The Golden Rules

Rating:
Summary: The Golden Rules a Golden Read
Review: A delightful, fast-paced read:protagonist Owen Hill III answers an ad that promises riches - a quest for gold - and in his travels, bumps into all sorts of sinister characters like Rotbart, who is all that his name implies; along with losers, winners, charmers - all unforgettable. A sort of modern "Candide". Couldn't put the book down. Almost every page full of surprises. And it's well written!

Rating:
Summary: this is not Proust
Review: In 'The Golden Rules' The author, a well starched midwestern stockbroker, opens his closet door on an ensemble of eclectic characters pursuing the classic dream of the archetypal American Loser. The story is well written and paced to keep you awake if not engaged. The flaw, as is often the case with first novels, is the profusion of gratuitous perversons that obscure and prevent a reader from ever connecting with the characters. Where Flannery O'conner can write a rape scene that reads like a religious experience, Ryan's muse seems to be the letters to the editor in a cheap porn magazine. While the ending is obvious the ride is well constructed and the story works. With the exception of the used car salesman who shows up once too often to be credible, it is scary to think that some of these characters really could be out there somewhere. If you can find a copy in a used bookstore on the dollar table and morality isn't an issue... there is a lot of talent in these pages.

Rating:
Summary: A book that will keep you warm when it's cold outside
Review: Somebody stuck this book in my luggage when I went to L.A. for New Year's. No kidding. Must have gotten switched from someone else's bag to mine during the luggage search. Well, it's pretty cold up here this time of year and the libary is none too big, so I decided to see what this little book was all about. Turns out it's about the eternal quest for GOLD which seems to drive men to go to the strangest places, like Alaska or the Amazon jungle. I was on my way to Alaska once myself, but ended up settled here in the Yukon for reasons that would make a novel in themeselves. Anyway, this novel by R. M. Ryan is a good one. He must be a poet, because he does go on and on sometimes, but most of it's interesting. And the weather and the sex in this book are so hot that I got warmed up just reading it.