The Midnight Examiner

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Workplace Comedies I've Read
Review: Ah, William, you have given me joy for 20 years. "The Midnight Examiner" was no exception. Mixing tabloid writers with Mafioso was masterful. Each character was a piece of work. Poison darts... fish hooks...I cringed and then I laughed hysterically! This was one of my most fun reads ever. I kept wondering how the "good guys" were going to get out of this mess. I thought, "No Way." And yet you made it plausible. Thanks. I go wa-a-a-y back to when "The Fanman" and "Fata Morgana" were FIRST published.

Rating:
Summary: The Midnight Examiner
Review: As an English major with a solid grounding in "serious" literature, I was absolutely delighted to stumble across The Midnight Examiner. Just as Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn is a masterpiece requiring complete suspension of disbelief as well as intelligence and a rather unique sense of humor, so The Midnight Examiner makes the same demands of the reader. Rarely do I laugh aloud when reading, but The Midnight Examiner had me giggling, howling, and chortling. This is the perfect book to give to anyone who is in need of cheering up. The deadpan narration of Howard Halliday Whoevertoday is the perfect tone for the over-the-top plot developments. The characters, while numerous, are distinguishable by their individualized --to put it mildly--quirks. I have to admit a fondness for Fernando, with his Big Womans, his cows in dresses, and the chickens which follow him to the bathroom. If only all of us could be so unconcerned about normality! I don't want to pull a MA English teacher dissection of this novel. Sure, there are themes inherent in the very subject matter of tabloid journalism, pornography, organized crime, etc., etc., ad nauseum. I want people to read the book just for the pure joy of it.
Has anyone considered making a movie of this novel? If not, why not? If so, why haven't I seen it? Seriously, this book cries out to be filmed. And Johnny Depp should definitely be involved.

Rating:
Summary: So Much Fun You Hate For It To End!
Review: I actually made it all the way to page 18 before bursting out laughing. This may be the most hilarious book I have ever read and, at the same time, it has exciting action, mystery and intrigue, romance, magic, and cows in dresses. When this ragtag bunch of tabloid writers decides to challenge a local Mob boss to save their favorite porn star, they call on all their varied resources. Blow guns, fishing poles, boomerangs, an Egyptian cabbie, voo doo spells and potions, and an impeccable sense of haute fashion all play key roles in Kotzwinkle's demented game plan. If you like to laugh, you are going to love this book. But, alas, there is a downside. Kotzwinkle has apparently chosen to move on to other venues and characters, thus you will feel a great sense of loss at the end of the book as you part company with this wonderful group of friends. I think that all Kotzwinkle fans should join forces and demand a sequel that brings the tabloid gang back together again for more exciting and hilarious adventures.

Rating:
Summary: The Midnight Examiner
Review: Kotzwinkle's "Midnight Examiner" is a funny book. At times, uproariously funny, gut-bustin' funny. Roll-around-the-floor funny. But ultimately - that's all it is.

The plot: The staff of a low-brow publications house, among whose many titles is "The Midnight Examiner," bands together to save a porn star from a mafia boss, who she mistakenly shot in the knee. Slapstick action ensues as the rescuers, doped up on voodoo medicines, storm the mafia stronghold with a boomerang, fishing pole, derringer, blowgun, and Swiss Army knife.

The characters: A motley collection of has-beens, never-weres, and eccentrics. Each character comprises a unique set of quirky habits and mannerisms. There's the narrator, a polyester-clad schlep. There's the publisher, who is obsessed with blowguns. There's the new guy, fastidiously dressed, concerned only for his cats, and wickedly good with a fishing pole. There's the resident graphic artist, who has an epileptic/schizophrenic condition and draws big Aztec-like women on living room walls. And the mafia boss, who's driving anxiety is that his taste in interior decoration is low-class. In fact, there's a cornucopia of characters, a snowstorm of maladies, all amusing.

So what's wrong with funny? Nothing, of course. However, the best humor is something more than funny. It's a device used to reveal something deeper at stake by hiding it, by covering it up with laughter, and it's that ironic juxtaposition that strikes deep. The best example I can think of is Salinger - the sarcasm, the swearing, the ridiculous image of a child in a hunting cap wandering around New York City. All of it hiding the grief for a lost brother.

But...back to Kotzwinkle. Funny and entertaining, yes. Moving? Teaching something new? A great book? No, no, and no.

Rating:
Summary: Funny...but that's all.
Review: Kotzwinkle's "Midnight Examiner" is a funny book. At times, uproariously funny, gut-bustin' funny. Roll-around-the-floor funny. But ultimately - that's all it is.

The plot: The staff of a low-brow publications house, among whose many titles is "The Midnight Examiner," bands together to save a porn star from a mafia boss, who she mistakenly shot in the knee. Slapstick action ensues as the rescuers, doped up on voodoo medicines, storm the mafia stronghold with a boomerang, fishing pole, derringer, blowgun, and Swiss Army knife.

The characters: A motley collection of has-beens, never-weres, and eccentrics. Each character comprises a unique set of quirky habits and mannerisms. There's the narrator, a polyester-clad schlep. There's the publisher, who is obsessed with blowguns. There's the new guy, fastidiously dressed, concerned only for his cats, and wickedly good with a fishing pole. There's the resident graphic artist, who has an epileptic/schizophrenic condition and draws big Aztec-like women on living room walls. And the mafia boss, who's driving anxiety is that his taste in interior decoration is low-class. In fact, there's a cornucopia of characters, a snowstorm of maladies, all amusing.

So what's wrong with funny? Nothing, of course. However, the best humor is something more than funny. It's a device used to reveal something deeper at stake by hiding it, by covering it up with laughter, and it's that ironic juxtaposition that strikes deep. The best example I can think of is Salinger - the sarcasm, the swearing, the ridiculous image of a child in a hunting cap wandering around New York City. All of it hiding the grief for a lost brother.

But...back to Kotzwinkle. Funny and entertaining, yes. Moving? Teaching something new? A great book? No, no, and no.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Hillarious Story
Review: This is a delightfull funny novel. Howard Halliday is the jaded editor a small line of dubious low-brow publications, ranging from softcore-porn to religion, most notably the tabloid "Midnight Examiner" which is notorious for sensational headlines like "UFO FOUND IN GIRL'S UTERUS". The setting and characters of Halliday's small media empire are plenty colorfull and amusing enough, but when they cross paths with the sinister machinations of a crime boss, the genius of author Kotzwinkle kicks into overdrive.

This is a delightfull read. I think it could make a marvelous movie.

-- DCM "Froggy"