So Many Doors (Hard Case Crime)
by Oakley Hall
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It begins on Death Row, with a condemned man refusing the services of the lawyer assigned to defend him. It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered - Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. That's where this extraordinary novel begins. But the story it tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that show more unfolds, in the masterful hands of acclaimed author Oakley Hall, is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake. Unpublished for more than half a century, So Many Doors is Hall's masterpiece, an excoriating vision of human nature at its most brutal, and one of the most powerful books you will ever read. show lessTags
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Slow building, but fantastic deep dive into "dysfunctional" relationship between Jack Ward and "V" (Vassilia) in 40s California. Told with different perspectives (a little frustrating as we don't see the end story for some interesting characters - Ben, among others) the story builds as a tale of pained lust, obsession, perverse jealousy of 2 characters that just can't seem to get away from each other (but probably should). I love how it raked over the coals of this jealous pain so carefully - a full picture.
“You never understood what we had.”
Honestly, the above quote it pretty much how I felt about reading this book. It is published by Hard Case Crime, but it is basically a romance. In the middle of it all is a woman. Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. And it's a terrible romance between two people who don't actually seem to even like each other. AND a third person chimes in his opinion, for reasons that I could not at all understand. The prologue is really strong, and the ending is good, but everything in-between just wasn't for me, as I'm not a fan of romance novels. Nor am I a fan of cat skinners. So just not the book for me.
On a fun note, on page 120 Ben goes to Hamilton Field which is/was in my hometown of Novato!
Honestly, the above quote it pretty much how I felt about reading this book. It is published by Hard Case Crime, but it is basically a romance. In the middle of it all is a woman. Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. And it's a terrible romance between two people who don't actually seem to even like each other. AND a third person chimes in his opinion, for reasons that I could not at all understand. The prologue is really strong, and the ending is good, but everything in-between just wasn't for me, as I'm not a fan of romance novels. Nor am I a fan of cat skinners. So just not the book for me.
On a fun note, on page 120 Ben goes to Hamilton Field which is/was in my hometown of Novato!
fewer doors than advertised
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30+ Works 2,240 Members
He is the author of more than twenty works of fiction, including The Downhill Racers, Warlock, The Bad Lands & Separations. For twenty years, he was professor English & director of programs in writing at the University of California at Irvine. He is also the director of the Squaw Valley Writing Program. In 1998, he received a PEN center USA West show more Award of Honor for a lifetime of literary achievement. He lives in San Francisco. (Publisher Provided) Author Oakley M. Hall was born in San Diego in 1920. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. He joined the Marines and served in the Pacific during World War II. Taking advantage of the G. I. Bill after the war, he studied in Europe and received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He founded the creative writing program at the University of California at Irvine and co-founded the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. He wrote the Ambrose Bierce Mystery series and his best known novels are Downhill Racers and Warlock. He died of kidney disease and cancer on May 13, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Hard Case Crime (137)
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