Customer Reviews

Hardscrabble Road: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Gregor Demarkian has always fascinated me. I began reading books in this author's series in the middle of the group and had to go back, buy the first one and read them in order. The author has always given me something to think about. And this entry, "Hardscrabble Road," is no exception. Haddam has pointed out more than one issue the country needs to confront. The plot is complex and unusual, the characters are interesting and drawn with depth, the issues are timely -- what more could a reader ask for? I give great thanks for any motnth that has a Demarkian book on the publishing list.

There have been changes over the years in the Gregor Demarkian series, and not all of them have been improvements, but it's still a darn good series, with intricate characters and plots that deftly mingle the real world and the fictional. I am the same person I was twenty years ago, even though I'm a bit slower and fatter - but a much better saxophone player! - and my friends still like me; I believe book series and their authors deserve at least as much opportunity to change.

So what are some of the changes? One of the good ones: Bennis' flakiness and moodiness are not entertaining any more, and Gregor is beginning to realize that he may even deserve someone who is not a smoking nervous wreck; Bennis's schtick was beginning to wear on me. One of the bad ones: Father Tibor has lost most of his personality, becoming little more than a cardboard foil for Gregor. But overall, most of the characters in the series are aging well, and growing up in one way or another.

If you were to read this book without having read the rest of the series, those changes in ongoing personalities wouldn't matter to you; you'd be concerned with the plot and the ideas. So let me give you the overarching idea of this volume:
Noblesse oblige, both from those who have wealth and those who have brilliant minds, is both required and a mistake at the same time. Anyone who has gifts is obliged to try to help others, and everyone who does so attempt will be mistaken in their attempts to discern the difference between needs and wants, and in their guesses as to what the recipients of their help really think about it. The metaphor of no man being an island is used in the book, and if I may drag that metaphor out a bit, while it's true, sometimes the bridges that connect us are shaky, and many times we should have used an alternate route to get to another person, and we don't find it out until there's an smoking 18-car pileup on the road between us.

As other reviewers have noted, conservative radio blowhards come in for a great deal of bashing in this book. But so do leftist academics, and just about everyone in between. Partly, the author seems to be asking, through her characters, will you please all stop and THINK harder instead of automatically taking any party line or any opinion you are handed as doctrine, whether it be from a political party or from a religion? At the same time, though, she has a character who is brilliant and thinks everything through faster than most people could start - and he still makes mistakes; thinking everything through is not enough if you don't ever do a reality check by *participating* in a reality-based community of some sort, with other people who are not identical to yourself. And that, in turn, means not automatically identifying yourself with one group or another all the time.

Haddam reinforces this point through some of her secondary characters - Ed the lawyer, for example, who is gay, but has had to reinvent what kind of gay persona he is, because he doesn't fit into one of the gay stereotypes that even the gay community tends to categorize itself into. And of course, Sister Maria Beata, who has changed from a shark corporate lawyer to an uncommon extern sister of a contemplative and cloistered order of nuns, leaping from one community with a very rigid set of expected behaviors and thoughts to another with an even stranger set; her thoughts about what she expected, and what she got, out of this self-imposed complete change of view, are fascinating.

This isn't the first time that Haddam has made use of nuns/former nuns, and it isn't the first time that she has made them sympathetic and interesting characters, either, even though overall Haddam's attitude toward religion in general and organized Christianity and the Catholic Church in particular has been negative. Haddam has, in the past, portrayed atheists far more sympathetically and far more seriously than most contemporary fiction writers, including mentioning the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a past book; in this book, she mentions CSICOP, an organization that, while not specifically anti-religion, finds itself often taking on religion in its efforts to keep harmful superstitions and scams based on superstition and religion from gaining headway.

All that about details, and I've said nothing about the plot! Well, other reviews have pretty well covered that; my take on it is that the play-fair rules of the genre, which include "follow the money," are played fair here. We have a decent plot, with a credible resolution, and not one that winds up depending on freakish motivations or the twisted serial killers that some authors rely on. I am really tired of some contemporary authors' dependence on incredible recurring super-villains or ghastly mutants, or evil plots that in the real world couldn't be kept secret like that for more than 10 seconds. I like the realism of the mistakes that both good and bad characters make in Haddam's books, and I like that most of her characters have both good and bad traits.

In short: the plot's not the most important thing here, but it's OK; the political and philosophical ideas will annoy everyone at some point, but are worth it. The only people who won't like this volume in the series, assuming you already like the series, are those who are so rigidly committed to their own limited viewpoints that they get upset at hearing them analyzed in any fashion.

I've read the reviews so far and, frankly, am dissapointed in what most say. first, it is true that there is a lot that is irritating in this book (personally I am sick and tired of Bennis and of Gregor's endless "puzzlements" that range from her vagaries to the state of being in the comtemporary world. But second (and. to me far more important) are the themes that pulse below and through the plot. the status of the homeless in America's big cities; the juxtaposition of fear and religion; contemporary academic life...there are so many. Primary for me are Haddam's comments on the state of polical life in America. she does this so well through her characters (why do we desipise Neil Savage? Jiggs Tyler?) and through Tibor (who I find almost always speaks for the author). In fact, I've assigned my freshman writing class a research paper into which they must incorporate refereences to Hardscrabble Road, Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior and Al Frankin's Lies and the Lying Liars... so far about 1/2 my students 'get it' in terms of what Haddam is saying. I wish people would treat Haddam's books as something more than 'just' a murder mystery'

A right wing talk show host's murder drives the action. The story also involves puzzles in academia. These stories are timely and Haddam raises questions about real life as well as fictional characters. The justice of committees enforcing campus rules is examined and contrasted with common sense and the American legal ideal. Haddam entertains and provokes thought. She has her own view but respects the reader's intelligence.

