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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
Haiku tells the story of a group of homeless men who have found a family with each other: a Vietnam vet, a former Wall Street guru, a schizophrenic, a gangster, a martial arts master and an insane man. The book is very harsh, dealing with the realities of street life in NYC. It is also written in short snippets, which I found a bit disconcerting. It was a challenging book to read on more than one level, but I do feel that I gained something from it. Not sure I'd recommend it.
When I checked this book out and began reading, I was under the impression that I was getting myself into a well written mystery. The book appeared on a "can't miss mystery and thriller" list I subscribe to through the public library.
What I found in the pages of this book is a wandering meditation on the nature of honor and talent, told in wonderful voice, without much of a purpose. Ho's narration - and the dialogue amongst the rest of his homeless "family" - captures his character very nicely, though I don't think that his musings are as thoughtful as they are written to seem.
Disappointing story, but I will be reading more work by [a:Andrew Vachss|36764|Andrew Vachss|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1250519815p2/36764.jpg] because I really appreciated the personification of his characters.
What I found in the pages of this book is a wandering meditation on the nature of honor and talent, told in wonderful voice, without much of a purpose. Ho's narration - and the dialogue amongst the rest of his homeless "family" - captures his character very nicely, though I don't think that his musings are as thoughtful as they are written to seem.
Disappointing story, but I will be reading more work by [a:Andrew Vachss|36764|Andrew Vachss|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1250519815p2/36764.jpg] because I really appreciated the personification of his characters.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
More complicated than Vachss' other novels, which themselves are fairly complicated, and with less purpose other than perhaps to demonstrate the author's understandings of the dark side. I did like the haiku verse at the end, though.
I wasn't familiar with Vachss before, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this. (And I recommend the audio version from Brilliance Audio for nice voice work.)
This initially seems to be a heist book involving a gang of homeless men in NYC. The narrator is the group's leader -- a Japanese martial arts teacher (Ho) who gave up his dojo after inadvertently causing the death of a favorite student. What is touching is the way in which Ho makes these men into a kind of family, and the patient ways in which he deals with the problems (gambling, alcohol, schizophrenia, PTSD) that have made the men homeless in the first place. The problems that come up as they try to work together to track down a possible treasure turn out to be an effective way to introduce the characters and their backstories.
The initial motivation (heist/treasure) is eventually set aside when the men have to unite to solve a different problem -- one which threatens the sanity of their schizophrenic friend. I thought this was a particularly deft change of course that took the book in a way that I would not have predicted. And more power to it for that!
This initially seems to be a heist book involving a gang of homeless men in NYC. The narrator is the group's leader -- a Japanese martial arts teacher (Ho) who gave up his dojo after inadvertently causing the death of a favorite student. What is touching is the way in which Ho makes these men into a kind of family, and the patient ways in which he deals with the problems (gambling, alcohol, schizophrenia, PTSD) that have made the men homeless in the first place. The problems that come up as they try to work together to track down a possible treasure turn out to be an effective way to introduce the characters and their backstories.
The initial motivation (heist/treasure) is eventually set aside when the men have to unite to solve a different problem -- one which threatens the sanity of their schizophrenic friend. I thought this was a particularly deft change of course that took the book in a way that I would not have predicted. And more power to it for that!
Finished "Haiku: A Novel" by Andrew Vachss. I really liked this story of a group of homeless who are drawn together from vastly different places. On the other hand, the main character, Ho, reminded me of Sphinx from Mystery Men, so I found comedy in places where it wasn't intended.
More complicated than Vachss' other novels, which themselves are fairly complicated, and with less purpose other than perhaps to demonstrate the author's understandings of the dark side. I did like the haiku verse at the end, though.
Until about 40 pages 'til the end, I hated this book. I wasn't interested in any of the characters. I didn't like Andrew Vachss' writing style. I almost stopped reading. Somehow everything wrapped up really nicely and by the time I had finished the book, I had completely changed my opinion.
There were some things I liked but overall this book was not really my cup of tea. I liked that our main characters drew strength from their friendship.
An unnamed sensei leaves his dojo behind to live on the streets after a young student is murdered. He had told her she was ready to take on her enemies, but little did he know Chica's reality. He meets a band of street living veterans and becomes their mentor. They call him Ho, for Ho Chi Minh, even though he is Japanese. Everyone in this group is deeply damaged: Mchael, a stock broker, who lost it all by gambling; Lamont, a former gang member turned celebrity poet; Brewster, an explosive psychotic who sells his meds; Target, who can only talk in four word bursts, and Ranger, a Vietnam Veteran. They begin to pursue a mystery involving a Rolls Royce, but that storyline is lost in trying to save Brewster's book collection. I still want to know what happened with the Rolls. This band of brothers is compelling and touching, however, and the reader cares deeply what happens to them all.