Gascoyne [Mass Market Paperback]

Stanley Crawford (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley Medallion (1967)
• ASIN: B000K17SNG
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a great satire, almost, March 14, 2006

By 

A. C. Walter "awalter" (Lynnwood, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gascoyne (Paperback)

Stanley Crawford's 1966 novel "Gascoyne" is the sort of book that hooks you on the first page. Not only that, it grabs you and runs away with such momentum that, at least for the first 100 pages of the novel, you almost don't want to blink. The bizarre anti-hero of the book, Gascoyne, at first appears to be a private detective but then, maybe, a fiendish uber-capitalist bent on something like world domination. Not only that, Gascoyne seems to be not entirely human. He passes weeks at a time in his car, contrives to always go double the speed limit in a traffic-choked city, runs a huge company with only a handful of employees knowing him by sight, and manages to thrive on a diet of Ritz crackers, sardines, and chocolate bars.

The book is a dark, modern satire on the order of "Dr. Strangelove" or DeLillo's "White Noise." The doggedly-bleak, burlesque tone sometimes becomes wearying, but usually you'll go ahead and laugh at the jokes (whether you feel good about it or not) because Crawford allows you no choice in the matter. Take the following passage in which Gascoyne spies on a misbehaving wife, just recently widowed. Gascoyne climbs a ladder, looks in a window, and:

"First there's the Widow Roughah stretched out on the bed naked as all hell and second more or less on top of her is the hairy-chested fake giant tree sloth, and I think some people sure like to butter their bread funny. I always thought there was more than meets the eye in that woman and now I know what. But I really feel sorry for the poor b*stard inside the sloth suit which must smell like twenty-nine jockstraps in a pressure cooker. But maybe he likes that, you never know."

As wild a ride as "Gascoyne" is, there is something that brings it down in the end. Crawford's error comes in allowing his deep cynicism to infect his storytelling technique. It really seems that Crawford felt that things weren't worth tying together, even in a marginal way, and that he just stopped writing when he got bored with the character. So, when all is said and done, the book leaves enough loose ends cluttering up the landscape to make you feel not only irritated but a bit ripped off. If a little more care had been taken with the ending, the novel might have ranked with other counter-culture classics of the period, such as the novels of Rudolph Wurlitzer and Richard Brautigan.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part of the Family, July 20, 2009

By 

Joel Schnoor (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gascoyne (Paperback)

GASCOYNE was long a family favorite as I was growing up. We had three copies, and my aunts and uncles had several more. I first read GASCOYNE some thirty years ago, and my brother, sister, and I still refer to it frequently. Perhaps the biggest testimony I can give to this marvelous book is that my grandmother, when she became terribly ill with a chronic disease, kept two books at her side -- the Bible and GASCOYNE. Late at night I would hear laughter coming from her bedroom, and I'd find out that she had again been reading GASCOYNE.

One of the requirements of marrying into our family was that the potential spouse had to read GASCOYNE first. Said person didn't have to like the book, but exposure to Stanley Crawford's writing offered valuable insight to our family's humorous side. To know GASCOYNE is to know my heritage.

I'll have to respectfully disagree with the other reviewers regarding the ending of this book. Throughout the book, it's amazing to watch the character GASCOYNE orchestrate the goings-on in the city -- he has his fingers in everything. As things begin to unravel and ultimately fall apart in the end, you just KNOW that the master of control is going to be able to pick up all the loose ends and start all over again. Crawford hints at that, and I think it's beautifully done. There's something to be said for leaving the details to the reader's imagination. In a great sense, the ending will be different for each reader, depending how the reader views GASCOYNE. I don't think it's a cop out; I think it's brilliant writing.

All right, it's time for me to read GASCOYNE again!

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, It's Different, May 23, 2009

By 

stoic (Mobile AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Gascoyne (Paperback)

GASCOYNE is the title of Stanley's Crawford's 1966 dark comedy; it is also the name of the protagonist and anti-hero at the center of the novel. (GASCOYNE's name always appears in all caps). To me, GASCOYNE is a cross between the movies Harold and Maude (VERY dark) and Airplane! (a million different jokes).

The basic plot of GASCOYNE is simple. The protagonist controls a southern-California city that resembles Los Angeles. During the course of the novel, however, GASCOYNE uncovers the murder of one of his colleagues. Subsequently, GASCOYNE's entire corrupt empire is threatened and he must race to try to save his ill-gotten position as the city's oligarch.

GASCOYNE controls the city from behind the scenes and few people know much about him. Crawford provides the following description of GASCOYNE - "...perhaps only as few as a hundred people in the city can be certain they have ever seen his face, and still fewer have spoken with him. Who is GASCOYNE? What does he look like? Where does he hide? Does he even exist? Many of us think that we have seen him every day - a paper-thin old man driving an old car which in its day was just a little too flashy - but no one is ever certain" (page 218).

With GASCOYNE it's fair to say that the journey is much more important than the destination; the plot is secondary to the wicked satire that fills its pages. It would take too long to list all of the targets of Crawford's mirth; a few major targets include:
1) Business - GASCOYNE's world is completely corrupt and he uses any means available to get and keep an edge.
2) Southern California's traffic - GASCOYNE has an elaborate systems set up to keep his car rolling on the clogged roads. Among other things, he has timed all of the stop lights in town, he refuses to stop at toll booths, and he controls the traffic police.
3) GASCOYNE's complete lack of empathy for his suffering wife - GASCOYNE sends his wife into the mountains in a clunker car to do some research on one of his business problems. It becomes obvious to the reader that she is having an affair during her trip; but GASCOYNE's tunnel vision does not permit him to see it. Instead, he harasses her about not spending any more money than is absolutely necessary and about completing the research for him.

Though I recommend GASCOYNE, there are a few negatives. I thought that the book lost some momentum in the middle. Once you understand GASCOYNE's perspective, the jokes just aren't quite as funny because they become more predictable. I also agree with the other reviewer who said that Crawford had no idea of how to end the book, so he just quit; the reader feels somewhat unsatisfied at the end.

For readers who want to try something very funny and very different, GASCOYNE is still a wonderful book.