Jamie'nin İtalyan Mutfağı - Jamie Oliver itibaren Epsilon Yayınları içinde LIT biçim

Alexander Afonasyev biorobot_okosten — There is not one admirable, personable character in Split Images. Elmore Leonard and his readers are likely to feel ambivalent about all of them. The female journalist, Angela Nolan, clearly uses men to fulfill her voracious ambition. The millionaire playboy, Robbie Daniels, is a psychotic threat to anyone who gets in his way. The policeman who retires to become Robbie’s bodyguard, Walter Kouza, was a Detroit cop with a Wyatt Earp complex who doesn’t let either the law or morality get in the way of what he wants. The detective who functions as something of a Columbo to Robbie and as a rival to Walter, Bryan Hurd, is a liar, a manipulator, and a bureaucratic-style by-the-book detective who seems at times self-righteous and at others, sappy and weak. As with many of Leonard’s books, it is the type of story where one finds oneself wishing that everyone will fail at their individual goals and that everyone will be punished. In one sense, Split Images fulfills that wish. Justice appears to be done on many levels, but it doesn’t paint a pretty picture of humanity and leaves one more depressed than if had watched a bad production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot or read Albert Camus’ The Plague in a bad mood. At various points in the book, I found myself wishing all of the major characters to die. That being said (or more precisely, typed), Split Images is a marvelous thriller. I found myself flying through pages with adrenalin pumping as I rooted for those characters to die or to get caught or to be rejected as the phonies they were. That’s not my normal attitude in reading a book and it suggests that Leonard has done something magical with the characterizations. He has captured that high school beauty who never so much as said hello to one of the panting boys in her classes unless she needed them to explain something or help her with something. He captured that kid with the rich parents who never seemed to have to struggle for anything or go without anything. He captured the fellow who seems to do the right thing but always had an unhappy look about him, along with the stench of being a loser. He captured the fellow who managed to letter without really contributing to the team and, after offending a nice girl with a really churlish suggestion filled with innuendo, managed to bluff past the scandal with pure determination. Leonard tapped into my worst memories of high school (without ever mentioning the adolescence of these characters) and showed me how the worst people would end up as adults. And I experienced a certain catharsis as they, in one way or another, “got theirs” even when they seemed to succeed. I think a book that can challenge your assumptions, stoke your emotions, and offer a (even limited) catharsis is worth reading. There are times when I get annoyed at Leonard’s use of profanity (I know it’s shorthand for street tough language and I don’t mean to be a prude, but there are times when it seems like overkill.) and times when I wish he’d create a sympathetic character. Yet, I suppose I always learn something about life when I read a thriller by Leonard—even if it’s something I learn in a twisted and ironic way.

Brian Oesch brian0017 — A good read with great first-hand accounts on marriage, sex, family culture, and consumerism.

Pavi Mp bytebit01c28c — I've been eyeing this series since enjoying True Blood so much last fall. This was true to the HBO series in many respects, though there are enough differences that I didn't become bored. The casting for the TV series is perfect, and added to my enjoyment of the book. My only quibble is with the author's continual need to have Sookie describe what she's wearing. Just a minor annoyance though, and one I'm sure won't prevent me from enjoying the rest of the books in this series.