I finished A Great Deliverance last night, and I have to say I enjoyed it very much, even to the point of getting a little tearful when Havers literally barfed up her story of her brother's death and punishment she doled out to her parents. I love Havers--how can I not love a smart, bitter heroine that's built like a barrel and has bad hair? Seriously! I like Lynley too, the handsome devil.
Now that I've read a few mysteries (The Beekeeper's Apprentice and a few Ayelet Waldmans being the others), I'm going to offer a comparison that some people aren't going to like. Bear with me. These mysteries are, as Val and I have discussed, merely settings in which the novels' characters happen to exist. I would enjoy reading about Havers and Lynley or Holmes and Russell or Juliet Applebaum and her family under any circumstances. Right? They're just cool characters that I'm glad to know.
And you know who else I've always felt that way about? (Here's the part you might not like.) Steven King's characters. Think of Pet Sematary, for instance. I love Louis Creed and his family, and Jud Crandall too. I wish poor Church would never get killed, and I wish that stupid truck wouldn't hit Gage. I love the scene before all the bad stuff happens, when the family is eating a noisy, messy, happy breakfast in their new house. The "horror" is really secondary to me.
So is this a result of the way that I read, or are genre books commonly a contrived set of circumstances in which to set characters who can't seem to be "born" any other way?
Am I asking this right? Do you understand what I mean?
1 comment:
OK, I think most genre books are crap, and the characters merely exist to propulgate the genre, to sell more books, to make the author rich. In other words, often the characters are completely one-dimensional (see Da Vinci Code). Which does not preclude enjoying the book for the plot, etc. (also see Da Vinci Code).
But really good writers can create wonderfully developed, multi-dimensional characters, and then place them within a genre book, and make it work - I think of Elizabeth George, Minette Walters, and Laurie R. King (mystery-wise). (I can't speak to Stephen King as I've only read a few of his, and I don't want to bash or praise without being able to back up the assertions I make).
Of course, on the other hand, I've read intricately plotted, nicely written novels with completely one-dimensional characters as well. So it goes both ways.
Does that help at all?
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