Customer Reviews

Mr. White's Confession: A Novel

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The readers' comments about this book have been of two sorts: those who are disappointed because they expected standard mystery fare (closed room puzzles, gritty contemporary private eyes, etc.), and those who realize that this is indeed a great novel. So be forewarned. If you fall into the first camp, don't bother with this book. If, on the other hand, you want to read a beautiful novel with an unforgettable central character, exquisite yet simple language, a conjuring up of a bygone era, and a stunningly original take on the playings out of crime, this is the book for you. It's a treasure.

What a marvelous novel: a searching exploration of memory, love, beauty, good/evil, and the hideously mistreated victim, who endures life and takes himself to a higher spiritual plateau. This novel is soaked in mystery, albeit most of it not of the superficial kind that litters most mysteries by, for example, Sandford, Grafton, Patterson, E. George. Readers enjoy a speed read through the kinds of novels written by most mystery authors. I have no quarrel with them. But I would argue vehemently that one Mr. White's Confession is worth more than all the "speed read" novels put together. I am of course making a value judgment, a rather absolute one, but the depth and beauty of this novel demands praise and the most heartfelt entreaty that if you are reading this commentary that you read this novel--your life will be enriched. This novel almost broke my heart at several points. But what it really did is stir into my consciousness the memories of love and beauty in my own life; it made me take stock of where I have been and how important it is that my future create memories that are full of love and beauty. Read this book and be the wiser for having read it.

This book, ostensibly the story of two murders in St. Paul in 1939, has long swatches of exquisite writing. These swatches are the journal entries of the Mr. White of the title, a sad and strange man with a memory problem, and a penchant for taking photos of taxi dancers. When one, and then another, is murdered, he becomes the prime, and only, suspect, and the story of how the "justice system" worked in those days is quite intersting, and chilling. The other protagonist is a middle-aged widower policeman who is involved in the murder investigation, and his relationship with a 16 year old female runaway. This is a very sad story, but brilliantly told, and well worth reading. The ending really doesn't tie up some loose ends, or even resolve the crimes, although there are hints scattered throughout the book. Even those hints, however, don't actually point out "whodunnit". Read the book and decide for yourself what actually happened so long ago.

At first you think this is going to be a 'noir' crime story. Then it becomes a character study of four very different people and their interactions. And then it becomes a sort of philosophical/psychological investigation of the meaning of "past" and "future." Actually, it's all those things, written in a way that will make you lie in bed and think about what you've read each time you quit for the night. The setting is St. Paul, Minnesota, August 1939 to April 1940, more or less -- a nine-month period in which at least two dime-a-dance girls are murdered, in which Lt. Wesley Horner of Homicide tries to convince himself he has solved the crimes, in which Wesley (whose wife has died after their daughter left home) also falls in love with a wise sixteen-year-old vagrant girl who saves him from despair, and in which Herbert White goes from being an large but inoffensive middle-aged man with a very poor memory and a fondness for amateur photography to being a lifer at Stillwater State Prison. You keep waiting for things to turn out "right," for Lt. Horner to turn up the bit of evidence that will get Herbert off. But, as Lt. Welshinger, a vice cop who believes in evil (and he should know) says to a number of characters, "That's not how the world is." I sort of expected to be depressed when I finished the book, but I wasn't. And I'm very impressed with Clark's writing. (. . . and I'm wondering about the intellectual capacities of previous reviewers who were upset because the Edgar wasn't awarded to an Ed McBain-type routine procedural. . . .)

See, here's the problem: publishers force books into categories because they think that's the only way to sell them. If a book doesn't fit neatly into a category, how will the booksellers know where to shelve it? And because selling is what today's publishing is all about, the fact that readers who buy a book like this expecting a typcial genre mystery will be disappointed doesn't matter to publishers. The readers have bought the book and that's all that counts. As for the Edgar awards, I've never agreed with them until now and this time I'm agreeing for a book I feel is far outside their frame of reference. Maybe they just felt like being intellectuals. Meanwhile, this was one of the best books I've ever read. I was very impressed by the writing, the characters and the atmosphere. Yes, there were some anachronisms. But I was willing to overlook them. I wanted to read quickly to find out "who done it," but I also read slowly to savor the voices of the characters.

