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Summary: The Spenser Reviews: The Kid's Got It
Review: In Early Autumn, Spenser finally emerges from the shadow of the traditional hard-boiled detective to become the full-rounded, complex character that will evolve tremendous over the next set of books in this series, arguable the best of the lot. At the surface level, the story seems like Parker's attempt to remake the regrettable "God Bless the Child," which was a truly terrible story with an unfortunate resolution. It's the same basic story: screwed up kid is screwed up even worse by awful parents. But in this case, Spenser realizes the kid, Paul Giacomin, doesn't deserve to be reunited with his folks. Thus begins a rather Odyssean saga wherein Spenser begins to make a man of the boy. The story clearly is set in its time (early 80's), where no one thought anything of an adult taking an unrelated boy into a cabin in Maine. Such a story could not be written today without incurring the wrath of a thousand social service agents. "Early Autumn" adds a much-needed layer of emotional depth to the formerly go-go Spenser, setting the stage for the excellent "wounded Spenser" novels that will soon follow.
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Summary: Robert B. Parker's best Spenser book!
Review: Like so many others, I feel that this is about the best Spenser book of all. It is sensitive without being mawkish, the story moves well, and you get a wonderful sense of Spenser's values. This is a book to buy, read, and re-read every few years.
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Summary: "Early Autumn" - best Spenser
Review: Most 'serious' reviewers of Robert Parker's Spenser books will argue that "A Catskill Eagle" is the best of the series. I won't disagree that it's very, very good, but I think Spenser (and by extension, Parker) is at his best in "Early Autumn". Primarily, through the books, Spenser has deep relationships only with Susan, and to a lesser extent, Hawk. We really don't know much about him beyond the front he puts up for his clients and his opponents. "Autumn" is the exception to that; we see him treat Paul in much the same way he must have been treated as a child and the same way he would have treated a child of his own, if he'd had one -- with respect and decency. He drags the 'real' Paul out of the shell Paul had constructed to protect himself from his parents and the world and provides him with a sense of worth, teaching him, as Spenser says himself, "what [he] knows" -- boxing, running, carpentering and standing up for something. The end of the book always gets me. I've always been glad, too, that Paul makes further appearances in other books: Widening Gyre and Playmates, among others. It's interesting to see the relationship between Spenser and Paul grow and develop. It deepens Spenser as a character and gives us one more reason to like him.
Rating:
Summary: "Early Autumn" - best Spenser
Review: Most 'serious' reviewers of Robert Parker's Spenser books will argue that "A Catskill Eagle" is the best of the series. I won't disagree that it's very, very good, but I think Spenser (and by extension, Parker) is at his best in "Early Autumn". Primarily, through the books, Spenser has deep relationships only with Susan, and to a lesser extent, Hawk. We really don't know much about him beyond the front he puts up for his clients and his opponents. "Autumn" is the exception to that; we see him treat Paul in much the same way he must have been treated as a child and the same way he would have treated a child of his own, if he'd had one -- with respect and decency. He drags the 'real' Paul out of the shell Paul had constructed to protect himself from his parents and the world and provides him with a sense of worth, teaching him, as Spenser says himself, "what [he] knows" -- boxing, running, carpentering and standing up for something. The end of the book always gets me. I've always been glad, too, that Paul makes further appearances in other books: Widening Gyre and Playmates, among others. It's interesting to see the relationship between Spenser and Paul grow and develop. It deepens Spenser as a character and gives us one more reason to like him.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best so far . . .
Review: Outstanding! This is by far one of the best of this series! The relationship development of both Spenser and the boy he wants to rescue from neglect is not only moving, but strikes a chord of realism. This is a great story, and I would recommend it to any one!!
