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A review by poldarn
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
3.0
A reader starts a noir book with certain expectations. The book should exude a gloomy, depressive aura reminiscent of a dark and stormy night. Characters must be flawed, but complex faced with troubles of their own making, showing us the traits that we like to imagine do not exist in ourselves and the plot should be full of twists and turns causing the reader to dread what awaits him on the next page.
Let me rephrase the above. That is what I expect when I start reading a noir book. Perhaps other readers have different expectations, so did The Big Clock satisfy these criteria? For me, it did not.
I was never convinced that George Stroud was in any real danger, The antagonists were not menacing at all, I was very skeptical of a certain fact which the whole plot hinges upon and the tale did not feel bleak enough.
So the first criterion is out and the third is not completely fulfilled what about the characters? They were both funny and absurd, which I liked. Gil and his museum, George George’s daughter (This is not a typo), and Louise Patterson (THE GREAT ARTIST).
This book felt like a waste of potential given the creative idea, so I feel that the negation of the statement “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” applies.
Let me rephrase the above. That is what I expect when I start reading a noir book. Perhaps other readers have different expectations, so did The Big Clock satisfy these criteria? For me, it did not.
I was never convinced that George Stroud was in any real danger, The antagonists were not menacing at all, I was very skeptical of a certain fact which the whole plot hinges upon and the tale did not feel bleak enough.
So the first criterion is out and the third is not completely fulfilled what about the characters? They were both funny and absurd, which I liked. Gil and his museum, George George’s daughter (This is not a typo), and Louise Patterson (THE GREAT ARTIST).
This book felt like a waste of potential given the creative idea, so I feel that the negation of the statement “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” applies.