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A review by spygrl1
End of Story by Peter Abrahams
3.0
Another fun thriller from Abrahams, author of Oblivion. This time our protagonist is Ivy Seidel, a wannabe author with an MFA and a stack of rejection letters. Her friend Joel sells a screenplay and is off to Hollywood, so he bequeaths his job teaching writing to prisoners at Dannemora to Ivy. Ivy is impressed with the writing skill demonstrated by one student, Vance Harrow, and sets out to find out more about the man's background. As she pokes around, she begins to doubt that Harrow is guilty of the robbery/homicide for which he's serving 25 years. The reader can tell Ivy is in way over her head long before she can -- she often seems to be a beat behind, missing the implications behind words and actions.
I liked the way Abrahams juxtaposed Ivy's strained efforts to make herself a skilled writer with the seemingly effortless way Harrow strings words into a compelling story. The inmate even gives her a hand with a story that was previously rejected by The New Yorker, leading to her first taste of success.
And I really liked the way Abrahams denied Ivy a happy ending. It seems at first like law-breaking is just the tonic her faltering literary aspirations needed, but then an early betrayal of one of her writing pupils comes back to bite her in the ass. Inspiration flees.
I liked the way Abrahams juxtaposed Ivy's strained efforts to make herself a skilled writer with the seemingly effortless way Harrow strings words into a compelling story. The inmate even gives her a hand with a story that was previously rejected by The New Yorker, leading to her first taste of success.
And I really liked the way Abrahams denied Ivy a happy ending. It seems at first like law-breaking is just the tonic her faltering literary aspirations needed, but then an early betrayal of one of her writing pupils comes back to bite her in the ass. Inspiration flees.