Recent Reading
Taking a break from the perpetual state of catching up on New Yorkers, I recently chugged through a few novels:
- Forever, by Pete Hamill
- The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber
Forever appears to be the basis of the newish Fox show “New Amsterdam,” about an immortal detective; the base plotline is ripped wholesale from Hamill’s novel (guy who lives forever in Manhattan) but treated with all manner of annoying flashiness (keeps on dying-but-not, works for the city, etc.) and breaks the cardinal rule of Hamill’s book, mainly that the main character CANNOT leave Manhattan — if he does so, instant death. At any rate, it’s a pretty good read, and awesome for anyone who grooves on the history of New York City (like me).
The Book of Air and Shadows is a different kettle of fish entirely: it’s a book that takes The Da Vinci Code and administers a the literary equivalent of a vicious beatdown … with the same rough premise (and in the same vein as The Name of the Rose, etc.), Gruber creates a novel that’s engaging, interesting, more realistic, and most importantly: not maddeningly STUPID. I read DVC a few years back, and it was OK — a perfect airplane novel — but when we wound up watching the movie, that’s when I felt offended, angered, driven to extreme profanity … I mean, the combo of book and film is just an insult to those with intelligence above that of an amoeba. Gruber’s novel, although hamstrung from time to time by some oddball clunky prose stylings, is of an altogether different order. Characters come to life, do real things, act in real ways. Better yet, there are numerous sly digs at DVC that are laugh-out-loud funny if one has read both. Great book.
