Customer Reviews

The Callahan Touch

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read Callahan's Crosstime Saloon back in college, like the early 80's so I've been a fan for quite awhile. I really enjoyed that book, and also each of the subsequent Callahan books Robinson has put out over the last 20 years.

This is not at the same level of quality and originality that the earlier books were. The Callahan Touch felt like he's really writing for his die-hard fans who are easier and more lenient on the rough spots. Would someone "get this" if they happened to find a copy at the library? Would it stand on its own? It's sort of like all those Star Trek paperbacks they've written over the last decade, if you love the characters, you love being able to keep reading about them, even in a sub-par tale. This book is where the series starts to be about a cult rather than simply telling a story about a unique group of people. They are starting to be larger and better than life. The blur between fictional characters and events, and the desire to have them exist in real life gets a little fuzzed. (Callahan's Key will take it even further down this path.) . Look, I love the stories but I'm not converting to a religion. What is the old saying? "It is the story, and not the teller"? I don't care if Spider is a cool guy or not, I just want a good story to read and maybe think about. Spider seems to have begun to be in it for the money. Not a bad thing at all, it's just it was so much more fun when it was about just the story.

But, who really cares? I'm critical because I expect a lot based on the enjoyment I've had with this group of characters over the years. This is, as always, a clever, fun, witty, and enjoyable read. If you've read Robinson before, you will enjoy the Callahan Touch and know he has better stuff out there. If this is your first one, find his earlier stuff now. You're in for a treat!

I'd really love to see Spider write one more fun, old-style Callahan novel. I'd hate to have Spider become like Bob Hope, famous for doing something no one remembers anymore, just that he's famous for being famous.

I recommend this book strongly to anyone who enjoys Robinson's style and past books. Although it isn't necessary to read the previous `Callahan' books to enjoy this one, it will add to your enjoyment and understanding. Jake opens his new bar, "Mary's Place", to replace the bar destroyed in a minor nuclear explosion at the end of a previous book. Robinson introduces some delightfully odd new characters in "The Callahan Touch", and keeps us in touch with the old timers. He also examines (in a very entertaining way) some very basic human emotions and reactions, including racism, guilt, compassion, love at first sight, and fear of technology. What would YOU do if your computer suddenly wanted to discuss ethics with you

I seem to have started in the middle of this series. First, I read Callahan's Legacy because it was the only one my library had. Then, I found this book in my local used bookstore. So, not only am I out of order, but I'm reading backwards.

But I don't really think that matters. I'm still really enjoying this series from Spider Robinson--the stories of a bunch of really strange folks that hang around a bar, whether the proprietor is the titular Mike Callahan or the narrator Jake Stonebender.

The plot is negligible, when it exists. The main draw is all the varied characters and their wild personalities and how they interact with one another.

Beware, however, the puns come fast and furious. But, if, like me, you think playing with words is the highest form of humor, then pull up a stool because here is a place where "shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased."

Although Callahan's crosstime saloon was vaporized into a sizzling crater, the gang is all back. A new bar is open; called "Mary's Place" in rememberance of Calahan's daughter. The puns, wierdness, and genuine camadarie are just as strong as ever...in addition to an un-lucky duck, a guilty scientist, a walking thirst, a computer that turns itsself on, and a surprise appearance (sic) by an old favorite. Grab an Irish coffee, curl up with this book, and laugh until you cry with those folks we're so fond of

I've been a fan of the "Callahan's" stories for a long time, and truly enjoy almost all of them. This may actually be the best of the lot, and I think that it would probably be possible to start with this one and still not be completely lost. It's certainly the best (as well as the first) of the "Mary's Place" books which follow the original "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" series. But I will say that its rating was ALMOST ruined, and WAS dropped a notch, by the love-at-first-sight subplot toward the end. I'm sorry, I can accept Fir Darrig-Pooka half-breeds living in the U.S.; I can accept Cluricaunes (what most people would mistake for a leprechaun) likewise manifesting in upstate New York; I can accept time-travel, super-poweful aliens with highly advanced technology, and all the rest of it, but I CANNOT suspend disbelief far enough to accept a pair of grown-ups experiencing a powerful initial attraction for one another and mistaking it for love; the character of Jake Stonebender is wiser than that, and as written, so is the object of his fascination. Granted, there is a perfectly good chance that such a fascination might grow into love, but the idea that they are, in fact, in love before ever actually laying eyes on one another because of a very sympatico jam session is just silly. And I hate stories that reinforce the societal belief in love as being "something that happens all at once" rather than being "something that grows out of shared experience"; see my review of "Romeo & Juliet".

A Callahan's bar fix up novel. The original Callahan's place was destroyed in a nuclear explosion, but the "I" character of the stories establishes a new bar for the same gang to hang on. For some reason this is a bar that tends to attract very strange visitors, including but not limited to time travelers and characters out from Irish folklore. This book is based for a most part on short stories published earlier, but some of the material has been substantially rewritten. And that was really, really, bad idea. The original stories were tight, nice, good entertaining stories, but in this book there are a lot of totally unnecessary padding. All action stops in the middle part for very long time, where absolutely nothing happens. There are ever literally two pages long list of names of people visiting Callahan's and what instruments they are supposed to be playing. This has about same amount of entertaining value as reading a phone book. The glorification of alcoholism was also a bit disturbing, and it was also worst in the middle part of the book. The book would have been better if the author had left the stories as there were, and wouldn't have expanded them with unneeded fluff.

This is the fourth Callahan's Place book and the first Callahan's Place novel. Therein lies the problem. The barroom tale-- and its close relative, the Club Story-- is traditionally a short story. Lord Dunsany's Jorkens tales, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's _Tales From Gavagan's Bar_ (1953), Arthur C. Clarke's _Tales From the White Hart_ (1957), Sterling Lanier's Brigadier Ffellowes stories, Larry Niven's Draco Tavern series... They are all short stories.

Why? Because the short story is the right length for such a tale. In a short story, you can imagine yourself listening to Jorkens or Harry Purvis telling a tale one evening. Or you can imagine some sudden, fantastic events at Gavagan's Bar or the Draco Tavern coming to a quick resolution.

But a novel demands a more complex plot, more convoluted events, and a greater array of characters. This is what happens in _The Callahan Touch_ (1993). It starts off well enough, with the opening of Mary's Place... But after a while, events start to get-- dare I say it?-- tiring and tedious. There are only so many magic stunts that you can pull, only so many speeches that you can make, only so many toasts that you can drink,
and only so many Revelations About One's Character that can be revealed before it all begins to wear thin. And the repeated chorus of "Rooga rooga rooga" grated on my nerves long before the end.

Another problem lies in the characters. Previous Callahan stories were ensemble performances. A single character might take center stage in the story in which they were introduced, but no character hogged the spotlight all the time. _The Callahan Touch_ features a character called the Lucky Duck who has just about everything happen to him. Most of the other characters fade into the background for the rest of the novel. Even Callahan, once he makes a dramatic guest entrance, doesn't really do very much. An analogy might be the case of _A Chorus Line_. The original play was an ensemble performance about a group of people whose lives center around a love of dance. The movie was made into a star vehicle for a romance between two characters, and it never measured up to the play.

This is not to say that there weren't some good scenes in the novel. Nor is it to say that I didn't find myself laughing a number of times. Robinson is too good a writer to produce an outright clunker. But this novel is just not in the same league as his earlier Callahan's Place stories.

This book had me laughing all of the way through with it's wacky characters and hilarious puns.