Customer Reviews

A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen

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

 

 

Every story from the first to the latest written by Ken Bruen has never disappointed me. He is the best writer of this style today. I read everything he writes and recommend it to all my contacts.

I must confess to not being a fan of short stories as they have a tendency to bait the hook of interest with me but then be too brief to follow through on my interest.

Bearing that in mind, I picked up this book mainly because Ken Bruen is a very good writer and I was hoping that he would do well.

The book is made up of a number of short stories and two short novels, apparently Bruen sold these stories in his early days at the local pub before he made a big name for himself internationally.

To be honest, the book turned out to be what I expected. The two short novels were sensational, very gripping and worthy of attention, the short stories on the other hand were too brief and unfulfilling for me.

The stories have a number of things in common - they feature men who drink hard and have serious personality issues. They are paragraphs in each short novel that make you sit back and think about what you just read and say Wow.

Taking into account my dislike of short stories, this book is a definite winner with me.

Excellent book with a lot more material than I expected. I took this with me on a week's vacation and never cracked the covers of the other paperbacks I brought.

At times, Jack Taylor becomes almost a formula, but after reading a Fifth of Bruen you will appreciate Bruen's other works as much if not more than your very first read. You'll also see the germination of many ideas that later take form in Bruen's novels. His insight to the human character and to the inherent CIA's is astounding. He would definitely be on my list for someone you would want at a dinner party or better yet, to share a Guinness or several with.

After reading all his rest, I came to his early work in "Fifth." Read this slowly and savor every word like a 55 Chateaux Lafitte-Rothchild. Bruen's early work shows early genius and may in fact be his very best. He is right up there there with James Joyce and the great Irish writers ... a maestro. One of the few times I have had a book over-nighted to me, and worth every penny.

This is a must read for Ken Bruen afficianados. The stories aren't as well formed as his award winning novels but they give the reader a sense of how a writer grows. Great fun!

This is the first book of Ken Bruen's I read, and I loved it so much that I went on to try reading his other novels. I was very disappointed to discover that they lacked the same beautiful voice of these early stories. Bruen's later mystery novels have obviously made him "successful," but to me, they lack the depth of character and setting and poetry of these early stories.