Jane Haddam succeeds again in creating a real puzzle with her usual cast of characters and friendly neighborhood in the background. Long time Demarkian fans will wonder about Bennis as does Gregor. Will Bennis return?

Wesley V. Hromatko

If you haven't tried them yet, this is a very good, very readable, but intelligent series with strong plots, characters and more.

Gregor Demarkian is a retired FBI man of some repute who ends up living on the street where he grew up. While the street is still an Armenian-American enclave, the financial success of so many of its residents has changed it from an area of immigrant tenements to an upper middle-class community, still populated by many of the people he grew up with.

The early books of this series were fabulous, but then, as with many series, it seemed like the focus was shifting from the scenario or murder to the characters and their ongoing lives and relationships. With this book, Jane Haddam pulls everything back into place. The tension is there in the ongoing relationships, the plot is thick and twisted with no clear sense of who are the bad and good guys, etc.

A great intelligent, but fun read. Enjoy.

OK, I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but I gave up on this book. I'd read Haddam about 10 years ago and retained enough of a good taste in my mind to pick up this new novel, but here I am on page 47, and Gregor Demarkian has yet to appear; plus, I've been asked to absorb not one or two, but six or seven sets of disparate characters, none of whom has as yet had any interaction with the others or with Demarkian. All of these mostly unpleasant folk are, presumably, involved in the shock jock/faux Rush land deal and attendant court cases, but - after reading page after page of tersely brief dialogue, picking up slivers of the plot here and there, trying to remember who's on first - I failed to begin to care. Well, to be entirely fair, I DID care about the Nobel Prize, as in There Is No Nobel Prize for Mathematics. Surely everyone knows that? That's why there's a Fields Medal. Read the New Yorker or the footnotes to Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

So the non-Nobel and the cast of thousands was giving me a headache and I stopped reading. I read mysteries for pleasure. If I want a headache, I can read the catalogue of the ships in book 2 of The Iliad. It's only marginally more boring than this novel's opening decades.

The good reviews sound convincing, but for the casual turner of pages, nearly 50 pages spent waiting for the plot to emerge is a big yawn. So that makes me just like the double-digit IQ's Haddam spends paragraphs savaging, doesn't it? Fair enough.

If, on the other hand, you are fond of waiting, give Samuel Beckett a try, too.

i must have read a different book. the plot was the same as the other reviews. but, i can't remember a book more filled with contempt for everyone in the world. this author pretty much calls everyone in the world stupid (except herself). the conservatives are dumber than the liberals. republicans dumber than democrats. midwesterners dumber than easterners.westerners are as dumb as midwesterners but have better accents. and southerners are dumber than all the rest. ivy-league colleges are too conservative. but just as i was about to throw this book away, the liberals took their bashing. they, it seems, aren't as dumb but are corrupt.

i guess, according to the back jacket of the book, this type of writing is sophisticated. i don't see it.

but as the author seems to think that all are stupid except her, i feel it necessary to point out that there is no nobel prize in mathematics, as a little research would have shown.

this book did improve at about page 170. the last half being a mediocre detective novel. figure the first half a 1-star and the last half a 3-star. but it just isn't worth it.

Philadelphia radio talk show host Drew Harrigan is extremely poplar by the fanatical right-wing who appreciate his law abiding throw away the key approach to justice in which liberals are the cause of all things wrong in America as they are soft on crime; he especially goes after drug criminals from the users to the sellers to the growers. However, ironically the inflammatory rabble rouser is arrested for illegal possession of prescription drugs; if convicted, the evidence is overwhelming, his show could collapse.

An alcoholic homeless person Sherman is considered to be Drew's supplier. However, someone apparently wanted to reduce the evidence against Drew as Sherman Markey is poisoned and dies. The Justice Project's Edmond "Chickie" George hires former FBI Agent Gregor Demarkian to learn who killed their late "client" Sherman and whether as many believe it ties back to Harrigan and his arrogant supporters. What seem relatively simple turns out to be complex as Gregor and the Philly police and DA struggle through a labyrinth filled with suspects from all sides of the political, religious and academic spectrum

This is a terrific whodunit that readers will fully appreciate except perhaps a certain talk show host. The story line is fast-paced yet enables the readers to see the same event from multiple viewpoints. In his twenty-first appearance, the Armenian American sleuth is at his best seeking justice for the disenfranchised with an investigation that takes him all over the place. Fans of the series will take immense delight in Demarkian's efforts and newcomers will discover an American tradition.

Harriet Klausner

I have always enjoyed this series by Jane Haddam, but this novel was a diappointment. It was crammed with repetitive social commentary, to the point of excess. The story and characters are good, but it would of been half its length if more editing was done. Almost every character lectures the reader at some point, either liberal or conservative.

I genuinely like Jane Haddam, but she should have listened to fate when her computer crashed and she retrieved this manuscript only with hi-tech intervention. It took fifty pages before Gergor Demarkian made an appearance--and in those pages one character after another was introduced. The narrative meadered without direction through most of the book. There were tons of social commentary and almost no plot. This novel may be more literary than mystery, but even so, it was very slow going. In fact, it ground to a halt for me many times. I feel it was her least successful effort to date. I hope the author uses some careful plot development next time and focuses on Demarkian.