Customer Reviews

Fair Warning

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

 

 

Fair Warning is the first of Butler's novels that I have read and therefore, I came to the novel with no expectations, other than the hope of finding a good read. Fair Warning is an enjoyable, quick read--a sort of sophisticated romance novel. I think, based on reading other reviews on these pages, if you come to this work expecting something like Butler has done before, you may be disappointed. If, however, you want to read a romance for grownups, this is your novel. It is the story of Amy Dickerson, a 40 year old auctioneer with some personal issues to resolve--her father, her mother, her failed love life. She becomes involved with two men as the novel progresses and begins to resolve some of those issues. She eventually falls in love. Not much else, but it is a quick compelling read which some readers will probably really enjoy. You just have to be careful that you are one of them.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler ( A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain, 1993; Mr. Spaceman, 2000, etc) takes us to what is for many unfamiliar territory - the posh, privileged world of auction, where people are defined by what they have, what they want, and what they're willing to pay to get it.

In this sphere of acquisition collectors say, "Yes. Yes. I will embrace these things. I will treasure these things. I will own these things so that I might possess a little of what the world is all about. It is like identity, is it not? I own this thing, therefore I am?"

It is also a world where beautiful, 40-year-old Amy Dickerson reigns as star auctioneer for New York City's most prestigious auction house, Nichols and Gray. Her perception, panache, and palaver enable her to sell an unassuming Renoir for more than twice its value in a business "built on the three `d's': debt, divorce, and death."

Perhaps Amy's future was determined when as a child in Houston she sold Missy, her 3-year-old sister. She stood before neighborhood children practicing an art she'd learned attending cattle auctions with her father.

"Ladies and gentleman," Amy intoned, "no greater or more complete perfection of animal beauty ever stood on two legs than the little girl who stands before you. She has prize-winning breeding and good teeth..."

Whatever the case, Amy is at the top professionally but still on the first rung in her personal life. With two throw-away lovers in her immediate past she is intrigued by Trevor, he of the dark eyes and recently deceased mother whose apartment is crammed with Victoriana. Yet, there is something unsettling about the man who at the last minute decides he cannot part with his mother's belongings.

Meanwhile, Amy's widowed mother calls and begs Amy to return to Houston to auction all of her father's possessions, items the older woman can no longer bear to look at. This visit causes Amy to reassess her relationship with her father, a tall , broad shouldered cowman who never understood why she didn't remain with him to run the family cattle business. Not only that but she comes to wonder exactly who she is and what she is meant to do. Is Earth simply a place where everyone owns or is owned?

Enter Alain Bouchard, wealthy and exciting Frenchman, who is buying Nichols and Gray and gives every sign that he wishes to obtain Amy as well. He offers her a more than lucrative contract to remain with the auctions house and promises a trip to "his" Paris.

Yet, as with Trevor, Amy eventually senses that Alain may not be the perfect lover after all. Once in his apartment she appraises it with a connoisseur's eye and more - she finds a hidden cache that is both provocative and revealing.

Robert Olen Butler has created a strong, interesting character with Amy. But she is a woman with whom it is hard to empathize. Her tough, cynical exterior belie the notion that she has a heart to be broken.

Nonetheless, Fair Warning is an intriguing peek at the glamorous rich who are propelled by their "shopping pheromones."

I first heard of Robert Olen Butler when he won the Pulitzer Prize for A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Then I read his book They Whisper and enjoyed it. Then, for some reason, I lost track of him. I didn't read anything else of his until I came across this novel, Fair Warning.

The main enjoyment of this novel comes from a character study in the form of its protagonist, Amy Dickerson. She is an auctioneer for a small but prestigious Manhattan auction house. She has a natural ability to read and understand people which makes her very good at her job. She is able to see what people are willing to part with in terms of both money and objects. On the other hand, this ability interferes with her relationships both with her family and her potential lovers. While longing for the ethereal herself, she can only see people's material wants and that includes a person's desire for her. In the end, she must try to see her own desires most clearly and come to peace with them.

This is a nice little book. Butler's prose is quite engaging and the book is short enough to be read at a single sitting. Amy and her relationships do make for a fun glimpse into an upper class New York/Paris world. I was tripped up a bit at the end by Alain's neo-Naked Pictures of My Ex-Girlfriends obsession which seemed a bit of a cheap ruse in an otherwise very emotionally realistic novel. Still, it is certainly worth the time.

