Small Town

First time around, Small Town made a huge impact on me. It’s very much a New York story, entirely influenced by 9/11. A decade later I was curious whether it would still feel as powerful, as involving and compelling as it did when Ground Zero was still little more than a hideous smoking hole, a raw wound at the heart of America.

This is not your typical Lawrence Block hard-boiled pulp fiction PI quick thriller. Nor is it some anti-Islamic, homeland security, global conspiracy shindig, packed with racial stereotypes, easy targets and square-jawed heroes. It is, plain and simple, a love song to New York from one of its finest writers.

This love song is threaded throughout an interwoven series of sub-plots involving a cast of New show more Yorkers; all of them influenced by the events of 9/11. All previously independent and all very different; now drawn together under that overwhelming shadow by a series of much smaller murders.

LB picks up half a dozen of those threads and weaves them into a nifty thriller: there’s a bad guy, of course, who lost everything in the aftermath of 9/11 and is on a mission of near-religious importance to revive the city’s fortunes by sacrificing more people to answer the appalling insult that has been done to it.

Readers more familiar with LB’s detective novels may be a bit surprised by the explicit nature of some scenes (which means, basically, that it all gets a bit kinky at times. OK?) But never fear, if you’d rather stick to the superficial story then that will keep you more than occupied. A series of grisly killings, an able unofficial investigator, a scapegoat who may actually be responsible for at least one death only even he doesn’t know the truth; the looming threat of an awful event – and plenty of naked romping.

On top of that we get to meet a slew of supporting characters all of whom feel like they’re drawn from real life, like the salon host who gave up on being skinny cos it turned out she preferred herself fat, or the wily old lawyer refusing treatment for his possible cancer and deciding to enjoy whatever time is left allotted to him. All of them, you want to spend more time with.

There's a whole heap more detail about the plot and characters over at:-
http://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/small-town-massive-story/

And at the end, I didn’t want Small Town to end. Which pretty much says it all. Although it was obviously written when the pain of 9/11 was fresh and raw, this book has matured into a tale worth reading at any time.

It almost scored a perfect 10/10 for me. However, one of the central characters is a novelist, a writer, and that felt just a touch contrived. Generally I detest books where the protagonist is a writer: it all gets way too autobiographical and just a wee bit narcissistic. Hence…

9/10 show less

I love the way he writes NYC as a character. Block should write tourist guides for NYC.

OTOH, this was a strange book. There was a lot of extra stuff that it really didn't need. I think there could have been less exposition to show the interconnectedness of people in NYC and compare them to the people who live in a small town. It's true that NYC is a series of connected small towns, but so are many other places. It's not unique, but it is difficult to demonstrate it to tourists.

Block really didn't need to whack readers over the head with his 9/11 newspaper so many times to show that everyone reacts differently to trauma. We get it.

I didn't mind the sex. At the beginning it felt like he set out to redeem Theresa Dunn. He even made a point show more of throwing *Looking for Mr. Goodbar* into the mix. But, no, it was more of a gimmick to pull all the males of the story together.

The book was a fast and entertaining read, though. It's honestly the perfect read for a day at the beach or hanging out on the porch/patio. That's nice. You don't have to give it your full attention. You can do one of those “wait, what?” things and not have to skim over preceding chapters to find what you missed. You can let it lull you to a nice nap if that's what you want to do. It was a true porch book.

It's an easy book for a summer read. show less

It's nice that Block reads his own work here. He's a pleasant narrator with a pretty good knack for different voices. The story, however, set in the aftermath of 9-11 is more notable for its kinky sex than as a mystery. Not recommended.

This is the first Lawrence Block I have ever read. It is not one of his many series but a stand alone book about New York City and a string of murders that seem to be tied together in a variety of different ways. The plot is kind of unnecessarily coying but the characters are totally worth wading through it.

My first fiction by Block - I had read his 'how to' on writing the novel. Great characterisation, great story, with evocative descriptions of New York and it's people in the aftermath of 9/11. Check out the sex life of Susan the art dealer - can you really, physically do those things? I must get out more...

John Blair Creighton, writer, takes a woman home and the next day she is found strangled. He is accused of murder, and while waiting for trial, writes his next book. Susan Pomerance, an art dealer, explores fierce and kinky sexuality. Other strange and powerful characters - perhaps too much or too graphic sex. I think the sex reflects the (natural?) desperate response of people to an event like 9/11 (Are there any other events like 9/11?) as all the characters, in relative degrees of sanity, try to cope.

(#3 in the 2004 Book Challenge)

This was very different from any of the other Block books I've read (mostly, the Bernie the Burglar series which are the kind of books that have a lot of puns, and Hit Man which I think is one of the greatest books ever and everyone should run not walk to find this book and read it and worship it like I do). Anyway, this book, Small Town is set in NYC in the year after 9-11, and that setting is a device that moves the story forward. I thought this was very interesting and admirable, because that was a really strange year (to say the least) but it was a crazy normalized strange because when everyone's having a strange year, it's easy to lose touch with what normal is. I don't think I absorbed how odd it was show more until I looked back on it. I thought it was admirable because it strikes me as a bit of a risky choice to focus on -- if it doesn't come off, an author could get a lot of backlash on that.

Also, this book has A LOT of sex. Raunchy sex. Which is okay, I just wasn't expecting it. I'm still trying to figure out if there was a point to it or not (in terms of serving a purpose in the novel). It did have that annoying aspect of feeling rather forced edgy, I don't like that. I'll decide if I think it's edgy, thankyewverramuch.

Grade: a solid B. You know, the more I think about it, the more the sex annoyed me. I still give him credit for writing ultra-believable NYC stories. show less