Customer Reviews

Empire State

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

 

 

This is by far Colin Batemans greatest achievement. The epic scale of the Empire State Building is matched word for word by Batemans snappy dialouge, wickedly sharp characters and wonderful twists. It reads like a Hollywood blockbuster in the making. Without taking away the glory of 'Divorcing Jack' or 'Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men' I would say this is the Bateman to recommend to anyone. Without a doubt the book of the 90's.

Colin Bateman is one of my favorite authors; I've read nearly all his novels. Its not to say they are uniformly good, but they are all entertaining and sometimes hilarious. He has been described as a Northern Ireland version of Carl Hiaasen, which is actually a compliment.

Unfortunately 'Empire State', like a couple other books of his with a storyline rooted in North America, is not among his better works. It is a rather far-fetched story of a racist, a rejected lover turned reluctant terrorist, a kidnapped American President who seems oddly like Bill Clinton, with the most of the activity situated atop the Empire State building. The action is a bit slapstick in nature, and the characterizations rather ... crude. But it all sticks together, somehow.

Not central to the story, but I cannot help by adding a mini-spoiler here:

//spoiler//
There is a plane crash at the top floors of the Empire State building. Although this book was written a few years before 9/11 I imagine this minor element of this book has not encouraged the publisher to promote it, which is a bit of shame.

//end spoiler//

Bottom line: a curious yet overall very average effort by Colin Bateman. Best left to his loyal fans only.

This was my first contact with Colin Bateman whose work, I believe, hasn't been published in the US (making it really hard to get any of his books in either North or South America, even as imports).

When I was reading this novel, I could actually imagine it as a feature film (or better yet, mini-series, since it's quite long). The characters are very much alive, for better or for worse (that George is too much sometimes!), and though the story is quite contrived (especially in the last 150 pages), it flows and works perfectly.

If you like it, try Divorcing Jack as well (but avoid the movie, it's awful).

Wonderfully funny, with snappy dialogue and a series of unbelievable coincedences. Things just keep getting worse and worse for protaganist Nathan Jones, so well described and developed that he reminds me of someone I know. Other characters are well developed, and the president is dead-on. Only complaint is the Northern Irishisms in the dialogue between the president, his chief of staff, and other Americans. It's quite disconcerting to have an FBI man complain about "a spanner in the works.''

Empire State shows that Colin Bateman still has one of the most witty and entertaining voices in popular fiction. His descriptions and dialogue remain as sharp as ever. Unfortunately, the anti-climatic, contrived ending (more contrived than normal for Bateman) to a promising plot left me dissatisfied. Overall, a step down from "Divorcing Jack" and "Cycle of Violence" a.k.a. "Crossmaheart".