rickklaw's review
5.0
How could a 813 page book with 46 stories titled The Best American Mystery Stories Of the Century steer you wrong? It can’t. Sure you won’t agree with everything that is in and not in the book (that is part of the fun of Best of... collections) but with contributors like [a:Lawrence Block|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1175465339p2/3389.jpg], [a:James M. Cain|14473|James M. Cain|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1214424417p2/14473.jpg], [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg], [a:William Faulkner|3535|William Faulkner|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1189905090p2/3535.jpg], [a:Sue Grafton|9559|Sue Grafton|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1202586126p2/9559.jpg], [a:Dashiel Hammett|16927|Dashiell Hammett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1202585790p2/16927.jpg], [a:O. Henry|854076|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192746024p2/854076.jpg], [a:Shirley Jackson|4191|Emily Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200326444p2/4191.jpg], [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1175465339p2/3389.jpg], [a:Donald E. Westlake|30953|Donald E. Westlake|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1230870096p2/30953.jpg] (still chuckling from his Dortmunder tale) and a host of others even the most hardened mystery fan will find something to like. This is truly the best.
meeners's review
4.0
n impressively ambitious project, and i appreciated the variations in styles and plots and moods. (though i have to admit that it's those very variations that also irked me at times - felt too much like the editors were straining to "break free" of genre restraints, when really they didn't have to.)
there were quite a few stories i didn't think really deserved the title, but i guess you could cite personal preferences as part of the reason. my favorites were the ones by cain (can't go wrong with a title like "the baby in the icebox"), woolrich (teh suspense!!), jackson (creepy awesome old lady protagonist), westlake (master of the bumbling crook caper), and hammett (best last sentence....EVAR.)
in fact, i'll always be eternally grateful to the editors for introducing me to hammett's "the gutting of couffignal," which is one of those stories that grabs onto you and never lets go once you've finished reading it. so great.
there were quite a few stories i didn't think really deserved the title, but i guess you could cite personal preferences as part of the reason. my favorites were the ones by cain (can't go wrong with a title like "the baby in the icebox"), woolrich (teh suspense!!), jackson (creepy awesome old lady protagonist), westlake (master of the bumbling crook caper), and hammett (best last sentence....EVAR.)
in fact, i'll always be eternally grateful to the editors for introducing me to hammett's "the gutting of couffignal," which is one of those stories that grabs onto you and never lets go once you've finished reading it. so great.
buchdrache's review
3.0
Dieser Band befasst sich, nachdem Blaine überwunden wurde, hauptsächlich mit Rolands Vorgeschichte und seiner ersten und bisher einzigen großen Liebe, ehe er und sein Ka-Tet wieder dem Pfad des Dunklen Turms folgen. Das Buch hat mir nach seiner Lektüre durchaus etwas die Lust an der Reihe verdorben, weil es so unglaublich zäh war. Fast neunhundert Seiten, und die meisten davon wenig inhaltsvoll. Auch in den Vorgängerbänden kristallisierte es sich bereits heraus, dass King mit dem Dunklen Turm anscheinend nur ungern auf den Punkt kommt, aber dieser Band trieb es unangenehm auf die Spitze. Hinzu kommt, dass Rolands tragische Liebe zu Susan einfach nichts ist, das mich sonderlich reizt. Es gab also nichts, das mich über den Wortschwall hinweg trösten konnte und mich bei Laune hielt. Das ging schließlich so weit, dass ich über 200 Seiten überblättert hatte, weil ich einfach so dermaßen gelangweilt davon war. Sich hier bedeutend kürzer zu fassen, hätte dem Buch wesentlich besser getan. Was jedoch positiv auffällt, ist, dass Rolands Welt auch sprachlich nach Regionen untergliedert wird. In verschiedenen Teilen des Landes wird verschieden gesprochen, und das ist auch durchaus essenziell für die Handlung, was mir gut gefiel.
inlibrisveritas's review
2.0
I don't even remember the story anymore, I just remember hating it. So I guess this is a pointless review
kxowledge's review
2.0
One of the first 'books' I read completely in English.
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(Date is not accurate nor is the rating, I just remember not liking it)
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(Date is not accurate nor is the rating, I just remember not liking it)
madscibrarian's review
2.0
Read this in one day because it is so short. I am shelving it as a classic because it's Steinbeck. It's my first Steinbeck novel and I thought it was all right. I don't think it is his best work. My guess though is that he is fascinated with poor people being miserable (given the little I know about The Grapes of Wraith) because that is what this book is about, too. Yes, we can attribute it to other life-long lessons, but really, poor people being miserable is a pretty good summary of this book.
booksandabackpack's review
4.0
A retelling of an older Mexican folk tale and Steinbeck does a brilliant job of bringing it to life. In the original folk tale, the diver doesn't return from the ocean but in Steinbeck's version, he returns to land and his pursuant life is cursed.
holmesstorybooks's review
4.0
8 minutes in, and I already love Juana, the protagonist's wife. Juana made of iron. Juana who can be patient and cheerful and can arch her back in childbirth without so much as a cry.
Hector Elizondo reads as a narrator and his voice has a gravel texture but has a smoothness to it, like waves crashing on the shore. I'd never listened to a Steinbeck book before but I felt more than ever, how he uses repetition in his work so skilfully.
This story is about a pearl diver, and how he finds a pearl so big, and so beautiful that in it, he can see the future of his family. A wedding. A sailor suit for his son. His son going to school.
And then, as with all Steinbeck books, ruin is inevitable, and I find myself being pulled down a slope I'm unable to return from, along with all the characters.
I forgot that Steinbeck does this thing where he makes me care about characters and then he wrecks them and ruins their lives and then I cry.
Damn you, Steinbeck. I'm supposed to return to normal life after this?
Hector Elizondo reads as a narrator and his voice has a gravel texture but has a smoothness to it, like waves crashing on the shore. I'd never listened to a Steinbeck book before but I felt more than ever, how he uses repetition in his work so skilfully.
This story is about a pearl diver, and how he finds a pearl so big, and so beautiful that in it, he can see the future of his family. A wedding. A sailor suit for his son. His son going to school.
And then, as with all Steinbeck books, ruin is inevitable, and I find myself being pulled down a slope I'm unable to return from, along with all the characters.
I forgot that Steinbeck does this thing where he makes me care about characters and then he wrecks them and ruins their lives and then I cry.
Damn you, Steinbeck. I'm supposed to return to normal life after this?