Customer Reviews

Dispatch

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jason Hanford is a letter writer. Make that Letter Writer. He writes letters--and his letters get results. If he writes a complaint letter to a theme park, he gets free passes. If he writes an editorial scathing the president's economical plans, he gets a responding letter from the president himself.

There is no doubt that Jason Hanford was born to write...and someone out there knows this. Jason begins to receive mysterious letters, detailing dreams he has had, horrible nightmares that seem all-too-real. When Jason's life begins to spiral downwards, when his marriage ends in divorce and seperation from his wife and child, when he loses his job and is danger of losing his home...Jason gets a job offer. From someone who wants him to do nothing but that thing he feels most compelled to do: write letters. It is a job that will change Jason's life...and may very well COST him his life.

"Dispatch" is yet another rivetting, satirical, shocking novel by the always-enjoyable Bentley Little. The ending is a bit predictable for Little's die-hard fans, but that's okay--we really don't care that much, because it's the ride UP TO the ending that we're most interested in. And what a thrill it is! "Dispatch" will keep you turning the pages until the very end...where you may even feel compelled to go back and read it all over again. With the lights on, of course. And you might not want to open your mail.

Half way through this one, I was so impressed I began touting this as his best work yet. Literally, the very next chapter changed my whole outlook on this piece.

The first person narrative of a man recalling his difficult family life and awkward moments with candidness was engrossing. Little, not known for character development, really had me buying into this guy who could accomplish anything through writing letters to people in high places, spark nationwide feuds through editorials, and even be someone else.

The story progressed nicely, as the main character gets lured deeper into this masquarade, but ultimately falls flat. It felt as though Little had a great thing going, but didn't know where to head with it. The second half of this book is just so implausable, so full of holes, and so ridiculous, that I had no desire to finish it.

Ok, I am a Bentley Little fan, I consider him to be one of the finest short story writers, and occasionaly writer of a great novel (The Association, The Ignored). Part of what makes him unique is the satirical element, outrageousness, oddball elements. However, in this one, the weirdness ended up ruining a potential masterpiece.

For some reason in his short stories he can take an absolutely ridiculous premise (like THE WASHINGTONIANS-- a cult of George Washington followers who cannibalize any who stumble upon them) and make it work by applying shrewd originality for entertainment value, and just enough know-how to make it somewhat plausible. His novels, on the other hand, are hit-or-miss, and this one had the potential to be a major hit, but instead is one you will in all liklihood walk away from let down.

Just my 2 cents.

Ya, Know, It's an ok book. But the ending really let me down. The First 2/3rds were great. Im probably going to read one of his more popular pieces to see if that does it for me. After reading this book, you will get the sense that the publisher walked in - read the unfinished manuscript - stopped at page 235 and then told Bentley - "Dude. Put a monster in it." So Bentley forced a monster into a perfectly good emotional first-person thriller. I expected it to end in a realistically tragic way - instead I felt like writing a complaint letter to the author. Absolutely Fabulous plot premises but the end missed the boat. Also felt like it was two books forced into one. Can't really Recommend this one strongly. The Skill of the Writer is what prevents me from giving it only 2 stars.

The first half of DISPATCH is very interesting. It follows the life of a young man named Jason Hanford, who can get things he wants by writing letters. The first hundred and fifty pages of this novel shows how Hanford learns to use this power to satisfy his desires, both good and bad. I found this part of the novel to be highly original and quite engrossing, if a bit repetitive (we get many examples of letters written by Hanford).

Unfortunately, the second half of this story veers into a very different direction. After a long buildup, Hanford eventually gets hired by a mysterious corporation to use his power for an unknown purpose. At this point, the novel becomes increasingly surreal and silly. I thought the final confrontation in this book was a major letdown and had no basis in reality whatsoever.

It also doesn't help that Hanford becomes more and more unlikable as the novel progresses, doing many terrible and hurtful things. This made it difficult for me to relate to this book on any sort of emotional level. Also, most of the supporting characters in DISPATCH are essentially caricatures, with little emotional depth or complexity. This is especially true of most of the female characters in this book.

For a better treatment of a somewhat similar storyline, I would suggest Stephen King's short story "Everything's Eventual."

