The Long Shot

Rating:
Summary: Early Paul Monette novel
Review: A very worthwhile read for fans of the magnificent Paul Monette, "The Long Shot" is a different take on detective fiction and a wry examination of Hollywood closets and the corrupting power of wasted money. This novel lacks the white-hot rage and crystal clarity of his later works, but is superbly and objectively written, with a more direct storytelling device than in his first novel, "Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll." Mr. Monette sometimes wrestles with a convoluted plot while delving effortlessly into well-rounded and believable characters. Newcomers to Paul Monette might try "Halfway Home" or his superb non-fiction works "Becoming a Man" or "Borrowed Time."

Rating:
Summary: Early Paul Monette novel
Review: A very worthwhile read for fans of the magnificent Paul Monette, "The Long Shot" is a different take on detective fiction and a wry examination of Hollywood closets and the corrupting power of wasted money. This novel lacks the white-hot rage and crystal clarity of his later works, but is superbly and objectively written, with a more direct storytelling device than in his first novel, "Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll." Mr. Monette sometimes wrestles with a convoluted plot while delving effortlessly into well-rounded and believable characters. Newcomers to Paul Monette might try "Halfway Home" or his superb non-fiction works "Becoming a Man" or "Borrowed Time."

Rating:
Summary: LIMP
Review: I was drawn to this novel because of my great respect and admiration for the non-fiction writings of Paul Monette: both "Becoming A Man" and "Borrowed Time" are beautiful, moving documents of Monette's own life, his sexuality, & his heroic fight against the disease (AIDS) that claimed both his lover's life and, eventually, sadly, his own.

I wish I could whole-heartedly recommend Monette's murder mystery, "The Long Shot," but except for a very few interesting characters and a well-written, violent, horrifying death scene at the book's beginning, I found the entire thing very tired. Most of the characters could have come off of the Hollywood cutting room floor, taken out of a "B" movie because they were exceedingly trite. I do not want to tell you too many details since surprise is an element of any mystery, but the main conceit (The hero, Greg Cannon, meets and has sex with a young drifter. This drifter is found soon afterward with a major, closeted Hollywood star...both of them dead in a hot tub. And Greg feels so "connected" with the drifter, after one sexual experience, that he sets out to prove in a very long 320 pages that the men did not commit suicide) had me shaking my head in disbelief in chapter after chapter. Monette's over-use of hundred dollar words and simplistic metaphors is in direct contrast with his total simplicity and honesty in his autobiographies. (i.e.: "Though Artie had only made the mildest pass, the centrifugal motion seemed to push the moment to a pitch" or
"The smell of lilies was so intense that after a while it began to seem not real---as cheap as the dollar toilet water they bottled to sell at the airport" or "...the screw was turning ever tighter."

The only people I'd recommend this limp mystery to are those who love Monette's work already and want to read everything he wrote.

Rating:
Summary: LIMP
Review: I was drawn to this novel because of my great respect and admiration for the non-fiction writings of Paul Monette: both "Becoming A Man" and "Borrowed Time" are beautiful, moving documents of Monette's own life, his sexuality, & his heroic fight against the disease (AIDS) that claimed both his lover's life and, eventually, sadly, his own.

I wish I could whole-heartedly recommend Monette's murder mystery, "The Long Shot," but except for a very few interesting characters and a well-written, violent, horrifying death scene at the book's beginning, I found the entire thing very tired. Most of the characters could have come off of the Hollywood cutting room floor, taken out of a "B" movie because they were exceedingly trite. I do not want to tell you too many details since surprise is an element of any mystery, but the main conceit (The hero, Greg Cannon, meets and has sex with a young drifter. This drifter is found soon afterward with a major, closeted Hollywood star...both of them dead in a hot tub. And Greg feels so "connected" with the drifter, after one sexual experience, that he sets out to prove in a very long 320 pages that the men did not commit suicide) had me shaking my head in disbelief in chapter after chapter. Monette's over-use of hundred dollar words and simplistic metaphors is in direct contrast with his total simplicity and honesty in his autobiographies. (i.e.: "Though Artie had only made the mildest pass, the centrifugal motion seemed to push the moment to a pitch" or
"The smell of lilies was so intense that after a while it began to seem not real---as cheap as the dollar toilet water they bottled to sell at the airport" or "...the screw was turning ever tighter."

The only people I'd recommend this limp mystery to are those who love Monette's work already and want to read everything he wrote.