The Weight by Andrew Vachss

Published by Pantheon on November 9, 2010

Sugar is a professional. He's a thief, he's good at his job, and he's proud of his adherence to the rules of the game. Sugar has just finished a jewelry store heist planned by his friend Solly when he's picked up for a rape. He couldn't have committed the rape but he can't give the cops an alibi without admitting that he was stealing jewels when the rape was committed. Eventually he takes a deal, doing time for a sexual assault but skating on the jewelry store job. When he gets out of prison, Solly gives him his cut but sends him to Florida to tie up some loose ends. The bulk of the novel focuses on Sugar's actions in Florida, his attempt to puzzle out what Solly really wants, and his relationship with the woman Solly sends him to meet.

Getting into the heads of society's outcasts is one of Vachss' greatest talents. Few writers match his ability to create authentic criminal characters. Sugar is a big guy, bulging with muscle mass acquired from lifting weights -- and weight (or wait) becomes an important metaphor in the novel (hence the title). Sugar learned an early lesson about the life of a thief: it isn't how much weight you can lift, it's how much weight you can take. Sugar has a reputation as a stand-up guy, an exception to the axiom that there's no honor among thieves. He could have saved himself from prison time and sex offender registration by giving up the planner and the rest of the crew on the burglary, but he elects instead to keep his mouth shut and do his time.

Some readers don't like novels unless the hero is morally stalwart or the novel delivers a morally uplifting message. I admired Sugar's integrity -- his refusal to be a rat -- but a thief's integrity (and Sugar's reluctant use of violence to secure his safety) won't appeal to some readers. Those readers might want to avoid The Weight. I give Vachss credit for creating a sympathetic character who plays by the rules, even if the rules that govern his world contravene society's rules. Readers who can appreciate a thoughtful examination of the criminal mind will probably enjoy The Weight as much as I did.

The Weight isn't as tightly plotted as Vachss' best work. Sugar spends a lot of time thinking out loud or engaging in meaningless arguments, particularly with the woman in Florida. He also seems oddly sensitive to perceived slights. The strongest parts of the novel come from Sugar's prison experiences. Vachss writes with an authentic voice; he obviously understands how prisons work and how inmates survive in a dehumanizing environment. The main storyline is unfortunately written with less intensity. Still, the plot works well enough and it comes to a satisfying resolution. It isn't as good as Vachss' best non-Burke novel (the chilling Shella) but it's still a fun read.

RECOMMENDED

Kingfisher by Gerald Seymour

First published in 1977

To make a political statement about the plight of Ukrainian Jews, four individuals conspire to murder a police officer in Kiev. Moses Albyov, chosen by lot to pull the trigger, botches the killing, leaving the wounded officer alive to describe him. After his arrest, the remaining cell members, David, Isaac, and Rebecca, fearful that Moses will identify them, decide to hijack a plane and flee to Israel. Charlie Webster, an analyst for the SIS who tracks Soviet dissidents, plays a central role in communicating with the hijackers.

What does the kingfisher have to do with any of this? "She is fast and swift, and she holds the initiative in her world. None can catch her, few even see her, she is devastating in her attack." That description of the kingfisher comes from the old soldier who provides arms to David for use in the hijacking. David, a naive young man who pictures himself as heroic until doubt and his conscience begin to trouble him, announces on the plane's radio that he is a Jewish Resistance Commando and names the flight "the Kingfisher."

Kingfisher is a solid thriller. Through much of the novel, the perspective is that of the hijackers, who justify their actions (at least initially) as a necessary response to oppression. At other times the reader sees the hijacking through different eyes: the passengers, European and Israeli politicians, German veterans who watch the plane overfly the Hanover airport, European Jews who once lived in Russia, and Webster are among those who contribute opinions about the hijackers. Kingfisher makes the point that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter -- an observation that may have been clichéd even when the novel was published in 1977, but that nonetheless remains salient. In any event, the shifting perspectives add complexity and interest to the story.

Readers who prefer novels that feature morally pure heroes defeating cartoonishly evil bad guys will probably dislike Kingfisher. Gerald Seymour's strength is his ability to dramatize moral ambiguity. In Kingfisher, the reader understands and sympathizes with the hijackers despite their repellent actions. Similarly, the reader sympathizes with Webster, who is forced to make a difficult moral choice at the end of the novel. The difference between right and wrong is rarely clear in Seymour's novels. I like that reflection of reality, but readers who prefer the kind of escapist fiction that draws a distinct line between good and evil should probably avoid Seymour.

A minor quibble: the dialog spoken by Americans sounds very British. Other than that, Seymour's writing is strong, his characters are believable, and the pace is perfect. Seymour is an under-appreciated writer whose novels deserve a wider audience. Although Kingfisher is a bit dated (the hijacking described in the novel probably couldn't happen today, even in Kiev), the reader will quickly be drawn into the story, captivated by the mounting tension and the evolving personalities of the hijackers.

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The Prisoner by Thomas M. Disch

First published in 1967

Puzzling over their differing memories of their lives before arriving in the Village, Lorna (or is her name Liora?) asks: "What is real? Who am I? Do I wake or dream?" Those questions are at the heart of The Prisoner: both the original television series and Thomas Disch's novelization of the cult classic.

