Hook Man Speaks

Rating:
Summary: a quick and gentle read
Review: Hook Man Speaks is a gentle story about the man behind the urban myth--you know= lovers parked in a deserted lane, tapping on the window, girl freaks out, guy gets mad, they drive off, get home and there's a hook on the car door handle. This is the "story behind the myth". Told in a diary/flashback method this story was a fast read with a lot of heart. It's the tale of a handicaped man and his struggle to love and to be loved. The only reason I can't rate it a 5, is because the character of the professor ( hook man's only friend)did not seem as rounded. I am genuinely saddened by the death of the author, Matt Clark; were he still living, I feel he would have become a bestselling author with much to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Faltering Portrayal of Urban Legend
Review: Hook Man Speaks was a great idea - base the main character in a novel on an urban legend. Give the reader the real story behind the Hook Man, the one-armed man who plagues parking hot spots. And while the reader did get some of this, what they really received was a half-developed quirky character that I personally didn't really care too much about.

Clark could have developed an intriguing character in Leonard Gage but all he was able to really do with the character was give the reader a neurotic and slightly pathetic character. While the narrative leapt between past and present showing the development of the Hook Man, too much was left out. By the time I was finished, I didn't feel as though I had received an accurate, complete portrait of the character. I don't believe that Clark ever decided on what he really wanted to do with Hook Man Speaks. He straddled the line between a funny and quirky story based on urban legend and biography of troubled childhood. Not that these two things are mutually exclusive but it did seem he had trouble defining the tone of Hook Man Speaks.

All-in-all, Hook Man Speaks was a unique experience and not at all an unpleasant read. It's worth reading despite the flaws. Unfortunately, it would be Clark's first and only novel.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and hopeful
Review: If you've ever parked your Ford along a dark road and then spent some heated time in the backseat with your sweetie, then this book will add to your thrill. Clark has taken the myth of the dreaded Hook Man who has tortured many young lovers and given him a life complete with personal history and a sweet love story. Other urban mythical characters are included to round out the story.

Rating:
Summary: Too much was missing...
Review: In this book Mr. Clark attempts to attach real faces and exeriences to those characters of urban legand we have all heard over and over again. While centering primarily on the "Hook Man" who sneaks up and scares young lovers in their cars at various lover's lanes across the country, we encounter other such legends as the Kentucky Fried Rat lady, the Axe Man, the Vanishing Hitchhiker and a few others. We learn their "real" stories. They are just normal people who had an experience that was blown out of proportion, told over and over with embellishments added until they reach their legendary status.

Having studied urban legands in a college folklore class I was enraptured by the thought of all this book could be when I picked it up off the shelf. With such an already interesting subject matter and the opportunity to let the imagination to run wild, it seemed like this would be an excellent read. It fell short of the mark and the only reason I can think of for this is that it was just too short. The characters were very underdeveloped and there were too many loose ends all over the place. Had this book been fleshed out more and some of the unanswered questions addressed, Hook Man Speaks would definately meritted a five star rating from this reader.

Rating:
Summary: very sweet and funny
Review: In this book Mr. Clark attempts to attach real faces and exeriences to those characters of urban legand we have all heard over and over again. While centering primarily on the "Hook Man" who sneaks up and scares young lovers in their cars at various lover's lanes across the country, we encounter other such legends as the Kentucky Fried Rat lady, the Axe Man, the Vanishing Hitchhiker and a few others. We learn their "real" stories. They are just normal people who had an experience that was blown out of proportion, told over and over with embellishments added until they reach their legendary status.

Having studied urban legands in a college folklore class I was enraptured by the thought of all this book could be when I picked it up off the shelf. With such an already interesting subject matter and the opportunity to let the imagination to run wild, it seemed like this would be an excellent read. It fell short of the mark and the only reason I can think of for this is that it was just too short. The characters were very underdeveloped and there were too many loose ends all over the place. Had this book been fleshed out more and some of the unanswered questions addressed, Hook Man Speaks would definately meritted a five star rating from this reader.

Rating:
Summary: "Hook Man Speaks" but who cares?
Review: Stilled by cancer at the age of thirty-one, Matt Clark leaves us only one book through which we can judge his literary talents. There is little question that Mr. Clark possessed a love for language and a tart, skewed sense of humor. Yet his novel, "Hook Man Speaks" is terribly disappointing. Using the promising techinque of describing life through an archtypical figure of terror's eyes, Clark's work is neither illuminating, satirical nor compelling. "Hook Man Speaks" is bland, boring and banal. Save both your money and your time; select something else, anything else, to read.