I love this novel! If I could, I'd give it a six. I first learned about Mr. White's Confession while perusing the variety section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Clark had won the Edgar award for the novel and was surprised to find out that it qualified as a mystery, but it was the setting that captured my attention. St. Paul, Minnesota, was once a haven for criminals like Dillenger and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis of the Ma Barker gang. The deal was for them to behave while in the City, but when the heir to the Hamm's Beer fortune was kidnapped, it all began to unravel.
Clark captures the aura of the place in this novel set in 1939. The police are still as hard-nosed and as corrupt as ever. Transients receive especially harsh treatment. The hero, Lt. Wesley Horner, is one of the good guys. The reader immediately relates to this sad man who's just lost his wife and who's awfully hard on himself. He falls in love with an underage transient. He resists for a time (it wouldn't be right), but she manages to convince him that age doesn't matter. Meanwhile, he's investigating the murder of a showgirl and the main suspect is an amateur photographer, Herbert White, who photographs dime-a-dance girls. There's no evidence White had anything to do with the girl's murder. He's just a weirdo with an awfully poor memory. But then another dancer is killed. She also modeled for White. Perhaps the biggest twist is when Horner's young lover disappears and he fears she's succumbed to the maniac on the loose; Horner hates himself even more for not being able to protect her. White is browbeaten into a confession and winds up in Stillwater, the state prison. Horner doesn't believe he's guilty and sets out to prove he's not. One of the most stirring scenes is when Horner goes to visit White in Stillwater, the prison being reminiscent of the place we get the word "bedlam". White is working on his memory, writing a journal on the slimey prison walls. Horner sends him paper every three weeks. Ultimately, the reader discovers the real killer, but Horner never does.
The obituary at the end is a nice stroke. It does in a few lines what would ordinarily take pages to tell.

Herbert White lives a strange life in Saint Paul in 1939. He's a very lonely man, has no friends, is profoundly attached to his daily routines and is an amateur photographer. He particularly likes taking pictures of taxi dancers working at the Aragon Ballroom where Herbert occasionally goes. And so he met Charlie Mortensen - also called Carla Marie LaBreque - and Ruby Fahey. Due to Herbert's eccentric way of life as a recluse, he doesn't feel very comfortable in the presence of women. All the photography sessions taking place at his apartment, Herbert's behaviour is always uneasy whenever a woman comes for posing. When Charlie Mortensen is found dead by strangulation on 30 Sptember 1939 and Ruby Fahey (killed in the same manner) on 22 October, the police suspect Herbert White and arrest him. Slowly White will be drawn into signing a confession stating that he killed the two women. But Lieutenant Wesley Horner becomes suspicious: why did Hebert White state in his confession that he killed the women "by battery to the head" when both of them died from strangulation?
Truth vs. fiction, past vs. present, love vs. hatred, faith and memory are the themes illuminated masterfully by Robert Clark. This is not a mystery story in the classic sense but rather a complex, intriguing and fascinating journey into the human psyche. A beautiful book.

After spending the morning reading this novel I feel rather ambigious as to my reaction. On one hand, the prose of Robert Clark flows off the page like music from a nicely tuned piano and is a joy to read. The elegent word choices run the plot along nicely so that you feel each point being hit upon is germane and building up to the final zenith (which I will abstain from reveiling as a spoiler). Those who have read the book will understanding that by the end of page 200, you have a pretty good understanding of who did what and who DIDN'T do what. Unlike most other novels of a similar nature, the main character in this novel are tragically flawed in terms of their own wanton ways. Not exactly forgiving in the wake of 7/11 so be forewarned that the police reveil themselves as human and perhaps even less than that in certain instances. On the other hand, the novel really leaves you feeling as though the judicial system is innately flawed beyond hope. Overall this novel serves as a quick read by an author who has continued on a path of literary excellence to this point. You won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this read. I enjoy many mysteries but get tired of the "formulas" - the predictability. I'm adding Robert Clark to my list of writers I can count on to give me something a bit different - almost up there with Ruth Rendell (and Barbara Vine). I was not sure what the outcome would be - and was pleased that Mr. Clark mixed positive with negative outcome (that IS how the world works, after all). I also loved the characters - they felt real, they felt vulnerable, they were multidimensional. I highly recommend this one for anyone looking for something a little out of the ordinary.

Mr. White's Confession was a very different, yet enjoyable mystery. It was certainly not a traditional mystery, as the truth behind the pivotal murders is revealed halfway through the book. The real mystery was trying to understand the true nature of past and reality as told through Mr. White's interspersed first-person journal entries. Mr. White's journal was well juxtaposed with the tale of Wesley Horner, the down-on-his-luck cop who arrested him. The two interrelated tales work well together to really make the reader think about issues of love and loss, truth and fiction, and the nature of human freedom. The plot never quite reached the can't-put-it-down level, but the well-told story, in often beautiful prose, really sticks with the reader.