Bentley Little, the modern master of creating horror from the ordinary things in life, has one of his best works in DISPATCH. While the novel's ending seems a little abrupt and not entirely satisfying, the book manages to hold your interest, and in Jason Handford, Little has created a hero/villain who is quite original. Jason is only able to communicate in letters; his father is an abusive alcoholic and his mother is an emotional vacuum, so Jason finds it easier to communicate by the written word. While starting out innocently enough in his youth by writing letters of complaint to fast food restaurants and other mundane affairs, he eventually starts writing letters that have impact on governmental and societal issues. He even becomes a murderer by mail. While the novel tends to become a little incredulous at times with its use of real life characters, Little is talented enough to keep his storyline unique and interesting. While not truly a horror novel, DISPATCH is a morality tale about the power of the written word and the impact of any kind of obsessive behavior. A good read for fans of the unusual.

As a longtime fan of Bentely Little's works, I've found this one to be the most intriguing to date. It follows the standard format for a Little book, in which an everyday character falls into what at first seems to be a normal situation, but which grows worse and worse until it has reached the point of supernatural. Very comparable to The Ignored or The Store in it's style, this book impressed me by leaving out some of the cheesy imagery and lackluster endings that have played such a major role in Little's last few books. The author offers more than a few surprises and poses enough questions to keep the reader interested. If Little can maintain the quality of this book, I look forward to his future works.

Dispatch is an unusual novel for Bentley Little: it is written in the first person and the narrator, Jason Hanford is a rather nasty character. There are levels of evil, however, and Jason is not as bad as what he will face.

As Jason recounts, he lived in a troubled family with an alcoholic father, an uncaring mother and a deadbeat older brother. An elementary school teacher gets him involved in a pen pal project and he starts corresponding with a Japanese girl, enchanting her with false stories of himself. Eventually, the letters start getting sexually explicit (at least for [...] year old) and Jason gets in trouble, but he is learns that he enjoys letter writing. By the time he is in his late teens, he is writing complaint letters to companies to get free stuff and - with false identities - creating local political controversies. Some of his letters are particularly sinister, as he starts accusing people of crimes and eventually people die because of his writings.

Although he drops the writing eventually and gets married and has a child, his letter writing is an addiction that can only be suppressed for so long. This will cost him deeply, but also gets him an offer from a mysterious company that promises great rewards if he just writes his letters. Despite his gut feelings telling him to avoid the job, he takes it.

There is definitely something supernatural about this business and Jason finds himself a minor part of a very evil machine. Unfortunately, there appears to be little escape once the job is taken. Somewhere behind the scenes is the Ultimate Letter Writer, an enigmatic figure which is nearly omniscient and omnipotent. Jason realizes that he is not a nice guy, but the Ultimate Letter Writer is something far darker.

This is rather typical Bentley Little fare, which is a good thing: well-written horror with a healthy dash of satire. It is not perfect: as is typically the case, his stories fall apart a bit at the end. Overall, however, this is a fast-reading good novel that should satisfy fans of the genre.

I found this book to be very fast paced and easy to get into. This is probably the fastest I've read one of Little's books (except maybe Dominion which is one of my favs)and it only took me about 3-4 days to read it b/c I wanted to know what was going to happen. Like most of Little's books he takes something as everyday as writing letters and turns it into the plot of a sinister, weird tale. Jason is a Letter Writer (yes with capitals) who with the power of his letters get free food, entertainment, better jobs, school scholarships and even causes a few deaths along the way. When Jason is offered a job that opens his eyes to the fact that he is not the only Letter Writer, the story gets even more bizarre. Like many of the books I've read of Little, his build up is sometimes better than the conclusion, but overall it's still one of his more interesting books. Probably one of his weirdest novels, and goes well with The Mailman, which both make letters and mail frightening!

This follows in another of Little's paranoid society plots. I found the plot to be intriguing, sort of like a cross between 'The Mothman Prophecy' and '1984'. The premise of the "pen being mightier than the sword" taking on a literal meaning is nicely done,leading the reader down a different pathway than I can recall in recent history. My only misgivings about it is that the middle of the book became kind of redundant and contained elements that I did not feel were of necessity to the plot. (The old witch,i.e.,) and I often found myself asking, Is this going anywhere? Towards the end though the book really shifts into high gear and you find yourself unable to put it down for the amount of intensity. I also like the way he incorporates plugs for his other novels(The Store is mentioned briefly) making his world a little more believable. If your into conspiracy horror, this is a fine addition to your collection.

This is one of Little's better efforts. I have read all of his novels, and this one ranks up near the top. Jason is a well fleshed out character with a very realistic dysfunctional family. But Jason discovers he has a talent to write letters that change things. At first he uses it for trivial things, free passes to amusement parks or free dinners, but then he uses his powers for even greater goals. Not all of them so noble. His talent does not go unnoticed however, and thats when the fun really begins. All in all a good read, though the ending was a bit flat for me, but the rest makes up for it.