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Summary: One of the best in the series
Review: Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn (Dell, 1981) It may still be a little too early in the game to call the Spenser novels some of the great twentieth-century detective fiction. There cannot, however, be any doubt as to the continuing popularity of, and loyalty to, the line of novels written by Robert Parker about the combination renaissance man/gumshoe. Over the twenty-odd years since The Godwulf Manuscript hit the shelves, Spenser fans have accumulated like mosquitoes in a light fixture. We've watched the characters, consistent over the space of more than twenty novels, grow and change, not just reflecting the spirit of the times (go back and read about some of the godawful getups Spenser dressed in in the mid-seventies, and you can easily imagine Spenser himself looking back and saying, "what WAS I thinking?") but reflecting real changes in the characters themselves. Robert Parker has
achieved something remarkable; he has given us a quarter century in the lives of a select few people in real-time (for the most part) without the storyline ever degenerating into soap opera. Like all types of evolution/natural selection, though, it doesn't all go at a steady stream. Sometimes the changes in characters come in short, uneven spurts. Early Autumn is one of those, and while I can't swear to it, I suspect that this book has probably garnered more fans for the venerable franchise than any other. If there is a definitive Spenser novel, it is Early Autumn. Spenser is hired by beautiful divorced socialite Patty Giacomin to recover her son Paul, who's been kidnapped by her ex-husband. Spenser finds the job remarkably easy, at least until the ex-husband sends muscle to try and get the kid back again a few months later. Somewhere along the line, Spenser realizes that neither parents cares about the boy, he's just a pawn in a game of spite-the-ex-partner. So Spenser does the only logical thing, takes the boy himself and tries to inject some logic into the chaotic mess of his life. This novel is one of the rare places where everything comes together perfectly. The history that's been laid out before us in previous Spenser novels is obviously in play, but as in most of the books in the series, the history never overtakes the present storyline. It's there to draw on, though. Parker uses the situation to explore some of what's come before and foreshadow things that come later; we see the beginnings of the strain on Spenser's relationship with Susan that lead to the events a few years on, and we see the real beginnings of the loyalty that has developed between Spenser and Hawk over the past fifteen years (here, they're still hired guns on the opposite sides of a problem, but we also get the idea that Hawk's decisions are made with Spenser in mind). Parker is, of course, at his usual standard of writing, with the expected level of detective-novel wisecracking, lots of references to works of literature, a good deal of food talk, etc. There are few novels that satisfy the way this one does. *****
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Summary: Spenser, and Parker, at their finest.
Review: Robert B. Parker, Early Autumn (Dell, 1981) It may still be a little too early in the game to call the Spenser novels some of the great twentieth-century detective fiction. There cannot, however, be any doubt as to the continuing popularity of, and loyalty to, the line of novels written by Robert Parker about the combination renaissance man/gumshoe. Over the twenty-odd years since The Godwulf Manuscript hit the shelves, Spenser fans have accumulated like mosquitoes in a light fixture. We've watched the characters, consistent over the space of more than twenty novels, grow and change, not just reflecting the spirit of the times (go back and read about some of the godawful getups Spenser dressed in in the mid-seventies, and you can easily imagine Spenser himself looking back and saying, "what WAS I thinking?") but reflecting real changes in the characters themselves. Robert Parker has
achieved something remarkable; he has given us a quarter century in the lives of a select few people in real-time (for the most part) without the storyline ever degenerating into soap opera. Like all types of evolution/natural selection, though, it doesn't all go at a steady stream. Sometimes the changes in characters come in short, uneven spurts. Early Autumn is one of those, and while I can't swear to it, I suspect that this book has probably garnered more fans for the venerable franchise than any other. If there is a definitive Spenser novel, it is Early Autumn. Spenser is hired by beautiful divorced socialite Patty Giacomin to recover her son Paul, who's been kidnapped by her ex-husband. Spenser finds the job remarkably easy, at least until the ex-husband sends muscle to try and get the kid back again a few months later. Somewhere along