All The Beautiful Sinners

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: Ah....All the Beautiful Sinners....a suspenseful story with all the right elements to keep the reader involved. The rhythm of the story is remarkable: take a step forward-glance over your shoulder (sometimes far into the past)-slide back just a little-then move on. While this rhythm propels readers through the uncertainty that looms around the characters, it also explains why events are happening. The events-murder, kidnapping, loss-are presented in vivid descriptions. For example, one of the FBI guys is tracking a sociopath behind a path of tornados. The scene unfolds with a water tower eerily watching the destruction: "The Bluff City water tower was leaned over, like it was trying to look at something on the next street." Throughout this chapter, stark images of the tower breaking apart foreshadow the tragedy that happens next.
Flashbacks help readers crawl into the minds of the characters. One in particular, with a father and son on the lake, is told in slow motion. At another point in the story, FBI agents move into a basement where they suspect the killer might be: "Behind Creed, four more agents streamed down the stairs, covering each other. They were like circus performers, a troupe of mimes in their black turtlenecks and identical blazers." Sharp, clear images like these take the reader right into the scene. References to American Indians are strong and thought provoking. At one point, Jim Doe, the main character, decides not to call the cops for help: "He wanted to call the DPS, the FBI. Agnes. But a white cop in an Indian place like this. Or, cops. All the men would fold themselves into lockers, spin the locks from the inside, stay there as long as they had to." Character development is wonderful!
All the Beautiful Sinners can be read on many different levels: for the beauty of the narration, for historical and symbolic values, or for pure enjoyment. The story is full of tension, violence, and loneliness as Jim Doe travels across the country, at first seeking the murderer of a sheriff, but later unraveling the mystery of his own sister who vanished years before. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: All The Beautiful Sinners
Review: every thing here is old. every convention is used. the dialogue is so clumsy as to be laughable. trying to keep track of who is alive and dead is ridiculous. i wonder if this is not one of those books, written as a joke by various authors, each playing with the concept of serial murders. that would explain the confusion between chapters, and the lack of consistency in explaining who the killers are, where they are, which houses they may or may not live in, and even their description.

"naked came the serial murder". that should have been the title.

Rating:
Summary: 4.65 - 4.85 stars
Review: I think I see what Jones is doing with this one, pairing stuff: jim doe vs cody, meaning either native american vs buffalo bill (cody) or native american vs federal government (FBI). both work. but those are just the good guys. the bad guy, it seems, is the one using native culture for his own ends. but there's more here, too, I think.

Rating:
Summary: who kiddin who?
Review: ok, so i am somewhat skilled in writing and the use of english as a first language, but this book beat me down. by the third-quarter i gave up and stopped reading. irrelevant is the ending, simply because i did not understand the book from the beginning. while 'ulysses' is not the type of material i enjoy still i made valiant efforts to decipher characters and plot but oh well, guess the butler did it?

Rating:
Summary: All The Beautiful Sentences (and other reasons to read ATBS)
Review: Stephen Graham Jones is a unique writer in that he can take the mystery novel genre and reinvent it. That's what his strongest quality is, reinvention. A writer friend of mine once told me that all the stories and forms in the world have been told or used before. He said the difference between a good or bad writer is how they take the stories and forms and present them in a new, vivid way. Jones' takes a handful of Midwest clichés and tosses them back at us, rethought and rewritten, like he was the origin.

But, interestingly enough, ATBS cannot be read singularly as a mystery novel. Within the context of the surface level mystery there is a complex web of historicity that makes this novel highly literary and highly theoretical. Jones' is one of American Indian literature's new authors, bringing to the discourse field a contemporary voice that is challenging and contemptuous of modern U.S. society. Jones, like Alexie and Howe, has used the mystery genre as a means to give voice to the multi-faceted frustration felt by indigenous peoples in the U.S. The form, in and of itself, becomes a rhetorical tool that allows the author to challenge readers to the core. Who is "The Indian" in this text? What does that character embody? How is this character determined by dominant culture's grossly demented stereotypes of American Indians? How is s/he not? Does it matter? As the mystery unfolds, it becomes evident that the characters, especially the American Indian characters, are all working on a landscape that has been plagued by colonization and domination. The novel is ripe for scholarly evaluation.

If for no other reason, people should read All the Beautiful Sinners for all the beautiful sentences that make up this novel. Stephen Jones rocks my writer-ly self-esteem. I get sucked into his prose only to emerge momentarily to think, dang! I wish I would have written that! There are many elements of craft employed in the novel. On one hand, it reads like it was written to be watched (watch out Hollywood!) and on the other hand, Jones never lets down his literary craft, challenging us with structure and satiating our need for insightful and well-written sentences. Jones' fiction is not an easy read but put on a sweatband and work out your brain muscles because this book is worth it!

