Customer Reviews

Hot Night in the City

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

 

 

This collection of short stories is uneven at best, and only sporadically entertaining. Everything that made Trevanian one of my favorite authors is all but absent in this book. If these stories were indeed written over a period of years, they belong back in the author's reject file, where they must have come from. If they are all new, so much the worse. I can't imagine that an author who hadn't already proven his marketability could persuade a publisher to foist this thin gruel upon the reading public.

I am willing to follow a favorite author through any number of genres, but not when he abandons the quality of writing that made his work so delightful and readable.

If you must buy this book, wait for it to appear on the sale table.

I picked this up at the airport, having recognized the Trevanian name but been away from him for awhile. Some of these stories were so enjoyable that I read them twice in a row. (esp. the sly Basque ones). The title story did give me the creeps, both times but the others more than made up for it. I'm glad to have this reminder of a good storyteller.

Trevanian is the only major novelist capable of working in many styles, voices, and genres. And now we have a collection of short fiction that further illuminates his multi-faceted talents and skills with a baker's dozen of stories that range from the blood-chilling to the delightfully witty to a richly sentimental look at an imaginative boy growing up in an American slum in the 1930's. The brace of eponymous tales that serve to open and close the collection seem at first glance to be one tale with two different endings--in itself a unique and daring idea. But upon careful reading one discovers more than a hundred subtle changes that shift the reader's focus and sympathy from the charming but emotionally damaged young man to the innocent young woman. Elsewhere, we have a witty insight in the values and tactics of carnival people in which we meet half a dozen brilliantly drawn characters. The three Basque tales that punctuate the collection (it is rumoured that Trevanian lives in the Basque country) are rich with human insight and sympathy...as well as being very funny. In one story, he shows the emotional vacuity of the pick-up bar scene; in another he gives us a new and stunning view of the character and thought of Pontius Pilate; in another he creates a splendid woman of mature years who totally (and justly) deflates a character obviously based on the writer Trevanian feels set the progress of American letters back more than half a century, Hemmingway. And there is also a delightful romantic romp on a French train at the turn of the century; and a bawdy send-up of the Arthurian legend; and a haunting primal tale drawn from the oral tradition of Iroquoian folk stories. All in all, a varied feast indeed! As usual with this writer, there will be readers and reviewers who will be confused by the range of his work, and displeased that he has not limited himself to whatever facet of `Trevanian' they favour, but we must accept that Trevanian is an elitist who does not write for the Wad.

Since "Trevanian" is merely an avatar for the various literary moods of Rod Whitaker, retired University of Texas film professor, he is unlikely to pen his own autobiography. Therefore, this slim volume of short stories will have to suffice. We see throughout aspects of the Trevanian style and content that inform his novels. I suspect that the story about the young lad and his guilty dismissal of a lonely old woman is authentic memoir. Too many of Trevanian's protagonists begin as penniless youths for this to be coincidental. Similarly, we have the near-pickup in the bar as a possible confession of what it is like to be a randy, middle-aged professor whose bright-minded self-awareness plunges him into ironic anhedonia. I'm sure you've got the idea that this book is best read by aficionados.

Then again, after the oater "Incident at Twenty-Mile" (who ever thought Trevanian would write a Western?) I shouldn't be surprised that Trevanian wants to flex some chops.
Many of the favorite Basque characters appear again in this collection of short stories called "Hot Night .. City," but in settings so remarkably different that they will make you wonder if Trevanian ever intended them for use in his spy novels.
"Hot Night" is one of the few Trevanians that will make you laugh as much as you cry. Each story steals literary device from the previous, culminating in a completely different perspective in the final story, which is a different version of the first story. (If you're confused, remember, this is Trevanian, and this man is truly twisted.)
Enjoy. Skip the stories that don't grab you off the bat, then go back and finish them. I think Trevanian intended this book more as a collection of "treats" for his followers -- treats with an underlying message.

Well this is mostly for selfacclaimed Trevanian fans and some of the "critics" above.

It is still to my astonishment that people who claim to have read Shibumi, Summer of Katya, the Main, etc (how else you become a Trevanian fan?) could be still so uptight about issues like a woman going to bed with a gnome. And also anybody who has a hint about the reason Trevanian writes, could want him to write for his "established reader base". Wake up people, he could care less!

Without forgetting the fact that the stories in The Night were written in different stages in Trevanian's career, it is a tremendous collection of the mosaic that is now called Trevanian. In my opinion, he is going to be recalled as Dickens of the 20th century by the critics and readers of the next generations for his ability to analyse the social makeup like none of his contemporaries have done in fiction.

If you do not understand Trevanian, don't read it.(And any others for that matter) But for those who enjoy the excitement of the classical trevanian story, this is a book to read at least several times for it offers refreshing insights on every pass.

Not by a long shot! This felt like a compilation of several beginnings of books that never went anywhere....rejects. I felt let down and betrayed. I totally understand authors wanting to move on, develop new styles, etc.....but this book does not even do that...wait for this book to be on the $4 table.

At last, some real short stories to enjoy and mull over. The beauty of this collection is its variety. All real 'tales' told in different voices that seemed quite natural for each story. I liked 'How the animals got their voices' for this reason. I wasn't really aware of how clever the second version of 'Hot night' was until I began to examine it line by line. Comparing both of them together to see how the trick was done was even more pleasure than the first reading of them. This collection is masterful and I wish we could see more. Publishers take note.

A more personal look into the mind of Trevanian than previous works. A definite must for the serious Trevanian-phyle. I've read it 3 times already.

Good Lord. I really like Travanian's work and always have, but man! This collection of (so far) mostly hollow short stories just flat out PUT ME TO SLEEP! I say "(so far)" because I am struggling to get through these tedious stories and just cannot seem to accomplish it.