Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Night Inspector: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Frederick Busch ISBN: 0449006158 Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd Pap) Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71
Rating: 5
Summary: Night Inspector both haunting and lyrical
Comment: Frederick Busch has given us a heady mixture of emotion, narrative and history in The Night Inspector. This is a powerful novel, a gripping tale of a hero who is damaged emotionally as well as physically. William Bartholomew is a civil war sniper whom fate has punished with a hideous face wound, forever hidden behind a papier-mache mask. The title character of the book is the then for gotten author, Herman Melville- Bartholomew's new friend- who lives a twilight existence as a customs inspector. Melville and the Phantom-like wander a bleak Victorian New York City, drinking heavily and visiting sights of depravity in the old city. Interspersed with the narrative, the masked protagonist's mind keeps wandering back to his days in the war, and the grisly but efficient assassinations he made on behalf of the Union side with his Sharps rifle, prior to his disfigurement. This is a fascinating adventure, written by an excellent storteller. Atmospheric, moody,violent, and sometimes bawdy, this is a novel well worth a few night's reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Fascinating Premise...Deserves a Second Look
Comment: The narrator and main character of "The Night Inspector" is Mr. Bartholomew, a former sniper for the Union army during the civil war. He now has no face --- at least not one he wishes to reveal to the public--- and he wears a mask (or prosthetic face) to hide his disfigurement. In the early scenes of the novel, Bartholomew befriends a once well-received literary figure who is now employed in the titled position. This is none other than Herman Melville, who it is noted in the novel, lost his good literary reputation during his lifetime for the very work which continues to immortalize him --- Moby Dick.
Those of you who are familiar with Busch, most particularly his 1997 "Girls", will recognize that he is reworking many of his previous themes, as many authors tend to do. Busch again deals with a narrator with a past which he blames himself for, and seeks redemption for, and for which he (similarly) finds little. We've got the recurring theme of parental loss of a child, which Busch has dealt with several times.
As in Girls, we've got a narrator who we as readers will find that we have uncomfortably mixed emotions about. Bartholomew is a character who we would like to like (love, even), yet the fact that his past haunts him...haunts us. The book switches between post-civil war New York and Bartholomew's own experiences as a calculating, cold-blooded sniper. The war scenes are the strongest in the novel, while the post-war scenes sometimes seem to have loose ends.
Overall, this book is, like "Girls," exquisitely written, soulful, and resonates (with this reader at least) long after the last page has been turned. Busch's characterization and dialogue is some of the best I've read. His books have perhaps never reached the status they deserve because in many ways they are too like life --- they are difficult at times and don't have easy solutions. They require some work on the part of the reader.
It seemed to me, in the end, probably because I loved "Girls" so much, that "The Night Inspector" deserves a second read, not because I loved it so much, but because I'm not sure why I didn't love it enough.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fails to Gell
Comment: I fully expected to enjoy this gritty suspense set in the same gilded age NYC of E.L. Doctrow's The Waterworks. For whatever reason though, I found it rather tedious and affected at times. The story follows a former Union army sharpshooter, who must always wear a mask to conceal his wartime disfigurement. This is presumably a metaphor for the city itself--as Busch manages to put tidbits of its historical sordidness, such as child prostitutes, on display for the reader. There are a lot of flashbacks, telling the background of this man, and of his wartime exploits, where he is used as any other tool. These struck me as much better written and interesting than the bulk of the book, which revolves around the man's attempt to liberate some child slaves with the aid of Herman Melville and various other cultivated allies. The characterizations are quite good, as is the period detail, but the story itself never quite gelled for me.
 |
Title: A Memory of War: A Novel by Frederick Busch ISBN: 0393049787 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Being Dead by Jim Crace ISBN: 0312275420 Publisher: Picador Pub. Date: 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Midnight Champagne : A Novel by A. Manette Ansay ISBN: 038072975X Publisher: Perennial Press Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Girls (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Frederick Busch ISBN: 0449912639 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Don't Tell Anyone (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Frederick Busch ISBN: 0345443934 Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd Pap) Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
