It Happened in Boston? (Modern Library Classics)

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: Found this cheap at the Strand on 12th Street in Manhattan. I was looking for old city guide books and the title caught my eye. I'm not normally a novel person but the first sentence grabbed me and I was utterly hooked until the last sentence. The characters are lucid, the cadence (especially in the last half) riveting. Paranoia, intrigue, art, murder, friendship, spirituality intertwined. Alas, few people have heard of this book, even my friends in Boston. I think I read this in a day and a half, maybe less. Well worth special ordering--you won't be able to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT PLANET ARE THESE PEOPLE ON????
Review: I decided to read this book reading all the 5star reviews on this site, well i have gone through the book cover to cover, there really isn't much that's interesting here, besides maybe how his girlfriend snatched the paintings from him, you'd probably be better off reading CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OR THE ALIENIST.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest novel nobody ever heard of
Review: I first discovered this book when living in Boston in the late sixties--and I was fortunate to meet the author at the same time. I found him to be a very quiet, shy, and introspective man, someone you would never expect to have written such a compelling novel. "It Happened In Boston?" is, to me, a true original. The reader is taken on a journey of murder, almost against one's will. The events that unfold are horrifying and surprising at the same time. And yet there is a kind of humor in this novel, in the protagonist's perspective on the world. Novels on serial killers are a dime a dozen these days--just read the copy on the dust jackets of contemporary novels. It seems every detective in fiction is on the trail of a serial killer. Endless movies are made on this theme. Yet, Russell Greenan may not have set out to make serial killing the most important element in his book. I believe he was merely trying to show how one man might defy society's stranglehold on the individual. On the other hand, perhaps Greenan was doing no such thing. Perhaps he was just weaving an extraordinary tale without a thought about oppression or society. Whatever his reasoning, this book has been at the forefront of my mind for over 30 years. Were I to come up with a list of my favorite books in the non-fiction genre, this book would be in the first ten. Russell, if you are still alive, and perhaps reading this review, I would love to hear from you. That would be as much a thrill as having read the book. Okay, enough kudos for this writer--except to say that I hope one day to find "It Happened In Boston?" rediscovered and reread, this time by the general public. As I said before, Russell Greenan was a very quiet man--certainly not someone to hawk his own work. It is unbelievable that his publisher didn't do it for him, and that the terrific reviews Russell got at the time this book appeared didn't create a major stir in the literary world. If there's anything I can do to help make people take notice of this novel, I certainly will. Actually, since '68, I have told anyone who would listen about this book--but since it has been out of print so many years, I doubt others could get a copy. I don't believe Russell ever wrote another book--if anyone knows of another, would you please let me know? One last thing: since reading this book, I have been very wary of open sugar bowls.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest novel nobody ever heard of
Review: I first discovered this book when living in Boston in the late sixties--and I was fortunate to meet the author at the same time. I found him to be a very quiet, shy, and introspective man, someone you would never expect to have written such a compelling novel. "It Happened In Boston?" is, to me, a true original. The reader is taken on a journey of murder, almost against one's will. The events that unfold are horrifying and surprising at the same time. And yet there is a kind of humor in this novel, in the protagonist's perspective on the world. Novels on serial killers are a dime a dozen these days--just read the copy on the dust jackets of contemporary novels. It seems every detective in fiction is on the trail of a serial killer. Endless movies are made on this theme. Yet, Russell Greenan may not have set out to make serial killing the most important element in his book. I believe he was merely trying to show how one man might defy society's stranglehold on the individual. On the other hand, perhaps Greenan was doing no such thing. Perhaps he was just weaving an extraordinary tale without a thought about oppression or society. Whatever his reasoning, this book has been at the forefront of my mind for over 30 years. Were I to come up with a list of my favorite books in the non-fiction genre, this book would be in the first ten. Russell, if you are still alive, and perhaps reading this review, I would love to hear from you. That would be as much a thrill as having read the book. Okay, enough kudos for this writer--except to say that I hope one day to find "It Happened In Boston?" rediscovered and reread, this time by the general public. As I said before, Russell Greenan was a very quiet man--certainly not someone to hawk his own work. It is unbelievable that his publisher didn't do it for him, and that the terrific reviews Russell got at the time this book appeared didn't create a major stir in the literary world. If there's anything I can do to help make people take notice of this novel, I certainly will. Actually, since '68, I have told anyone who would listen about this book--but since it has been out of print so many years, I doubt others could get a copy. I don't believe Russell ever wrote another book--if anyone knows of another, would you please let me know? One last thing: since reading this book, I have been very wary of open sugar bowls.