Save the clearly delightful descriptive writing, Clark sadly fails at every goal he has set for himself. Cross-cutting narratives serve little purpose but to disrupt an already weak story line. Unbelievable in and of himself, the Hook Man interacts with a series of characters so one-sided and unbelievable that they, and not he, are the objects of the reader's disappointment. Particularly obnoxious is Professor Brautigan, whose literary purpose is to permit readers an "undersanding" of the Hook Man; instead, this character embodies practically every stereotype of a frustrated, irrelevant university scholar. When Mr. Clark permits the reader to glimpse into the childhood of the Hook Man, he entices us with the possibility of compassion. That hope is wrenched away abruptly as the author determines to stultify his reading audience with pathetically implausible encounters with axe murderers and a woman whose feet allegedly were gnawed off by rats while eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.

No reviewer enjoys casting aspersions on the talent of artists whose lives were cut short by disease or disaster. Yet, since Berkley Books has chosen to publish this work posthumously and other noted writers (including Darin Strauss and Elizabeth Gilbert) have gushed praise over "Hook Man," my criticism of the novel may become as irrelevant as what I consider the work to be itself.

Rating:
Summary: "Hook Man Speaks" but who cares?
Review: Stilled by cancer at the age of thirty-one, Matt Clark leaves us only one book through which we can judge his literary talents. There is little question that Mr. Clark possessed a love for language and a tart, skewed sense of humor. Yet his novel, "Hook Man Speaks" is terribly disappointing. Using the promising techinque of describing life through an archtypical figure of terror's eyes, Clark's work is neither illuminating, satirical nor compelling. "Hook Man Speaks" is bland, boring and banal. Save both your money and your time; select something else, anything else, to read.

Save the clearly delightful descriptive writing, Clark sadly fails at every goal he has set for himself. Cross-cutting narratives serve little purpose but to disrupt an already weak story line. Unbelievable in and of himself, the Hook Man interacts with a series of characters so one-sided and unbelievable that they, and not he, are the objects of the reader's disappointment. Particularly obnoxious is Professor Brautigan, whose literary purpose is to permit readers an "undersanding" of the Hook Man; instead, this character embodies practically every stereotype of a frustrated, irrelevant university scholar. When Mr. Clark permits the reader to glimpse into the childhood of the Hook Man, he entices us with the possibility of compassion. That hope is wrenched away abruptly as the author determines to stultify his reading audience with pathetically implausible encounters with axe murderers and a woman whose feet allegedly were gnawed off by rats while eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.

No reviewer enjoys casting aspersions on the talent of artists whose lives were cut short by disease or disaster. Yet, since Berkley Books has chosen to publish this work posthumously and other noted writers (including Darin Strauss and Elizabeth Gilbert) have gushed praise over "Hook Man," my criticism of the novel may become as irrelevant as what I consider the work to be itself.

Rating:
Summary: very sweet and funny
Review: this book is was so much fun to read. it's perfect to read on the subway or bus on your way to/from work. i actually looked forward to my daily trips on public transportation! it's light, engaging and very funny. he also has a wonderful ability to create visual images through language without being flowery or verbos. it's a shame matt clark died so young. i would have looked forward to his development as a novelist.

Rating:
Summary: Hooked
Review: Why do we love urban legends so much? Most of the time, they border on or far over the edge of ridiculous... yet who hasn't had the infamous "friend of a friend" who it really happened to? Hook Man Speaks is the funny, vibrant story of the Hook Man himself, a man named Leonard Gage with a fondness for magazine subscriptions, and of course, sneaking up on smooching lovers and frightening them with his legendary hook. The Hook Man enthralls with his distinctive voice as he recounts just how he lost his hand and ended up with the hook, his romance with the Kentucky Fried Rat lady, and his competitive run-in with the Axe Man, who makes fun of him for being too old-fashioned. Although the plot is improbable, anyone with an appreciation for urban legends will find the self-deprecating humor entertaining. One of the most original styles to come around lately, it is unfortunate that the author passed away at the untimely age of 31, for surely future novels would have been interesting.

Reviews of this book have been lukewarm, but I don't know why. Sure, it's not War & Peace, and it probably won't be required reading for English majors anytime soon, but it is entertaining and well worth the time. I would highly recommend it as a fun, light-hearted read.