A Conspiracy of Tall Men

Rating:
Summary: I can only hope not...
Review: Don't get me wrong, I definitely did not dislike this book. Fabulous first try. I love the writing style. The bits of information seemingly thrown in about each character (major or extremely minor) could have been tiresome, but worked for me beautifully in keeping me interested. Did you really need to know about Jack Evers' uneasy relationship with his adopted son? These are facts about a character who appears in about three pages of the novel! But it worked for me because you got a sense of a three dimensional person by a few lines of biographical history instead of twelve pages of unnecessary, dodgey dialogue or actions by this minor character. It gave me a sense of reality within context.
The plot, however, seemed not to be as strong. It lost a sense of credibility toward the middle and a developed a few flaws toward the end. The end itself I shook my head at, but then again, how do you put an ending to such an intentionally outrageous story and still have the faith of your audience? If Hawley tones it down a bit for us skeptics out there, he may actually convince some of us that at any time Teddy O. Waren may be seated next to us on a plane.

Rating:
Summary: Firrst semester grades
Review: I give this book an A for effort. Writing is very difficult work. Writing for a living can be one of the most difficult and discouraging enterprises. I salute anyone, even the mediocre for giving it a shot.

I give this book a C for content. There is nothing creative in the conspiracy theories contained in this book. They serve no instructional purpose and in terms of entertainment, we've all seen them before in various episodes of the X-files.

I give this book a C for style. The writing has been described as hip, witty and entertaining. Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but to me it bears the stamp of another young person who really likes himself but whose prose is unremarkable.

Final grade C+. Mr. Hawley, your grade at the end of the course will be based on improvement. You have every opportunity to get an A in the course. But to accomplish this, you must produce a meaningful story in genuinely interesting language. Come see me during my office hours if you have an questions.

Rating:
Summary: Satire is wishful thinking
Review: I have read zee book mention here but am not convinced is satire. To be satire is to deliberately mock something. Shows control of mind and material as well as firm authorial judgement. But if you read ziss Hawley man's interview you see he takes self extremely seriously. Never mentions satire. Instead implies is performing pubic service for us by writing ziss book. No, is not making fun of idiotic trend but iz participating in der trend.

Literary quality iz also sub par. Not very bad, has obviously been edited, but also nothing really special. Iz OK, but really not that big a deal.

There iz von irony not found in book, but vich includes book. World is currently being duped by true conspiracy called capitalism. A small number of people try to exploit many other. They turn them against each other and distract them with strange entertainment and diversions. One diversion is a sort of "idiot's conspiracy theory". Make people think about UFO's or men in black suits and maybe they don't think that most of world's wealth is in hands of few while many others suffer. Maybe they don't think that such system essentially demeans and harms everyone. But, as great man named Chomsky points out, it is always the obvious things that are the hardest to accept. Thanks, Hawley man for helping to conceal the obvious with entertaining but irrelevant diversion.

Rating:
Summary: Reading for Enjoyment, Not for Truth
Review: I've come to one conclusion after reading the reviews regarding Hawley's book _A Conspiracy of Tall Men_. You either really love it, or you really hate it. Often those who hate it criticize the story for it's similarity to an X-files episode and the writing style. For the same reasons, people loved it.

I enjoyed reading the book. Hawley's descriptive writing style allowed for me to visualize the story in my mind. The plot was interesting, and the two components put together made me want to keep turning the page. While I do not delve into conspiracy theory as a hobby, the topic was interesting to me. This was partly due to the lack of strange phenomena that are so often related to episodes of the X-files.

The one prominent theme throughout the book was the undying love that Linus had for his wife. His devotion to learn about her death and the need to get to the truth were the two main issues in the story. The use of conspiracy theory to get at the answers was indeed a neat idea.

My only criticism of the book was the resolution. I found it rather rushed, and in the end, I was still asking questions. Perhaps that is the author's intent.

Overall, this book was an entertaining read. I'm happy that I picked it up to read during my break.

Rating:
Summary: Great mental images
Review: Not being a professor I do not pretend to critique Mr. Hawley's technical abilities as a writer, nor can I comment on overuse of material seen already in X-files as I quit that program after the first year. I can, however, endorse the mental images his writing conveys, especially when describing events in Florida, having been a long-time resident there myself. His book did exactly what I want any book to do - it entertained me, kept my interest and made me care about the characters. In my view, most writing is at least slightly an echo of the efforts of others. How could it not be? There has been so much writing it would be almost impossible not to allude to something someone else has written, but I think perhaps he may have avoided the Shakespear trap.

Regardless of any legitimate criticism another more advanced writer may have, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. At one point, I recall a newspaper article about Patrick Stewart being interested in making it a movie. While the book may not go down as deathless prose in the eyes of the scholars, I think it would make one heck of a movie and hope something comes of that.

Rating:
Summary: atrocious
Review: The poor writing in this book is only "bested" by the poor plot development. I kept waiting for wit and originality, but was left (time and time again) with sophmoric prose and predictable cliche.

Rating:
Summary: Thriller/ conspiracy-theory satire will keep you up nights
Review: This book defies genre. It is at heart, a thriller in the manner of a Hitchcock man-against-dark-forces movie, but at the same time it is a satire of the 90s tendency to see conspiracies everywhere while at the same time a chilling & credible vision of one possible conspiracy. It is also a well-written book with a lot of funny observations about our culture & insights into human relationships.

To say this book is like a bad X-files episode is, I think, to miss the point - like criticizing Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" for being like a bad monster movie. As satire, it necessarily takes the elements of the conspiracy thriller and exaggerates them. What is so unique about this novel is that at the same time as it skewers this paranoid mentality, it sucks you into believing that the conspiracy played out in the book could/does really exist.

The book has a very postmodern feel, so if you like your fiction to be more traditional in writing style, this rapid-fire present-tense perspective-shifting style may turn you off. Given the subject of the book, I thought it worked.

Rating:
Summary: Carefully crafted modern mystery novel.
Review: Well written and timely mystery novel that weaves fact, modern myth and fiction into a thick story. The best intellectual mystery I have read in a while. The author uses a hyper-thread story development style that richens the plot with short metaphoric rants. I was lucky enough to read a pre-release copy and would highly recommend it for it's progressive writing style and timeliness. I cant wait for the next book!