Customer Reviews

The Final Country (Milo Chester Milodragovitch)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There was a time when I thought James Crumley would become the greatest writer the mystery genre ever produced, and achieve what Chandler only attained after his death, that is, literary respectability and recognition of his talents as a great novelist of contemporary fiction. Crumley had all the gifts a great writer needs - an engaging prose style, finely constructed plotting and a unique voice. And in his earlier book, The Last Good Kiss, he spun all those elements into a story that was intoxicating in it's brillance, a book truly worthy of comparison to the best of Chandler. But thats been more than 20 years ago now and Crumley has neither continued or built upon his earlier promise of greatness. Sure, he can still write a line so good so as to make your heart skip a beat, and he can be funny as hell, but it's in fits and starts and nothing ever comes of it all. Somewhere, somehow ,the discipline that could craft a book such as the Last Good Kiss has gone and we are left with the spectacle of a now undiciplined talent repeating himself to a lesser and lesser effect each time. If you want to read the real Crumley, read The Last Good Kiss or The Wrong Case and see what you've been missing, but don't read The Final Country - it just makes those of us who admired his earlier work sad.

Crumley is back (finally!)with another magnificently intricate tale featuring Milo Milodragovich, the crusty, humorous, cynical, superbly violent, but now aging, P.I. from Montana who migrated to the mythical Gatlin County, TX (suburb of Austin)in the "Bordersnakes" (1996) novel. Milo (now wealthy)is still all-cattle-and-no-hat as he sorts out a Texas size imbroglio of murder, lust, greed and betrayal.

"Final Country" is another Crumley treasure. You'll find there the lyrical quality to rival Chandler, the grit to rival Hammett, violence beyond Stark or Lansdale, and the unique Crumley philosophy of individualism and virtue. Crumley is one of the very few authors working in the P.I. genre who produces literary works with the quality of detail that will pleasure the reader not only on the first reading, but also on re-reading or even re-re-reading.

Ask most of the young crime writers in America who they revere and the name Crumley will fall off almost every tongue. In a genre that rewards the fast and the dirty, where publishers throw money at sloppy writing and half-assed plotting, Crumley is a beacon of quality and thoughtfulness. The man cares about the language. What a radical notion for a writer of detective novels. In The Final Country, as in any of his books, you'll find sentences both sleek and rangy, but always beautiful, thought out, worked on. And those sentences come together to form a Voice as consistent and engrossing as any on the contemporary scene - inside or outside the genre. But wait, as the pitchmen say, there's more. You also get a plot as ingeniously assembled as Lamborghini Diablo. A red one. That runs on nitroglycerin. And this books moves as fast as the Diablo. But don't worry, Milo's got his arm around you the whole way, rapping up a coke-fueled storm that, should you listen, will give you a few gem about how an ethical man lives in a foul world. Listen: as long as James Crumley can draw breath and pick up a pen, TV just doesn't stand a chance.

'The Final Country' is my first novel by James Crumley. Since it is an award-winning mystery, complete with accolades from amazon.com (on their Best of 2001 list), I thought I couldn't go wrong with it. Wrong. No, the book isn't awful. It's more like a mess with some interesting bits strewn about.

As for the story, well this is hard to explain. We have an aging private investigator from Montana fighting all sorts of nasty people (druggies, tramps, law enforcers) in Austin, Texas. Lots of strange characters, which is one of the book's strengths, caught up in a completely ridiculous plot. The book is also compromised by its absurd violence, on the order of a Quentin ('Kill Bill') Tarentino film. Yet Crumley's prose is rather decent, complete with crisp (and often hilarious) dialogue.

Bottom line: a hit-and-miss sort of book. But for this reader it was mostly a miss.

Way back in the 1970s, James Crumley wrote "The Wrong Case" and "The Last Good Kiss," two of the finest detective fiction novels ever released. If the great gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote detective novels, his would read a lot like Crumley's. Alas, like Thompson, Crumley has lost a few miles-an-hour off his fastball as he's gotten older. He writes at a glacial pace, and this is his first novel in over five years (since 1996's "Bordersnakes").

The hero this time out is Milo Milodragovich, appearing in his third novel since his memorable debut in "The Wrong Case." Milo has relocated from Montana to Texas and is semi-retired on a small fortune he "stole" in "Bordersnakes." He can't stay away from the deteective game, however, and ends up with two interrelated cases, neither of which are good for his health. The story features a myriad of characters (over two dozen, I would guess) and meanders like a river across the Texas plain. The scenery is colorful, and the dialog is snappy, but the story is confused, and leads to a less than completely plausible ending. Additionally, the chief villian is only on stage for a total of about a half a dozen or so pages, and is not developed enough as a character to make the first of two climax scenes resonate.

Overall, "The Final Country" is not a bad novel. Crumley is a better writer than 99% of the mytery authors working today, and is still capable of creating vividly memorable scenes. Unfortunately, there are just not enough of them here to give this novel an unqualified recommendation.

