Lawrence Block - Small Town (2003)
In many ways, New York City is a small town. The borough of Manhattan only covers 23 square miles of land, a figure that makes it about 1/5 the size of Salt Lake City. One can easily get around town on foot, hopping on the occasional subway or city bus when in a hurry. It is also a small town in the way that people's lives intersect, as was demonstrated with the tragic events of September 11, 2001, when everyone, it seemed, knew somebody who was personally affected.
New York is a large city to hide in, though, if you're a serial killer, like the one who's plaguing the city in Lawrence Block's latest thriller, Small Town. This ambitious, erotic novel is a departure for the mystery Grandmaster in that it features multiple viewpoints and a complex web of interwoven stories. The is more sophisticated and layered than in his best known work, the Matt Scudder series, which usually follows a single, first person POV.
The story begins with the murder of a female real estate agent who picked up a man in a bar and took him home. When she's discovered the next morning by her cleaning man, the police are quick to settle on John Blair Creighton, a largely unsuccessful mid-list writer, as the likely culprit. (The suspect's profession, not incidentally, allows the author an opportunity to deliciously skewer the venality of the publishing industry.) While true that he did meet her and apparently go home with her, Creighton certainly doesn't remember killing her. Of course, he was very drunk at the time and might have blacked out.
Even with Creighton under arrest, however, the killings don't stop. Next to come is a brutal triple murder in a whorehouse, followed by the firebombing of a gay bar. Soon another suspect appears, a bland, ordinary insurance executive who lost everything that mattered to him on 9/11, including, it seems, his very soul.
The 2001 terrorist attack on New York City forms an ever-present backdrop to the conjoined stories of Small Town. The many characters that populate it are still reeling from the loss, trying to make sense out of a world gone mad, always reminded by the stark hole in their beautiful skyline. Their pain, the city's pain, is an important of their lives still, and thus an important part of the plot.
It is a common belief that the nearness of death and destruction can cause a strong instinctual impulse to procreate, a primitive attempt to preserve the species that is hard-wired in our DNA. Whether or not that is true, the people of Small Town certainly have a lot of sex. "Normal" sex, unusual sex, gay sex; you name it, they have it. That desire, that near-irresistible impulse is also an important part of the city Block's characters inhabit. It is as if, he seems to be saying, that after 9/11, all bets are off.
Block has written a masterpiece for his 52nd novel, a stunning work that draws on all his powers as a storyteller and chronicler of the darker side of the human psyche. Never before has he painted on such a broad canvas, and never before has he attempted to go so deep into the hearts and minds of so many different characters. Breaking out of the more traditional mystery mold was a gamble, but it has paid off in spades. Small Town is one of the finest books of Block's, or any, career.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
Comments
Ugly book.
Posted by: | Oct 16, 2006 1:39:21 PM
