Now and Then (Spenser)
by Robert B. Parker
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Book Reviews of Now and Then (Spenser)
Book Review: Spenser is Fading Away
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me first say that I have read all the Spenser novels and the associated books. I have a solid grounding in "Spenser Lore". You really need to have that background to be able to understand and enjoy this book. If you tried to pick this up as your first entry into the Spenser world, you would probably be very confused, since so much of it relies on back story.
Way back in the dawn of time, Susan ran off on Spenser. After great trials and tribulations they got back together again, but it has always gnawed at Spenser's psyche that it happened. He has dealt with MANY cheating spouses since then, but for whatever bizarre reason when this particular man comes into his office and tells Spenser of his adulterous wife, Spenser hits his breaking point. For whatever reason, it suddenly becomes the neon-bright symbol of the scar in his past.
This then infects (ahem, affects) everything that goes on. Even though there are serious terrorist issues at work, and stories of FBI agents being compromised, Spenser pretty much ignores all of that end-of-the-world concern that would have Jack Bauer looking for someone to torture. Instead, Spenser meanders along, doing his usual stirring up the hornet's nest and sitting back to see what happens.
I adore Spenser. I adore the series. I am very aware that Spenser by this point would be over seventy years old, that there are so many books out that it must be challenging for author Parker to come up with new sparse-but-snappy dialogue. I gave Parker great credit for his description of the "tarnished knights" protecting the lady who herself was slightly tarnished. Not too long ago Spenser would be a spot-free glowing boy scout and Susan his beacon of perfection. I like very much that the Spenser world is getting even a tiny glimmer of reality in it. I like the bright glints of wit. "Has Timmy fallen down a well?" Spenser asks of his pup.
That being said, this is almost Spenser Lite. The plot is one of the mildest, simplest I've seen. It feels watered down. In another section a poem is hinted at, which I love, and then the book actually lays out the meaning and poem in great detail - as if we were too dense to "get" the reference on our own. The final resolution of the issue feels very wrong for MANY reasons which I can't go into here for spoiler reasons.
What it really seems to be is that Parker isn't writing more Spenser novels as much as he is tidying up a few loose threads in preparation for Spenser to retire. I am very much in favor of wrapping things up neatly - but even so, a series as great as the Spenser series should go out with a strong, vibrant finish. Instead, it feels as if it is petering out with a tired sigh, which is a great shame. I would almost wish that Parker would decide "OK the next book will be Spenser's last" and give it a real full experience and give us that final memory with Spenser.
Book Review: Great for travel; so so for the series
Summary: 3 Stars
Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Hawk and the streets of Boston have been wonderful companions on long airplane flights over the years. Recently I spent 20 hours traveling and read a biography of Cleopatra, a history of Google, and a fable about an Alchemist. Each took a bit of concentrated reading, but the short punchy sections in Now and Then were perfect for those short waits while boarding, taking off and landing.
Spenser still has good punches -- albeit most of them in this novel on the punching bag -- and I found the novel well below Parker's average. Spenser's motivation in seeking revenge for a killing of a client revolves around Susan's affair years before while they were married, but even Hawk can't work out Spenser's real motivation. The joke about a "village" in California gets a real workout. It may be time for Spenser to retire and leave the streets of Boston to Hawk.
There are moments the dialog sparkles:
"[t]he fact you talk funny, it is good now and then to be reminded you are not just another jerk from Yale. ...
"Dear boy," he said. "There are no jerks from Yale."
"Never?" I said.
Ives continued to smile.
"Well," he said, "Hardly ever."
And, I liked the recipe for pasta:
"I mixed bread crumbs and pignolia nuts with a little olive oil and began to toast them in a fry pan on low. ... I took the fry pan off the fire and emptied the toasted bread crumbs into a bowl. I had a large pot of water boiling on the stove. I put some whole-wheat linguine in it and set my timer. ... After the pasta had cooked for three minutes I added slices of yellow squash and zucchini. ... The timer sounded. I poured the pasta and vegetables into a colander and let them drain for a moment. ... I put the pasta and vegetables in a bowl, added the toasted crumbs, pignolias, and some grated cheese. I tossed it all with a splash of olive oil."
While he's cooking Spenser and Susan discuss his motivation for seeking revenge for the umpteenth time. I could taste the pasta and the sauvignon blanc that went with the dinner. Frankly, that imagined meal was the best part of the book for me.
Robert C. Ross 2008
Book Review: The last of a unique series
Summary: 3 Stars
Having read all of the Spenser novels (36 by my count) I want to share my views on the series now that Robert B. Parker has died. Now & Then is a kind of summary book in that Parker brings back most of the gang from previous books. Susan and Hawk, of course, and Vinnie and Chollo two shooters who appear when Spenser is in trouble and Quirk, Belson and other Boston legal-types. It is as though Parker knew he was writing his last book and wanted to give them a final curtain call.