There were certain books that we had to read while in school. They were considered great novels and classic literature. They were the sort of books the reader had little doubt of their greatness. The writing was sound and the characters were unforgettable. However, they just simply were not fun or enjoyable books to read. THE FINAL COUNTRY reminds me of that type of book.
Milo Milodragovich is a PI and bar owner in Texas. He comes across a large black man, Enos Walker, who offers to buy him a drink. Unbeknownst to Milo, Walker has, apparently, just killed a drug dealer. Later, the police want Milo to track Enos down so they could prosecute him for the murder. He also searches for a beautiful female con artist who might possibly have Milo convicted for murder unless he could clear himself.
THE FINAL COUNTRY is actually more of a slice of life or a look at some of the most unpleasant characters a reader might ever come across. It is not a pleasant journey. Yet, there is much poetry in the lyrical writing of Mr. Crumley:
"The norther had finally blown itself out by daylight. Dawn came to a wide clear blue sky and cool, dry air. It could have been spring in Eastern Montana. From the green, I could see the flagstone clubhouse where groups of irritated early morning golfers milled around their fancy carts and were obviously bitching about losing their tee times. Like cocaine junkies who had too much money and nothing to do with themselves."
The story, itself, is remarkably dull with the book concentrating on language and character. James Crumley is not a writer for the masses. However, he might very well appeal to the fans of noir fiction.

Crumley's hero Milo can out drink, drug and fornicate others decades younger. A story too long, with too many names and a "drawing room" conclusion that ends with a not unexpected disclosure, are still not enough reasons to ignore this very talented writer.

As an avid mystery reader, I'm always on the lookout for new authors. So, I made a mental note to check out James Crumley when I read the rave reviews of his early novels The Last Good Kiss and The Wrong Case. When I found a remainder copy of Crumley's The Final Country, I looked forward to discovering why he gets such rave reviews.

The Final Country centers on Crumley's series hero - Milo Milodragovitch. Milo has moved from Montana to Texas, where he tends bar at a hotel that he owns. But the new life turns upside down when a beautiful young woman convinces Milo to work on a mystery for her. Milo ends up in the center of a complex plot involving murder and blackmail - among other nefarious deeds.

There are several strong points to the novel. Crumley is vividly evokes the atmosphere in Texas, Louisiana, and Montana - where the book takes place. He also supplies plenty of action. Finally, there are some unforeseeable twists in the complex plot.

Still, after my high hopes, I came away somewhat disappointed with The Final Country. Several problems plague the book. The tone is very negative. If I had to suggest a theme, it would be "Life's a b---- and then you die." Crumley strongly suggests that only the hopelessly naïve are happy.

Along similar lines, Milo is not just flawed - he is often unlikable. Milo spends large stretches of The Final Country getting stoned, treating people badly, and making caustic observations on life. Milo wears thin in a hurry. Some of the other characters are slapdash and unbelievable - for instance, a 6-foot 9-inch former college basketball player who weighs almost 300 pounds.

The plot of The Final Country is subordinate to Milo's musings on life. This is unfortunate, because Crumley constructed an intricate, engaging story. (Fans of Ross Macdonald will recognize the basic idea: someone did something horrible years ago. When that old secret starts to come to light, all hell breaks loose). The reader wishes that Crumley spent more time developing the plot and its central characters. Instead, Crumley takes the reader on too many tangents and does not do enough to tie the plot together at the end. When I came to the end of the book, I had to spend a few minutes figuring out exactly what had happened.

Crumley has many fans, but The Final Country must not be one of his best efforts.

Maybe it's me, but I just didn't get this book. Lured by good reviews from credible sources, evocative cover art (on the British edition, not the U.S. one), the book's award and the writer's reputation, I dived in for an entertaining escape & emerged impatient & disappointed. What saves the book are some good scenes, some decent description of place & some well-drawn characters. But for me the experience was more like reading a series of creative writing vignettes than a novel. The novel lacks a center, a heart. There is a confusion of characters who lack much more characterization than names & therefore are hard to separate. One character (Molly) changes abruptly from one personality earlier in the novel to another later on to the degree that it was difficult for me to see her as the same person (though I liked Molly No. 2). I found the plot confusing, hard to follow & too sketchy. I didn't know nearly enough about many of the people who turned out to be central characters in the plot's resolution. I specifically did NOT find (as The London Times promised) "lyrical descriptions of an almost vanished West" but rather a fairly average sense of place. On the other hand, Milo & bisexual Betty are interesting characters & the book does have a certain feel to it, so I'm thoroughly ambivalent. Given there's enough reading for several lifetimes out there, I'd recommend choosing something else.

James Crumley is the best mystery writer at work today, and at times he even conjures the ghost of the great John D. MacDonald. But Crumley's best writing is wrapped up in his love of Montana, and "Final COuntry" is set in Texas. Not to mention all the other disagreeable associations Texas has for us New Yorkers... Milo never seems quite at home there, and it shows. But Crumley doesn't fail to deliver a tight plot, lots of ultraviolence and a raft of double-dealing hotties. Even marooned down south, Crumley's still head and shoulders above the rest.