Helpful Score: 3
I enjoyed this book. Merlis pulls one into the tale he is unfolding within the first paragraphs. He has a speed that makes the reader keep on going like the old Saturday matinee serials. This is the second of his books I have read. I think this novel was more satisfactory than the other. By mid point one is at a loss as to where the book is going and looking in the back will confuse one more. He scatters clues and blocks along the way a few woven through each page that makes for an exciting summing up of an old man's life at a cross road or at an end. I like Merlis because he writes and develops characters even though there is only the narrator talking about his 'version 'of the past 40+ years. Like many of the newer writers he does not think it is necessary to take 600 pages to tell a story. For that I thank him many times. If one is looking for a tale that covers what those not in the fore front but just plodding along trying not to be pushed out of the shadows were doing, Merlis has a version that is quite worthwhile.