Rating:
Summary: GREAT WRITING -- BUT A GLUT OF BLUT
Review: Stephen Graham Jones is an extremely talented writer. He throws off vivid phrases and unforgettable scenes like sparks from a fireworks pinwheel. In ALL THE BEAUTIFUL SINNERS he has devised an entirely original motive and modus operandi for the "Tinman", a serial kidnapper and killer who strikes in the wake of midwestern tornados. Having said that, I must confess that I disliked this book intensely.

First, there is the body count, which approaches the carnage of a Tom Clancy war novel. Two Sheriffs, a dozen FBI agents, numerous firemen, two psychiatrists, countless civilians, and dogs, cats, and horses. And that doesn't include all the victims of the twisters! One expects death in mysteries and suspense novels, but Jones seems to be striving for some kind of macabre record for gore.

Second, the arch-villain is far too superhuman for my taste -- an all-knowing Hannibal Lechter with wings. The Tinman flits between Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Connecticut, and Tornado Alley as if born by flocks of flying blue monkeys. Jones offers us no explanation for where his killer acquired all the skills he displays nor the wealth needed to support his farflung operations.

Third, the unlikely plot contrivances were too much for this reader to swallow. Example: the only explanation offered for how the killer manages to be johnny-on-the-spot for every tornado is that he was raised by Mennonites. The series of events that end the book are nightmarishly unconvincing. Yet in those same pages Jones gives us the striking simile of National Guard helicopters landing at a tornado site "...like Valkyrie, to ferry off the dead."

Let's hope that Jones next book displays his gifts as a fiction-writer -- minus the glut of blut.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT WRITING -- BUT A GLUT OF BLUT
Review: Stephen Graham Jones is an extremely talented writer. He throws off vivid phrases and unforgettable scenes like sparks from a fireworks pinwheel. In ALL THE BEAUTIFUL SINNERS he has devised an entirely original motive and modus operandi for the "Tinman", a serial kidnapper and killer who strikes in the wake of midwestern tornados. Having said that, I must confess that I disliked this book intensely.

First, there is the body count, which approaches the carnage of a Tom Clancy war novel. Two Sheriffs, a dozen FBI agents, numerous firemen, two psychiatrists, countless civilians, and dogs, cats, and horses. And that doesn't include all the victims of the twisters! One expects death in mysteries and suspense novels, but Jones seems to be striving for some kind of macabre record for gore.

Second, the arch-villain is far too superhuman for my taste -- an all-knowing Hannibal Lechter with wings. The Tinman flits between Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Connecticut, and Tornado Alley as if born by flocks of flying blue monkeys. Jones offers us no explanation for where his killer acquired all the skills he displays nor the wealth needed to support his farflung operations.

Third, the unlikely plot contrivances were too much for this reader to swallow. Example: the only explanation offered for how the killer manages to be johnny-on-the-spot for every tornado is that he was raised by Mennonites. The series of events that end the book are nightmarishly unconvincing. Yet in those same pages Jones gives us the striking simile of National Guard helicopters landing at a tornado site "...like Valkyrie, to ferry off the dead."

Let's hope that Jones next book displays his gifts as a fiction-writer -- minus the glut of blut.

Rating:
Summary: All The Beautiful Sinners
Review: This book challenges the reader to become involved in the story. I am so used to novels that are simply "bubble gum for the mind", that I had to start over about a quarter into the book and actually pay attention. This book is not "dumbed down". It is an adventure. The prose is beautiful. The storyline is complex, amazing and chilling. There are several different storylines that can be gleaned from this book if you choose to do so. I love Jim Doe and hope to read more books with him as a central character. This author has definitely gotten my attention!

Rating:
Summary: Pay Attention
Review: This book forces you to pay attention to what's going on--because a lot is happening--or else you'll be forced to come back and read it again. This is a very engaging tale about perhaps the most in-depth villain I've ever read about, a young Indian Sheriff who's been searching for his sister for years, and a couple FBI agents thrown into the mix. The book is so thought-out and so involved you can't help but admire Stephen Graham Jones' abilities here. His prose is beautiful and a hell of a lot better than hacks like Anne Rice. I wish I could fully encompass what a great book this is here, but unfortunately my skills are very limited. I cannot hope to do this work justice...you'll just have to read it for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling prose
Review: This book puts the thrill back in thriller. Not only is it edge-of-the-seat exciting, but the prose...just plain beautiful. One memorable image after another. I sure hope Jones brings back Jim Doe in a future book. I'll be watching for it.