The television series can be viewed as anti-authoritarian, as a tribute to individuality and free thought, as an existential exercise in futility, as a statement about the nature of liberty and as a condemnation of secrecy and bureaucracy. It can be seen as a fable or an allegory. The great and maddening beauty of The Prisoner is that the audience was never given definitive answers: the location of the Village, the identities of the Village masters, the information the prisoner possessed and the reason for his resignation as a clandestine agent, whether the prisoner finally escaped ... we'll never know, and that's exactly what Patrick McGoohan wanted. (You don't have to believe me about this; you can read McGoohan's interview in The Prisoner: A Televisionary Masterpiece, a coffee table book that also includes a detailed episode guide.) Thomas Disch's novel captures the spirit of the television series, if not its scope.

That the book is a novelization of the show seems to have escaped some of the reviewers who gripe that the novel is too much like the show. What did they expect from a novelization? To be fair, the novel is not a scene by scene replay of the television series: it begins differently; the location of the prisoner's capture is altered; the prisoner's escape attempts in the first and second episodes are carried out more ingeniously in the novel; the woman who (supposedly) escapes in the second episode is replaced by an entirely new character in the book, a love interest who appears early in the novel. There are enough differences to make the novel fresh and appealing to the show's fans while remaining true to McGoohan's vision. And of course, with only 242 pages, the novel cannot cover all 17 episodes of the show; it wisely makes no attempt to do so.

Some reviewers complain that that the book doesn't answer the questions left unanswered by the series. Why would it? This is, again, a novelization of the series (it says so on the back cover). Why would the novel destroy the careful ambiguity of the original?

My only complaint is that a 242 page novel can't do justice to the television series. As I said, Disch captured the spirit but not the scope of the original work. The novel is nonetheless well worth reading, for fans of the show and for those who have never seen it.

RECOMMENDED

Final Notice by Joe Gores

Published by Random House in 1973

Reading a DKA novel is like spending a few days shadowing a repo man to learn the ropes of the repossession business, except that it's more fun (and less dangerous). In a DKA novel, you know that you'll meet interesting characters, encounter plenty of action, and exercise your brain as you try to solve whatever puzzle Joe Gores has in store for you.

Final Notice takes place six months after Dead Skip. In that novel, Bart Heslip was hospitalized after being hit with a sap outside the DKA offices. Final Notice gets off to a similar start as Ed Dorsey is hospitalized after being beaten by two thugs outside the DKA offices. The beating seems to be tied to the repossession of a Cadillac belonging to an aging beauty named Chandra, whose delinquent payments are suddenly and mysteriously made good. Thanks to Heslip's intervention, one of the thugs who beat Dorsey is captured and identified as a mob henchman. DKA's founder, Dan Kearny, makes it his business to find out why Dorsey was beaten, and solves a couple of murders along the way.

The plot of Final Notice isn't quite as ingenious as that of Dead Skip, but it ties together nicely at the end. The pace is swift and the process of detection is fascinating. Characters come to life, particularly Giselle, a DKA employee whose ill-advised affair with a banker is a central focus of the story. Gores' prose is tight and suitably hard-boiled without becoming a parody. It's unfortunate this novel is out of print. Seek it out if you like first rate detective fiction.

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Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

Published by Doubleday on March 18, 2008

This marvelous story collection is Winesburg, Ohio for those who live at the fringes of civilized society. It showcases the residents of Knockemstiff, Ohio, some of whom appear in more than one story. If you like stories about gritty people whose actions are motivated by raw emotion rather than rational thought, people with few redeeming qualities, poor self-esteem, bad manners, and little hope, this is the collection for you.

Two things make these stories work. First, the writing is of the highest quality: sharp, poignant, and honest. Second, the stories are character-driven and plot-driven at the same time, a rare blend in literary fiction. The stories are actually about something beyond the characters. Things happen, interesting and sometimes shocking things, as the stories progress from a clear beginning to a clear ending. For instance: **Semi-Spoiler Alert** A young draft evader who lives in the hills comes across a brother and sister having sex, kills the brother and rapes the sister before returning to hiding. A bodybuilder takes steroids at the insistence of his father who wants to recapture his glory days by living vicariously through his son (the son, of course, comes to no good end). Two kids steal a dealer's supply of pills with fantastic plans about selling them and starting a new life, but end up using all the pills. These are a few examples of the tragic and depressing but realistic life stories depicted in Knockemstiff. **End of Spoiler**

Make no mistake: the characters in Knockemstiff represent the underbelly of America. They are seedy, violent, uncouth, racist, uneducated, vulgar, and more than a little creepy. If you don't like a story unless you like the characters, you won't like this book. If stories don't appeal to you unless they are morally uplifting, you won't like this book. But make no mistake also: the characters in Knockemstiff are as real as dirt. Pollock perfectly captures the rage and hopelessness and bewilderment that infuses people who society has left behind. If you appreciate good writing for its own sake, if you think damaged people can be just as interesting as virtuous people in the hands of a fine writer, if you value the insight that comes from intense examination of the darker aspects of the human soul, Knockemstiff is a book you will appreciate and think about and remember.

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