Prizes and Awards: Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First
Novel Award Shortlist 2002
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Product Description
Amazon.com
2002 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award Shortlist: Noir doesn't get much bleaker than in Clint Hutzulak's first novel, The Beautiful Dead End. Without giving too much away, the story involves a murder, some twisted sex scenes, and a protagonist named Stace who, no matter what, probably won't be walking away with the money and the girl at the end. In the tradition of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson, the prose is tough as a two-dollar hooker in a rainstorm. Characters speak in flat, rueful tones, as Stace's new, mysterious acquaintance Emmett does when giving a reason for killing himself: "When you know why it is that people don't kill themselves, why they keep on, you'll also know how it is they can kill themselves." Likewise, Hutzulak's mournful descriptions--a "road holding murky bowls of sky in its potholes" and "a drowned face like sorrow surfacing"--aren't likely to be plundered by Hallmark any time soon. But out of that bitter soil grows a black humour of the sort that leads one character to tell two others who are already dead, "Try not to kill each other."
This short (200 pages), sparely written novel takes a number of sharp turns on its way to a resolution that, while not wholly satisfying, leaves the reader in just the kind of limbo its protagonist faces. If you think of two movies, Memento and Mulholland Drive, both released in the months prior to the novel's publication, that also turn noir convention on its head, you'll have a pretty good idea of the kind of company to be found in The Beautiful Dead End. --Shawn Conner
Books in Canada
What a pleasure it is to read a novel that is highly original, clearly written and full of memorable situations and observations. The Beautiful Dead End, by Clint Hutzulak, in its first pages appears to be just another novel about lowlifes. Stace, a drunk, a druggie, and a murderer has an encounter in a parking lot, on a cold prairie evening, with a prostitute named Tanya who just happens to be taking reading lessons from his ex-girlfriend, Lillis Rae.
Stace has been away for a number of years and desperately wants to see Lillis Rae again. They go back to Tanya's motel room where Stace injects something evil and appears to die. No loss to anyone. Tanya and a friend, Wes, decide to get rid of the body. I was getting my lecture ready about drunks and druggies only being interesting to other drunks and druggies when suddenly, on page 40 something extraordinarily audacious, and truly imaginative happens. I'm not going to tell you what it is for it would spoil the surprise. What happens to Stace over the next 48 hours is part Twilight Zone, part ghost story, part a glimpse into hell. Mark Jarman has accurately described the story as "barbed wire noir." The language is clipped and precise, easy to read, full of frightening images-a family of smallpox victims stand watch over the valley where they once lived, "The faces of all four covered in large open sores." The cover is thoroughly unattractive and will not cause readers to pick up the book, there is also no reason to make comprehension difficult, the use of quotation marks would have simplified problems with what is spoken and what is not. Still, this is an astonishing debut, powerful, scary, sexual, existential in scope. Hutzulak is a writer to watch, and possibly to fear.
W.P. Kinsella (Books in Canada)
Stace has been away for a number of years and desperately wants to see Lillis Rae again. They go back to Tanya's motel room where Stace injects something evil and appears to die. No loss to anyone. Tanya and a friend, Wes, decide to get rid of the body. I was getting my lecture ready about drunks and druggies only being interesting to other drunks and druggies when suddenly, on page 40 something extraordinarily audacious, and truly imaginative happens. I'm not going to tell you what it is for it would spoil the surprise. What happens to Stace over the next 48 hours is part Twilight Zone, part ghost story, part a glimpse into hell. Mark Jarman has accurately described the story as "barbed wire noir." The language is clipped and precise, easy to read, full of frightening images-a family of smallpox victims stand watch over the valley where they once lived, "The faces of all four covered in large open sores." The cover is thoroughly unattractive and will not cause readers to pick up the book, there is also no reason to make comprehension difficult, the use of quotation marks would have simplified problems with what is spoken and what is not. Still, this is an astonishing debut, powerful, scary, sexual, existential in scope. Hutzulak is a writer to watch, and possibly to fear.
W.P. Kinsella (Books in Canada)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
For intelligent readers everywhere,
By Mary-Anne McNeney (Victoria, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beautiful Dead End (Paperback)
This is one of the best books I've read, period. From the first compelling lines, the reader is not only into but truly inside the story. Hutzulak's prose is spare but somehow more than three dimensional. We not only see but hear and feel and smell and taste what happens. We find ourselves caring for and rooting for a protagonist who, by most objective measures, would be quite unlikable. And the story's central, surreal mystery keeps us guessing and (like our protagonist) slightly off balance till it finds its resolution. The novel is not for those who like their stories framed by "Once upon and time" and "happily ever after." It's a trip - in every sense of the word. Beautiful. Disturbing. Thought provoking. Unpredictable. Human. Haunting. Highly recommended for intelligent readers everywhere. It's more than just a read. It's an experience that (trust me!) you'll be thinking about and reliving for years to come.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An engaging read...,
By Tyler (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beautiful Dead End (Paperback)
A beautiful tapestry of words; woven with artistry into a mosaic engaging & seamlessly touching. A reward to read!
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Something Missing,
By Quincow2 (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beautiful Dead End (Paperback)
Hutzulak's style is wonderful and his work is full of interesting pieces like "They sat across the table... but more than the table separated them..." Unfortunately, the work is missing information about the characters and their actions that could make it a more satisfying and interesting work. It is difficult to know the motivation behind much of what happens in the book. In the end, I felt like I had read the story of a loser whom I didn't know enough about. The afterlife description was interesting but there wasn't enough done with it. The visit to the ex-wife had alot of potential but didn't get you inside the relationship enough to know more than the fact that the main character was a loser who had wasted a relationship. The sex was gratuitous and keeps me from passing this interesting attempt to friends.
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