This is a little bit of a cheat, since I don't usually write about books I don't finish, but I thought I'd make an exception just this once. It's rare for me not to finish a book once I've started, and I never thought I wouldn't finish one by Thomas Perry, who's entertained me many times. Silence didn't work for me, though.I should have known it was trouble when I saw that it was well over 400 pages long with fairly small print. I'm not a fan of long books, but Perry's such an expert at pacing, I didn't think the length would be a problem. I was wrong.
Here's why. Perry seems to have intended this to be a character-driven thriller, which is fine, although I think thrillers are generally plot driven. I got bogged down in all the backstories for the characters in Silence. There's so much backstory in the first 120 pages (which is as far as I got) that there's enough material for a couple of other books. Maybe all this stuff will pay off later in the book, but not for me. The thing that drove me to put the book down was the lengthy backstory (eight or nine pages) of one character, who's then killed only a few pages later. I figured enough was enough. I'll be reading other Thomas Perry books, no question about that, but this one was a disappointment.
6 comments:
P.D. James started doing that in her last few books. She'd write these incredibly detailed back stories for a character who only appeared in a couple of scenes. I'd keep waiting for the character to reappear because with that amount of background detail, I assumed the character would reappear. Then...nothing.
Thomas Perry grew up in North Tonawanda so he's a local hero. But I'm with you on Perry's books. The longer they got, the less interesting they became.
I liked his early ones - THE BUTCHER's BOY and METZGAR'S DOG in particular. I can't read these long books. (Ditto for P. D. James.)
You know sometimes deep characterization isn't needed. Just tell the story.
I don't consider 400 pages a long book. 600 or 700 is long.
Somehow, I missed this one, but I'm going to give it a try despite these naysayings. I have liked every Thomas Perry book so far.
Long books and small print are difficult right now, but as soon as I get these damned cataracts fixed, it should be the good life once again.
I don't mind even a 1000 page book if it's a good story.
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