Customer Reviews

Like a Hole in the Head

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Jill enjoys her part time job at the secondhand bookstore because she gets a lot of time to read. One day a fidgety dwarf comes into the store with a rare first edition he'd like to sell. Jill takes it off his hands for a modest price and soon resells it. It isn't long, however, before the original owner of the book wants it back. Jill has to find the book, or things will get very ugly. So Jill embarks on a wild quest that leads her to Las Vegas and back to L.A. in time to be coerced into appearing as an extra in a famous director's new film. All the while a cadre of third-rate actors are hot on her tail.

LIKE A HOLE IN A HEAD is a hip and very funny mystery-adventure with a witty, sarcastic protagonist. (Just my type!) There are laughs on every page, even during the nasty bits. My only small complaint is with Banbury's writing style. She's constantly breaking up what should be longer sentences into fragments. It's really distracting. Better editing would have helped, but it's well worth overlooking.

Like a Hole in the Head is that rare piece of fiction that you can't put down. I let 15 people read the first page and all of them wanted to borrow the book when I finished, and several said they were going to buy it that day. It's also one of those memorable books, like Catch-22 or an early Garrison Keillor, that made me laugh out loud and not be able to continue reading for a while. There are pages and pages of passages that I email and read to friends, even on the telephone, even long distance, particularly the Monster Truck episode. Banbury is a screaming original, even as she uses all the noir devices from crime fiction and pulp movies, which she should know since in real life she casts cheap movies. She'd better be set for interesting times and be good with handling money, because she has written a book that she can take to the bank and to Hollywood. It's only a matter of time before Quentin Tarantino or Robert Altman buys this book for the screen, if it hasn't already happened. The plot: Jill, a resilient yet emotionally broken recent college grad has landed a job in a seedy used bookstore, the Bitter Muse, after driving around aimlessly when her mother dies. From there, it's a purely original story, part slapstick mixed with crime (a truly terrifying kidnapping scene), sort of Maltese Falcon meets an updated Marx Brothers via a smuttier and sassier Dorothy Parker. Like a Hole in the Head is a first novel from a young Yale grad who works in Hollywood. Maybe that's why the book is so scripted and movie-ready. But it doesn't matter. Let's have the movie.

I've read this book 3 times and it always hits me from a new and quirky angle. It's re-awakened my interest in hard boiled detective fiction ala Hammett and Chandler."Like a Hole in the Head"flows like "The Long Goodbye" with more angst and black humor. Do yourself right and get this...

If you have a few hours of reading time to fill, and don't want anything particularly deep or involving, read this book. The plot races along, and there is humor to spare, along with a down-to-earth heroine and a crazy-quilt cast of supporting characters. I enjoyed going along with the author on her wild ride, my only quibble being that a very funny book turned somewhat dark and humorless at the very end. A good first effort, however, and I look forward to further writings from this obviously very talented person.

I loved this book. Sure it is a ridiculous plot with more unbelievable circumstances than the traditional novel will allow--but this isn't your traditional novel. Banbury pulls off her story with the strength of her characters. A heroine for those of us who don't always like who we are and where we are headed, but have faith that it will all work out in the end. Don't over-analyze the realism of the plot--just go along for the ride.

Strange to read so many negative reviews for a book I liked so much. I'm a classic noir fan, and it's good to see the genre turned upsidedown, inside out, and back again by a wisecracking female protagonist. The main character's/narrator's take on the "mean streets" of Los Angeles is, for this lifelong Angelena, hillariously true-to life, capturing everyday details that so many other authors fail to ever mention. Jill is a prickly protagonist with a past that more than justifies her hard-drinking, detatched outlook on life, and the speed-of-light narration is laugh-out-loud funny. Like Los Angeles, herself, this book is one of those things you either love or hate. I like blinding hot days, air so thick you can chew it, and books that leave a taste of bitter laughter in your mouth long after you've set them back on your shelf. LA is my kind of town, and Banbury is my kind of writer. I only wish she'd write more.

This first novel by Jen Banbury is a winner. A mystery that will keep you guessing. What more could you ask from a novel then midgets, giants, love and lots of books. Jill (the main character) is a strong, wild spirited girl that really brings this novel to life and keeps its heart beating.

Readers of Jen Banbury's debut novel will find themselves immediately immersed in a 90's version of the classic 40's detective story. But while Sam Spade's life is filled with glamourous women smoking cigarettes, Banbury's lead character, Jill, has her life threatened by a dwarf and a large man who accentuates the threat by lighting the dwarf's hair on fire. Throw in a couple of Jill's slacker friends, some aspiring actors, and put them all in Los Angeles, and you have an amusing, if implausible, story.

Great read. Starts out really funny but gets a little dark toward the end. This isn't a bad thing. Any book about booksellers gets my vote (being a bookseller myself), and this one even has a dwarf in it. How cool is that!

The star of Like a Hole in the Head, Jill, was an easy character to connect to, laugh with, and care about as she careened through the increasingly-complicated situations she was thrown into. This book was hilarious and moving. I'd love to know someone like Jill.