The Disappearing Body [Paperback]

David Grand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

This rich tale of drug dealing and union-busting, murder and mayhem on both sides of the law, begins when Victor Ribe, an ex-junkie and World War I veteran, is mysteriously released from prison after serving fifteen years for a murder he didn't commit. He returns to a city where Prohibition has been repealed and a dark underworld is developing a new source of profits--illegal heroin trafficking. Meanwhile, legitimate industries are launching an offensive against unionization and the specter of Communism--and they're not above fighting dirty.
When Victor's old Army buddy, Freddy Stillman, a munitions salesman, reports a murder but can't explain why the body has disappeared, he unwittingly pulls himself and Victor into the bewildering swirl of corruption and conspiracy that encompasses everyone in the book's vast, raging cityscape. Combining the atmospheric richness of Dashiell Hammett and the irresistible, subversive humor of Thomas Pynchon, The Disappearing Body weaves suspenseful mystery into a stunning, darkly hilarious portrait of urban America between the wars.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new book by the author of the Howard Hughes novel Louse is a kind of postmodern thriller in which genre elements a gritty, unnamed American city in the 1930s; sleaze and corruption galore; tough dialogue and dark secrets from the past are laid out with such deadpan panache that they acquire a satirical edge. This is offset, however, by an almost Dostoyevskian sense of human desperation, so that the total effect is constantly unsettling. The plot is monumentally complex, beginning with the release from jail of Victor Ribe, a veteran of the First World War, who later becomes a junkie and is framed for murder. Meanwhile, an old army buddy, Freddie Stillman, now working as a shipping clerk at a munitions manufacturer, reports seeing a murder, but the body can't be found. Further complications involve skeletons in the closet of a city prosecutor running for high office, State Department efforts to thwart the shipment of arms to the Soviets, heroin trafficking, blackmail, gangster rubouts, and efforts to resist factory unionization that seem Communist-inspired. Add several hopeless love affairs, a plucky girl reporter, a cynical newspaper editor and a dying private detective, and you have a Depression-era thriller that touches every base. Grand's skill at keeping all these balls in the air and the palpable sense of menace he creates don't quite compensate, however, for the sense that the whole book is an elaborate put-on. (Mar. 5)Forecast: Admirers of Grand's earlier book may respond to his peculiar style, but lovers of hard-boiled gangster noir will find this too opaque and cluttered. A specialized read only.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Reinventing noir has become a kind of literary parlor game, and Grand is one of its cleverest participants. Evoking a hazily surreal version of Poisonville in Hammett's Red Harvest, Grand sets his tale in a forbidding East Coast city in the post-Prohibition '30s, as gangsters, union bosses, and Red-baiting politicians vie for power. Into the mix comes Victor Ribe, emerging from prison after 15 years for a murder he didn't commit and uncertain who pulled the strings to get him out. The plot quickly twists its way into Chandlerian chaos, as multiple story lines converge, diverge, and converge again, and various lives are broken as a result of the machinations. Grand doesn't seem as interested in telling a story here as in sustaining a twisted version of the noir mood, and that he manages admirably, with the city itself becoming a looming, evil presence. The effect is muted a bit, however, by the nagging sense that the author (like the filmmaking Coen brothers) treats his doomed characters as playthings, useful mainly to populate his meticulously reinvented world. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156027194
• ISBN-13: 978-0156027199
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,700,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Masterpiece, April 8, 2002

By 

blah "blah" (Leesburg, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disappearing Body: A Novel (Hardcover)

Like Luc Sante, Leonard Gardner (Fat City) and James Ellroy, David Grand knows what makes us so weak and fallible. His ability to stare into our core, while weaving an amazing story is what makes him such a force in contemporary fiction. That, and his fierce, funny imagination solidify him as my favorite writer writing today. The Disappearing Body has everything a perfect noir should have and more. I don't think I've had this much fun with a book in years.

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but never really a knockout, February 15, 2010

By 

Joshua Mauthe (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disappearing Body (Paperback)

I've been wanting to read The Disappearing Body for a long time, even if I have no recollection of why I was originally interested or who turned me onto the book, and finishing it doesn't really illuminate either of those questions. Essentially an intricate and complex piece of Philip Marlowe-style detective fiction, The Disappearing Body juggles a body that disappears (and then reappears), a labor union ready to blow up a plant, a healthy drug-smuggling operation, a number of suicides, a recently released prisoner, and a number of people struggling to come to terms with their pasts, all while a couple of figures seem to be manipulating events for reasons that only gradually become clear. It's all a satisfying (if extremely convoluted) tale, one that manages to not only weave its numerous threads but also make characters whose pain, regret, and remorse are palpable. In the end, though, while I liked the book just fine, there's little that really makes The Disappearing Body a true knockout. It's intriguing and rich, but I'm not sure I get why it's got the cult reputation it does.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great atmosphere, aimless story, June 14, 2005

By 

Randall Monk (Leesburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disappearing Body: A Novel (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the setup and found the ambience of the book to be great, but the story was meandering and aimless, and lost my interest.