the line, Spenser realizes that neither parents cares about the boy, he's just a pawn in a game of spite-the-ex-partner. So Spenser does the only logical thing, takes the boy himself and tries to inject some logic into the chaotic mess of his life. This novel is one of the rare places where everything comes together perfectly. The history that's been laid out before us in previous Spenser novels is obviously in play, but as in most of the books in the series, the history never overtakes the present storyline. It's there to draw on, though. Parker uses the situation to explore some of what's come before and foreshadow things that come later; we see the beginnings of the strain on Spenser's relationship with Susan that lead to the events a few years on, and we see the real beginnings of the loyalty that has developed between Spenser and Hawk over the past fifteen years (here, they're still hired guns on the opposite sides of a problem, but we also get the idea that Hawk's decisions are made with Spenser in mind). Parker is, of course, at his usual standard of writing, with the expected level of detective-novel wisecracking, lots of references to works of literature, a good deal of food talk, etc. There are few novels that satisfy the way this one does. *****
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Summary: We've Reached the Spenser we Know and Love
Review: Spenser gets involved with a child custody case between Patty and Mel Giacomin. Paul is the 15-year-old kid, and his parents are using him in an adolescent tug-of-war game. Neither really cares much about Paul, and Paul has retreated into apathetic shrugs. When Spenser brings Paul back from Mel's, Patty doesn't really care and makes Spenser babysit Paul for the night because she's "busy". Off goes Spenser to read "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman. Spenser feels sorry for Paul and ends up a live-in bodyguard and fends off Buddy and another guy - at which point Paul starts to show some interest in life. Spenser tries to be a good role model for Paul. Becoming in essence a permanent babysitter while Patty "hides", Spenser teaches Paul how to build a cabin in Maine. Paul has a simple-fix-the-kid plan which involves teaching Paul to run, box and dress nicely and that suddenly the kid will gain control. Sure enough, it works, even though in real life the chance of success would have been nil. That's a pretty soap-opera solution to the difficult problems of adolescence. Spenser and Susan comment that "It's early autumn for Paul" - that he has to grow up quickly to escape from his difficult parents. Spenser pretty much explains his entire philosophy of life and means of living to both Paul and to the reading audience. He has numerous literary quotes. Hawk refuses a hit commission on Spenser for only 5K. Spenser and Susan, the "surrogate perfect parents", take Paul on trips to New York and Boston, and in the end Spenser blackmails Paul's parents so Paul can fulfill his secret dream to go off to Ballet school. This book is the first attempt by Parker to really lay out what Spenser is all about - and Spenser does so with endless quotes and rambling dialogues to Paul. He can't do it with Susan - Susan is in a snit from the very beginning and pretty much snaps at Spenser every time she sees him. On the other hand, Susan is buddy-buddy with Hawk, which is strange because the last time they were in the same story together, Susan barely knew him. Spenser has grown in many ways in this story. His moral code has been structured. His "readiness is all" attitude has been shaped. Where only a few stories ago he set men up to be killed, in this one he refuses to shoot a man even though he knows that man is a serious risk to him. He is, in essence, truly becoming "Spenser".
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Summary: Parker gives a new dimension to Spenser!
Review: Spenser is often criticized for his lack of emotion with people besides Susan but, in Early Autumn he branches out to help a troubled teen, Paul. Paul has been used by both of his parents to get back at the other one. Spenser teaches Paul how to become automated in Maine. This is definitely my personal favorite Spenser novel. Parker delivers the usual Spenser wit and charm while giving Spenser a new dimension.
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Summary: A great book and I'm not even finished reading it yet!
Review: This is my first Spenser novel and my first Robert B. Parker novel. Parker's writing style is sparse, quick and fun. It's an easy read and so far, thoroughly enjoyable. Last night A&E aired Thin Air, a made for TV Spencer movie. I was going from watching spencer to reading spencer. Robert B. Parker now ranks up there with my other favorite authors, Trevanian, Conor Creggan and Donald E. Westlake. I'm glad that I discovered Parker so late as there is so many old books I can back and read!
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