a unique story" is probably self-delusional.

I think I'll just stick to blogging.

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