In this book Butler paints a truly extraordinary picture of a female auctioneer from Texas, working in New York City at the 3rd biggest auction house. She is in fact the star of the house. She has an ability to auction like very few others. And as this is the case, when the auction house decides to sell to a French investor, her continued employment is a significant issue in that purchase.

But as usual, Butler takes on the role of a female character for his protagonist. In this impressive and interesting stream of consciousness presentation Butler reveals the innermost mental meanderings of a lady who is in a wonderful position in life, all she has to do is figure out who she wants to marry.

As an auctioneer, she is obsessed with collectors and valuation. This predilection would be most natural for a person who does such activity every day of her life. But what she had not thought much about is that people can also be collectors of people and memories. In a sense, all people are collectors of memories. And this concept is highly relevant to her when she is making certain life-impacting decisions.

Truly a fine modern novel, it is recommended to all those who are interested in the inner workings of the female mind, as Butler sees it. Since this is often his authorial position and since he has some incredible insight into the workings of the human mind, his book comes as no surprise.

The book is recommended for all readers of classic literature, particularly those interested in gender analysis. Once again, this book is a fine offering from Mr. Olen Butler.

I think this is one of those books that will appeal more to women than to men. It is the story of a forty-year-old New York auctioneer who seems to think an awful lot of herself. She has the usual romantic complications, including a banal liaison with a cliched Frenchman, whose "secret," when we find out what it is, is pretty silly. This is not an offensive book; just not very interesting. There are some lines of dialogue here that will make you roll your eyes and groan.

There are some great passages in this book, and some interesting dialogue between the main characters. Unfortunately the plot doesn't hold up and the conclusion of the book is pretty unsatisfying.

This book has all the smart and sexy charm of New York city. I was so caught up in the atmosphere of this book that at times I felt as if I was the protagonist, Amy Dickerson. Once I started reading I couldn't but it down until I finished. This is definitely a story that will stay with me forever.

"Fair Warning" indeed. That is what the prospective purchaser requires here. This is a very disappointing effort by an author whose previous work I have often found both insightful and enjoyable.

This is a book of subjective reflection by a two dimensional main character surrounded by other two dimensional charictatures. What would make a reader care for any of these cardboard cutouts? None are developed to the point where they hold interest, much less engender affection or empathy.

If this novel did not appear to hold itself out as a study of interiority and self-reflection -- a devling into the soul of the main character -- perhaps then the lack of depth and nuance would be less irritating. If Butler has decided he now wants to write "romance novels," then he better add some of the juice of "They Whisper." If , on the other hand, he wishes to continue to hold the attention of "literary fiction" readers, I suggest a little more meat on the bones of this very boney effort.

Readers will be attracted to Mr. Butler's latest effort after being enchanted by 'A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.' However, Fair Warning, while not without merit, does not live up to the Pulitzer prize-winning Good Scent/Strange Mountain.

The stories in Good Scent/Strange Mountain are told from the perspectives of Vietnamese immigrants, both male and female, living in the United States after the war. Fair Warning is told from the point of view of an attractive, successful young professional woman in modern New York. Neither is the vantage one expects from a white American male. I found this approach astonishing in Good Scent/Strange Mountain, but just entertaining in Fair Warning.

The subject of the latter book is the worthy matter of peoples' relationships to objects of possession. This is potentially its most interesting aspect, but is treated too lightly to be completely fulfilling.

There are moments of wry humor in Fair Warning, but not quite enough to overcome the lack of originality in the characters. I would recommend Fair Warning only as light reading. It is not for the reader seeking emotionally stimulating, thought-provoking literature.

This book is what I call "romance with substance." I appreciate the strong female character (Amy), especially since she's older. She does seem a bit one-sided, but I think that was the author's intention: a woman whose self-worth is wrapped up in her career as an auctioneer. There are other characters I would have liked to get to know better. At times Butler went on and on describing artifacts and I found myself skipping ahead. That (and the many run-on sentences) distracted from the story line. The whole "wealth" thing isn't really a fascination for me, but the transformation of character IS (e.g., how Amy thinks of herself at the beginning of the book and at the end). The ending was a surprise - no "happily ever after" - and I liked that.