I’m not sure why I even finished this book, but it seems that my compulsive nature once again defeated the wisdom of just giving up on it. Pike had the feel of Cormac McCarthy’s book, The Road. Although that book made Oprah’s monthly book recommendation, it did not make mine. Like that book, this one told a story of a troubled and deteriorating time with nothing but bad people leading sad and violent lives, without apparent reason for doing so. In this book, a dirty and bad cop, Derrick, is eventually challenged by an old and rough character, Pike. Both men cause havoc around them and death and/or injury to nearly everyone who comes near, until they meet up with each other for the final confrontation. Pike, an older man, is there to save his granddaughter who has been abandoned by his now deceased mother, Pike’s daughter, to whom Pike did not speak after she turned 6 years old when he abandoned them. His daughter led the life of addiction and whoring, and was pimped by Derrick. This was Whitmer’s first novel, but he’s going to have to do a lot better to ever win me back. He had some peripheral characters, but none of them were all that interesting. There were no unexpected twists in the plot, just a slow progression to the inevitable conclusion when Pike kills Derrick and then takes off with his granddaughter towards a safer life. Okay, that’s enough, and you already know more than you need to about this one.
Now, I'm in a quandary. Read a number of reviews full of glowing praise and now my bud WCD says the opposite. Who to believe? Guess I'll side with WCD, probably cuz we tend to agree on matters like this. That being said, I do find Whitmer's blog kinda entertaining.
ReplyDeleteThis is why Al Pacino (in GF III) says, “Sausiche his own”/the sausage and peppers scene at his Commendatore party) ... Pike is my hands down best of 2010 ... but I am huge fan of the darker slices of life and can understand readers not having the same feel for the book. I was most impressed with the writing (which I think is superb). It’s a tough call and why all readers have to decide for themselves. I also like the Russian heavyweights (Dostoevsky and Tolstoy) so dark is something I always prefer. WCD is right about the Cormac McCarthy similarities, but again, if one doesn’t prefer dark, Pike will difficult for them. McCarthy and Whitmer are similar (although I prefer Whitmer’s Pike to anything of McCarthy’s and I read all his works).
ReplyDeleteThat said, I respect WCD’s opinion ... while I disagree on Pike, yous guys are always more than fair ...