Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Marple's Binoculars slip, bounce through briars and bristles. Parker Pages Paul. I'm Enthralled., April 28 2007
Spenser's sauntering, subtle swagger spoke volumes: "I'm restless and bored. What worthy chatter can I get into." Applying that approach this time, Spenser had entered the literary construction, no Elvis implied. Imaginary settings of shuffling leaves skittered through Spenser's hop, hip, and pause. The season was EARLY AUTUMN, but only in mood and theme. The plot opened in January.
Lighting the scene of Spenser's recently seated new office location, a flickering female of many poses, the now famous Patty Giacomin, put an edge on Spenser's curiosity and he began wondering (in essence) what caused X Chromosomes to grow gangrene. The plot pivoted around Patty for a while as Spenser rescued her lost son. In following scenes, the cat-like P. I. became curious about a 15-year-old stuck in a litany of shrugs. With no leeway to "lick em" Spenser joined Paul's rap (no shrink intended). By the time Spenser had met, "saved," and matched Paul Giacomin, I had been pleasantly warmed into "Do The Shrug Shuffle."
Autumn was the symbolic season, but what was the reason for Spenser to further his feisty, full-of-it facade by adopting and growing a kid.
For me, teenage chemical chaos isn't easy to cozy into (no wanna go back). But, Spenser sidled through Paul's Sea of Sleazy and set up male bonding before a fish could flop. Read and watch the deceivingly easy maneuvers of Spenser's pairing with Paul's paused psyche. See a master at work, and a kid whose sour luck had just turned sweet, by simple, easy treats on Private Eye Lonely Street, which had suddenly lost the edge of ennui.
Spenser is Goooood.
Not so much "Good" as opposed to Evil (that, too), but good like, "What part of `cool' do you understand." This time Parker pulled my interest so smoothly I had zero chance for resistance, though I gave futility a phase. Around word four, I felt a flash of dread, "Are you gonna lose it this time, Parker?" The opening was so low key I had almost bought the boredom as my yawn instead of Spenser's. Misconception wasn't maintained past a few easy-flowing pages, and I hadn't noticed when the flash bought the pan and the plot popped. Corn, anyone? (The yellow kernels would be mine, not Parker's.)
Maybe it was Spenser's study of Patty's entry onto his "WS" mode of "All the world's a stage" which had me fooled about Parker's faked foibles. His sleuth's female exorcism was so subtle I began flickering; which way would she would go, with character charisma condensation. But the bitters had been brewed by Patty's "selfless" reaction (she was so solidified-on-centered there was no self) to Spenser's success in bringing Paul home. Her character had clarified, then chilled as corrupt. Done. Jell-O, anyone? Future flickers would fumble and die, no where to hide.
As noted, I wasn't ready to be sucked into the relationship between Paul and Spenser, but under Parker's liquid-butter rap and rachet-up intrigue, ready or not didn't matter. The quick slip into liking Paul was good enough for me. As hinted above, what got me there was Spenser first imitation of Paul's shrugging shuffle, as Spenser timed his shoulders in synch, doing a duo. Recalling the way Parker wormed the reader into that capture makes me smile even now, as I type about it. I won't forget about it. (In this case if Italian, it would be, "Fuhgeduhboudit.")
Parker's technique was so natural it would have been easy to miss what had just happened, which would have been fine, because the author had me hooked as simply as Spenser had Paul on the line. That technique did a neon-light-script around the advice, "If you can't lick em join em." Then RBP took the thought behind the color highlight, bounced and twirled it, dropped it, kicked out the taint of time-gathered-trite, then renewed the candor of a cliche gone rap(ture). Lucky kid. Lucky you.
The way Spenser took on the raising of Paul Giacomin was one of the best dramatizations I've seen anywhere about saving a teenaged boy whose soul had nearly shrunken in on itself. The working scenes between Paul and Spenser gave primal meaning to warm, mesmerizing, and inspiring, as they danced through the construction of a "fancier" cabin than the more primitive one they inhabited while Paul learned who Spenser was and how to apply some of his tricks of growing strong and autonomous.
I agree absolutely with the reviews which wisely concluded that this is the novel in the series which defines Spenser personally. I loved it. Being party to Paul's transformation was one of the most sensitive yet underhandedly powerful psychological passages I've ever attended. There can be no doubt that this plot is pivotal as well as potent, yet gently so. The cooking was up to par, too.
Okay, enough jiggling and juggling the review dance. Enough steaming the yeasty bread, dripping garlic-warmed-basil-butter. Dine on this: If you know what's good for you (even if you don't), get it, the Early Autumn (healing) Virus. "Gedit now, kid."
"Aaaachhhhhhhooooooo!!" (No yawn intended.)
Here's lookin' at you, kid.
Binoculars set on Marple's Mark,
Linda Shelnutt
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5.0 out of 5 stars
TOO SHORT, TOO SHORT!, Mar 22 2004
By A Customer
Great but too short. Should of been deeper. Covers a subject matter that hit home for me.
Parental neglect, of the type where the parents, who's rotten relationship is so all consuming that you, the only child, become just another unwanted burden they can't or don't want to deal with so they cope with you by disregarding your very existence. Add to that the fact that the parents themselves have no friends and discourage you from bringing any home. Add to that the child is shy and not too bright to begin with and you end up with a 15 yr old who's still 8 yrs old.....a looser, a total blank slate. I'd like to see Parker redo this one. Spenser came along and saved the kid.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Spenser Reviews: The Kid's Got It, Oct 5 2003
In Early Autumn, Spenser finally emerges from the shadow of the traditional hard-boiled detective to become the full-rounded, complex character that will evolve tremendous over the next set of books in this series, arguable the best of the lot. At the surface level, the story seems like Parker's attempt to remake the regrettable "God Bless the Child," which was a truly terrible story with an unfortunate resolution. It's the same basic story: screwed up kid is screwed up even worse by awful parents. But in this case, Spenser realizes the kid, Paul Giacomin, doesn't deserve to be reunited with his folks. Thus begins a rather Odyssean saga wherein Spenser begins to make a man of the boy. The story clearly is set in its time (early 80's), where no one thought anything of an adult taking an unrelated boy into a cabin in Maine. Such a story could not be written today without incurring the wrath of a thousand social service agents. "Early Autumn" adds a much-needed layer of emotional depth to the formerly go-go Spenser, setting the stage for the excellent "wounded Spenser" novels that will soon follow.
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