Book Review

By Derryll White

Block, Lawrence (2001).  Hope To Die.

This is a Matt Scudder novel. Matt is an ex – ex-cop, ex-alcoholic, ex-P.I., married ex (who dies in this novel).  Matt lives downtown in his beloved New York City with Elaine, his current spouse. Scudder maintains a working relationship with quite a few New York cops although he has no status except his history, integrity and personality – his 62 years have accumulated quite a lot of all three.

Lawrence Block is a consummate storyteller. He takes his time, even with throw-away characters. Even if he only uses them for a couple of pages, you feel as though you know them.  The major characters are very complex and fully-formed. The reader feels like it would be possible to walk into Elaine’s antique shop and buy a Kean painting, or have a burger with Detective Joe Durkin.

I liked the idea of the ‘cute’ killer. Block lets him go, in his anonymity, to kill again. Matthew Scudder accomplished his job, protecting the heiress and giving her peace of mind. But has he failed as a father? Lawrence Block makes Scudder so real. I recommend the Matt Scudder series to anyone who likes gritty, hardcore, street-wise crime novels.

****

Excerpts from the novel:

RAPE – ‘It’s not supposed to be sexual,” I said.

“That’s what they keep telling us.  It’s hostility toward women, or some such crap.”

“Well, I’d say a guy has to be the least bit hostile to do what this one did with the poker.”

“The son of a bitch.  Yeah, of course, no question.  I mean, it’s never a loving act, is it?  Raping a woman.  But how the hell can they claim it’s not about sex?  If sex has nothing to do with it, where did the son of a bitch get his hard-on from?  What, did somebody sprinkle Viagra on his corn flakes?”

TIME – “Was the marriage ever in trouble?”

“I think it was stressful for them when Sean died.  I was thirteen and a half, so it was ten years ago this summer.  It seems so long ago sometimes, and there are other times when it really does seem like only yesterday.  I don’t understand time.”

“Nobody does.”

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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