Book Review - The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
Category Book Review Charlie Huston The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
This was another one of those "recommended by a friend" books that I generally put on my library hold list... The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel by Charlie Huston. It's the first Huston book I've read, so I don't have much to compare it to, other than to say that many others say his style is quite "different". "Different" would be putting it mildly... :) Plenty of gore, guts, language, and intrigue to make this about as "noire" as you can get. I don't know that I liked it so much as I was analyzing his writing style. It was one of my slower reads as you had to work a bit to follow who was saying what...
The basic plot is that Web Goodhue, a complete and total drifter, is finally forced to find a job before his tattoo artist friend throws him out. The job happens to be working for Po Sin, a rather large individual who does the haz waste pickup each week. Turns out that Po runs a company called Clean Team, the people who come in and clean up after someone dies or otherwise makes a mess in departing their earthly existence. Web is quickly exposed to some of the most gruesome sights he's ever seen, but strangely he decides to go back for another day... and another... and another. On a particular call where he ends up falling for the daughter of a suicide victim, he unwittingly becomes caught up in a larger crime, one that could leave his new girlfriend and him dead... all over a truckload of almonds. Web has to play the innocent idiot caught in the wrong place (which he is) while trying to outwit the idiots on the other side (which they are), all while saddled with the the complete nutcase that is the girl's brother. All these characters and situations wind down to a final confrontation to see who can call who's bluff best.
It takes awhile for the book to get going, as I had no idea as to why Web found himself in this particular situation to begin with. Was he always a lazy bum? Reference is made that he used to be a teacher, but it takes awhile before you know how that figures in. On top of that, *all* the characters are highly flawed and not very likable, but they do tend to be entertaining in their own way. The hardest part of the book is the mix between dialogue and action. His lines of dialogue are started with a single dash, and there is no indication as to who is saying what line. So you may have a line or two of action, then five lines of dialogue, each on their own line, started with a dash. You have to follow carefully to know who is talking and how the conversation is bouncing back and forth. You WILL end up rereading some passages, as they didn't make sense the first way you read it as you misidentified the characters.
This book won't appeal to everyone, and even then you'll probably find a difference in what worked for you vs. for someone else. I'm not sure I'd head back for more Huston titles, as I have so many other things to read that I'd likely enjoy more. But from a strict writer and stylistic angle, it's worth reading to experience something a bit different.
This was another one of those "recommended by a friend" books that I generally put on my library hold list... The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel by Charlie Huston. It's the first Huston book I've read, so I don't have much to compare it to, other than to say that many others say his style is quite "different". "Different" would be putting it mildly... :) Plenty of gore, guts, language, and intrigue to make this about as "noire" as you can get. I don't know that I liked it so much as I was analyzing his writing style. It was one of my slower reads as you had to work a bit to follow who was saying what...
The basic plot is that Web Goodhue, a complete and total drifter, is finally forced to find a job before his tattoo artist friend throws him out. The job happens to be working for Po Sin, a rather large individual who does the haz waste pickup each week. Turns out that Po runs a company called Clean Team, the people who come in and clean up after someone dies or otherwise makes a mess in departing their earthly existence. Web is quickly exposed to some of the most gruesome sights he's ever seen, but strangely he decides to go back for another day... and another... and another. On a particular call where he ends up falling for the daughter of a suicide victim, he unwittingly becomes caught up in a larger crime, one that could leave his new girlfriend and him dead... all over a truckload of almonds. Web has to play the innocent idiot caught in the wrong place (which he is) while trying to outwit the idiots on the other side (which they are), all while saddled with the the complete nutcase that is the girl's brother. All these characters and situations wind down to a final confrontation to see who can call who's bluff best.
It takes awhile for the book to get going, as I had no idea as to why Web found himself in this particular situation to begin with. Was he always a lazy bum? Reference is made that he used to be a teacher, but it takes awhile before you know how that figures in. On top of that, *all* the characters are highly flawed and not very likable, but they do tend to be entertaining in their own way. The hardest part of the book is the mix between dialogue and action. His lines of dialogue are started with a single dash, and there is no indication as to who is saying what line. So you may have a line or two of action, then five lines of dialogue, each on their own line, started with a dash. You have to follow carefully to know who is talking and how the conversation is bouncing back and forth. You WILL end up rereading some passages, as they didn't make sense the first way you read it as you misidentified the characters.
This book won't appeal to everyone, and even then you'll probably find a difference in what worked for you vs. for someone else. I'm not sure I'd head back for more Huston titles, as I have so many other things to read that I'd likely enjoy more. But from a strict writer and stylistic angle, it's worth reading to experience something a bit different.
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