Fire Sale #2

Fire Sale #2

After I finished:

Great Character––V.I. Warshawski

After tensions were resolved, I was not very surprised. There was a long string of clues that took a long time to arrive to an inevitable conclusion.

Paretsky has an agenda and it is very noticeable: workers' rights at a big box store, gangs & basketball as their only hope, class issues, the giant chasm that exists between the haves and have nots etc...I don't mind as it is timely and apropos.

Warshawski is the righteous problem solver super hero. She fixes the injustices all over the town. From the small things to the big things. Warshawski's character was consistent, deep and tough. I like her, I don't like the clients & suspects she deals with, and I want her to figure everything out and kick some ass. I want to see the good gal beat up the bad guy. It vicariously heals all the injustices I have dealt with in the past.

Of all people, Warshawski reminded me of the John McClane (Bruce Willis) DIE HARD character. She gets wounded in the first scene, she is then hospitalized, and ends up a walking corpse by the end of the book being hospitalized again. She is beaten up and still relentless.

I don't really have a lot to say about the writing. It is competent and it appropriately delivers the story without getting in the way or drawing attention to itself. In that regard, i was not a participant. more of an observer of the cinematic story.

I think this would make a great movie. It seems to be overflowing with attitude from each character. I have yet to see the film that was already made in 1991.

Fire Sale #1

Fire Sale #1

Here are some of my thoughts as I was reading the book:

I am intrigued to find out what happens to the cheating couple (marcina & roach), the kid & josie, and to find out who started the fire even though i have a pretty good idea.

But, this is dragging on. Not much action happened from the fire in the beginning up until the 2nd half of the book. I like the historical chicago bits of info.

The by-smart, non-union, no benefits, cheap labor overseas, working class hero stuff is wearing on me at this point. Not from this book, but in our society. It is ridiculous that the denial of essential, civilized rights (like benefits and the ability to unionize) could be calmly accepted by the workers.

V.I. Warshawski is preachy, pushing, and a professional meddler, yet most other characters put her in her place and call her out on her behavior. She is also extremely self critical which makes her more believable——like she just can't help being the way she is.

I guess it makes me wonder why ALL private detectives aren't simply ignored by the potential suspects in mystery stories? It's not like you are ignoring the police! Unlike a police detective, a P.I. is just some busybody who everybody can shove aside.

Some scenes are great——like the "punta" scene was pretty funny.

Fire Sale

Fire Sale was overall not bad. I’m not a mystery person at all, and I’m not really an action person either. It was hard for me to get into the characters with such a plot-driven novel. And plot-driven isn’t bad, but I don’t know that I really could find a character to latch on to, or care about, if that makes sense. V.I. was okay herself, but I didn’t really buy her, she seemed too kitschy, forcefully abrasive. I also had a slight problem with the “preachy-ness” of the book, the background liberal agenda or whatever you want to call it. I feel like the author tries to hide it, but it comes out, and that annoys me. The rich people were portrayed so thinly, and I think they would be more interesting if they had depth (they could still be evil, you know). Aside from that, though, this was really not bad. I did feel the plot was slow going at first, there’s lots of setting up to be done (maybe this is how it is with all mysteries), so I did have some of that “heavy page” syndrome of wondering when things were going to get going. What I did like about the book was of course it being set on the southside of Chicago. I wonder, if the book were not set here, would it work at all? I don’t think so, because Chicago is a character here was well. Overall, it was nice to read a genre novel with good writing. I don’t know that I’m a convert, but still, no regrets on the time spent.