Rating:
Summary: It Happened in Boston?
Review: I just finished reading the new Modern Library edition of "It Happened in Boston?", which I had first read 35 years ago. It still seems as startling as it was then; all these strange characters, and the mad protagonist. What a feat of imagination! I had actually expected it to feel somewhat dated but it didn't - quite the contrary, it seemed completely of the moment. I think this edition should find a new audience, among readers who did not exist when it was first published.

Rating:
Summary: It Happened in Boston?
Review: I just finished reading the new Modern Library edition of "It Happened in Boston?", which I had first read 35 years ago. It still seems as startling as it was then; all these strange characters, and the mad protagonist. What a feat of imagination! I had actually expected it to feel somewhat dated but it didn't - quite the contrary, it seemed completely of the moment. I think this edition should find a new audience, among readers who did not exist when it was first published.

Rating:
Summary: I thought this book was my little secret
Review: Imagine my surprise to see that at least 11 other people have even read "It Happened in Boston?", let alone reacted to it as strongly and positively as I did. I read it as a teenager when it first came out - my father had ordered it from his book club - and I was completely hooked. It had never dawned on me that the hero of a novel could in fact be the villain as well (I later read "Crime and Punishment" and found that it was a fairly well-established literary convention). I remember filming this book in my mind over the next few years, always with different leading men and women, depending on who was most popular at the time, and frequently changing the plot to make it more "cinematic" - and I haven't read the book in about thirty years, although I still have it, so I'm interested to see how my mental movie compares with the incomparable original. It also compelled me to read all of Greenan's subsequent books, all of which are only slightly more conventional thrillers, and some of which (particularly "Heart of Gold" and "The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton") are quite unique. Most of them are set in Boston, which is where I've been living since reading "It Happened in Boston?" (not entirely a matter of cause and effect), and his feel for the atmosphere of the city - at least as it was in the seventies - is flawless. Greenan's books all deserve to be reprinted.

Rating:
Summary: I thought this book was my little secret
Review: Imagine my surprise to see that at least 11 other people have even read "It Happened in Boston?", let alone reacted to it as strongly and positively as I did. I read it as a teenager when it first came out - my father had ordered it from his book club - and I was completely hooked. It had never dawned on me that the hero of a novel could in fact be the villain as well (I later read "Crime and Punishment" and found that it was a fairly well-established literary convention). I remember filming this book in my mind over the next few years, always with different leading men and women, depending on who was most popular at the time, and frequently changing the plot to make it more "cinematic" - and I haven't read the book in about thirty years, although I still have it, so I'm interested to see how my mental movie compares with the incomparable original. It also compelled me to read all of Greenan's subsequent books, all of which are only slightly more conventional thrillers, and some of which (particularly "Heart of Gold" and "The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton") are quite unique. Most of them are set in Boston, which is where I've been living since reading "It Happened in Boston?" (not entirely a matter of cause and effect), and his feel for the atmosphere of the city - at least as it was in the seventies - is flawless. Greenan's books all deserve to be reprinted.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most memorable books I've ever read
Review: It Happened in Boston?...by Russell H. Greenan -- best art forgery mystery I've ever read (among its other virtures). The narrator of this peculiar masterpiece is a lunatic who is attempting to assassinate God and take his place, because he thinks he can run the world better. He is also the best artist since Leonardo; herein comes the art forgery plot. The characters are bizarre and funny. The writing is beautiful and witty. The vocabulary is impressive. Written in 1968, but hard to find (Bantam issued a paperback of this and a couple of other books by the author in the late 1980's: A Can of Worms and The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton also display his eccentric wit and weird fancies.) Keep an eye out in the used book stores for anything by this unique author (well, in some ways Michael Dibden is similar).

Rating:
Summary: An unsung, wild masterpiece of literature and Bostoniana.
Review: The first mistake the publisher of It Happened in Boston made was to continue to market it only as a mystery novel; the second was to let it fall out of print. Greenan's book is one of the funniest, cruelest, most audacious, and most moving books I remember reading when I was a teenager. Already out of print then, the book had attained cult status in Boston. I received a battered copy from a friend in Cambridge and read it cover to cover in a couple of days. Reading established literary classics, you always have to wonder how many other masterpieces are lost to time. It Happened in Boston is one such masterpiece. If Russell Greenan is still alive (I hope he is), he should know what a following he has and how much his books are still appreciated