I just finished Gischler's second novel, mixing the worlds of street crime and academia. Drug lieutenant Harold Jenks witnesses the violent death of a promising young scholar and decides to steal his identity and go straight. Jenks flees East St. Louis for Eastern Oklahoma University with a gym bag of cocaine in tow. His boss Red Zach soon pursues.
I've been a fan of Gischler's writing since GUN MONKEYS. His prose style makes me forget how many pages I've read; I just want to find out what happens to the characters. This strikes me as something every writer wants (or should want) in their work.
It might be the academic setting, but I enjoyed THE PISTOL POETS even more than I did GUN MONKEYS. The characters seem more normal (more normal than hardcase characters, anyway) and to me, "normal" people in fiction have greater range than the familar cop, P.I., or serial killer.
Gischler is signing his latest book, SUICIDE SQUEEZE, tonight at New York's Black Orchid Bookshop. Charlie Stella will also be there, but I, regretfully, will not.
2 comments:
I liked Gun Monkeys a lot more than Pistol Poets. There were parts of PP that felt kind of forced to me. Gun Monkeys made me laugh a lot more, too.
Have you ever met Gischler? I had him as a professor when he taught at NC State. He's an awesome guy, really funny.
Oh, and my blog is http://feverred.blogspot.com if you want to read it. :)
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