Like the last few books in the series this one is weak and is more of a reminisce about his past relationship with Susan. The wit seems forced and repetitious, the violence (10 people are killed) gratuitous. I listed a rating of three stars but what I really mean is five stars for the early novels and fewer for the last ten or so. This latter group seems to have been just dashed off, unlike the earlier books which presented Parker's philosophy about crime and life. For Parker crime results from dysfunctional families. Susan is, of course, a stand in for Parker's real life wife, Joan, to whom he dedicated all the novels. Spenser is Parker's fantasy of who he would have like to have been. Spenser is unique among PI's in that he uses his wit as well as his fists and his gun with equal adroitness. Much of the fun of the series came from Spenser's repartee with adversaries as well as wutg Susan, Hawk and other supporting characters.
The early books in the series had a time line with the characters aging with each book. But it became apparent after 20-25 books that Spenser could not continue to perform as Parker wanted him to so he stopped the aging process and for the last 15 or so books Spenser and the other characters remain frozen in time. I wrote to Parker at one point when Spenser was clearly too old to engage in the activities Parker was asking him to do. I did a kind of satire with Spenser and Hawk going to McDonald's for coffee and being charged the price for senior citizens and thus realizing they were getting old. Parker did not answer but the aging process did stop. Parker gives away Spenser's age in Now & Then by having him say on page 276 that he fought Joe Walcott. The real "Jersey Joe" Walcott was in his prime in the late 1940's, thus for Spenser to have fought him he would have to be 70-80 years old in the present (Parker was 77 when he died.) One way to stay young and virile, I guess, is to create a character like Spenser.
I recommend the Spenser books to anyone who likes a good tale, told with wit and charm. But you should start from the beginning and read them in sequence.
Book Review: Didn't I read this four years ago?
Summary: 2 Stars
I've read every Spenser novel, beginning when I was in high school in the '80s. I've reread a number of them.
In the past decade, I've grown very bored of Spenser's new novels. I wonder if Dr. Parker isn't growing bored, as well.
I rarely read the dialogue between Spenser and Susan. They love each other. They are hot for each other. They have complex emotions. They bore me.
Spenser's supporting cast reads like a joint United Nations/Politically Correct Univ. task force on thuggery. Check 'em off: African American? CHECK. Italian-American? CHECK. Native American? CHECK. Latino? CHECK. Homosexual? CHECK. Each is aware of his group's stereotypes and the role he is to play in the UN/PCU exercise. The banter is dry and witty: think Oscar Wilde with a BowFlex and a shotgun.
This novel, in particular seems as if it was written by cut-and-paste from all the other Spenser novels. There's no need for character development anymore, because the same characters (or archetypes) keep popping up.
Each time a new Spenser novel comes out, I tell myself I won't read it. Invariably I do. I am assured of a speed read through a familiar plot, 30-40 pages of Spenser/Susan dialog I can skip, a few well-written scenes of violence, some food/alcohol references, and some knight errant meditations on the harshness of the world.
I have avoided Dr. Parker's other series because his voice will always remind me of Spenser. And I want to remember the younger, MORE complex, MORE passionate, MORE violent Spenser, rather than his aging, tired self.
Maybe it's time to send Spenser and Hawk off to the old thugs' home...
Book Review: Bringing up old times
Summary: 4 Stars
Spenser and Susan have never gotten over the time they split and Susan took up with another man. Now Spenser becomes entangled with an FBI agent who is married but suspects his wife of infidelity and hires Spenser to find out. Spenser finds out but the agent and his wife are both killed. Spenser is reminded of his and Susan's split and he cannot let the case drop. He and Susan discuss aspects of the case and how it reflects on their split.The FBI becomes involved but relaxes and permits Spenser to proceed and do their work for them, but interactively. Spenser is given knowledge that governmetn forces dig up. The wife's seducer is found out to be a ladies man who has assumed a false identity, is actively involved in attacking the government with the secret hope of destabilizing it and causing whatever trouble to it he can. Towards the end Spenser and Susan agree that their way of life agrees with them, the seducer is exposed and his counterfeit identity given to the FBI to straighten out. Spenser and Susan, who have been contemplating marriage seem to come to an agreement to continue to study it but Spenser is of a mind that it would not work if conventionally followed. What they have now is best for them. This is one of the few books wherein the life style of Spenser is examined in great detail but not resolved, still it helps in the book to understand its working and for future books to proceed without too much pondering over the relationship between Spenser and Susan, they can discuss the psychology of the new antagonists involved. It helps to hold the series together which I think is necessary, making this an almost must read story.