The House of Whacks : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: i thought it would have a crappy ending
Review: i really liked this book. i liked the characters and the story, but while reading it i figured it was too good to be true and prepared myself for a bad ending. very, very surprisingly it was a good ending, it made sense and it fit with the rest of the book. it made me feel all smokey and sultry and hollywood nocturne-y.

Rating:
Summary: British take on the world
Review: These reviews! Branton's view of 50's society enthralled me from beginning to end. I won't bother elaborating on the characters and plot here, as you can read that in the editorial. I will say that I found both interesting and imaginative, more so because you can trace their origins in contempory popular culture, as criticised above. Get this, this is somewhat the point of Branton's writing, as you would know if you had read the excellent 'Love Parade' and 'Coast'. It's a guessing game to spot your own coolness. If only we could all be this slick...

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Muddle
Review: This is a book whose premise I liked better than the actual execution. The idea of 1950s Chicago, an actress turned S&M model (think Betty Page), mobsters, a dying tough-girl editor, hack pulp writers, a struggling screenwriter, and a heist of Nazi gold, sounds great, but fails to hold together in the end. Branton expends so much effort on recreating the hard-boiled setting and slang that the plot zigs and zags all over the place with annoying time shifts and a disappointing denouement. It might have been more compelling had Branton stuck with one or two main characters and went a little deeper into their lives, and paid a little more attention to plot (for example, the various heist plans are bafflingly stupid). While comparisons with LA Confidential aren't totally off base, Leonard's book is big league material, and this is strictly wanna-be. The 1950s dialogue is occasionally marred by 1990s expressions, and more irritatingly, by Anglicisms that the editor should have easily caught.