Customer Reviews

Nero Wolfe: The Archie Goodwin Files

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Very satisfactory, as Mr. Wolfe would say when moved to lavish praise on his intrepid sidekick. The Archie Goodwin Files is the perfect companion to Marvin Kaye's earlier The Nero Wolfe Files. But then I'm prejudice. I'm a long time member of the Wolfe Pack, and I am delighted that the best of The Gazette is now available to all Wolfe fans. The Archie Goodwin Files delve into some of the real mysteries in the Nero Wolfe books: how does the Post Office delivery Wolfe's commands seemingly within minutes of posting the letter, which doorbell rang, and why do secretaries appear so frequently in the books? This book will bring new enjoyment to your favorite Wolfe mysteries.

This effort is actually better than its predecessor, "The Nero Wolfe Files."

For one thing, the array of topics covered is more diverse. Since more essays had been written, the editors of this book had more source material to choose from in presenting this.

And this gives rise to a very interesting spectrum of opinions. For example, one essay gives a very compelling and persuasive set of arguments that Wolfe was, in fact, born in the United States and then migrated to Montenegro during his childhood. Another essay is just as convinced (and offhanded) in accepting a statement Wolfe makes that he was born in Montenegro and became a naturalized American citizen. Each is compelling and very persuasive.

If you cannot get enough of Wolfe, two things: (1) buy this book, and (2) make sure Marvin Kaye is motivated to release "The Saul Panzer Files" or some suc as soon as possible....

[Maybe "The Inspector L.T.Fergus Cramer Files?"]

I've known Marv since 5th grade so I'm not unbiased, but I consider him one of my favorites because in his own novels he tells a good tale and tells it well. He is also an excellent anthologist. While the Wolfe purist might not want anything not from Stout's own pen, if you're a bit more flexible, you'll really enjoy this anthology.

While the content of this book was very enjoyable and rather illuminating, I found myself dreading the next typographical error that was inevitable. Unless reading has become such a lost art thanks to text messaging, I do not enjoy the use of the numeral one for the capital letter I. The spacing losses made for some interesting word decisions. Quotation marks were missing or added. While the errors weren't on every page, there were enough that by the middle of the book I realized that I did not want this book in my Rex Stout library.

I do not know if it is a problem of the editor or if the proofreader had a bad day, but all the errors did make the book a lot less enjoyable. A great pity since it had such great potential.

Other reviewers seem chagrined they didn't write of Archie as did Marvin Kaye, or indeed as Rex Stout originally did of Wolfe himself. This is an understandable, even sympathetic, regret. But not one to justify prolixity.

To those who have dwelt--- still dwell--- happily in the egocentric world of Wolfe and Archie, Mr. Kaye's essay will be a pleasurable spin of that globe. To others, the unbereft, it will not.

When a few days ago I reviewed The Nero Wolfe Files, I was rather uncomplimentary regarding the limited amount of content and the quality of the content itself. Well, I am very pleased to report that in this subsequent book editor Marvin Kaye has rectified these shortcomings quite nicely. The new book is twice the size of the other and contains a much better selection of articles from The Gazette, the official publication of The Wolfe Pack, a society dedicated to exploring the nuances of that remarkable detective, his sidekick Archie and the author Rex Stout.

The book is composed of four sections. The first is a collection of articles about both the character himself and associated subjects, such as the Post Office, love and marriage, legal aspects of the Wolfe plots, orchids, and even references to the theater in the stories. My favorite article in this section is "Nero Wolfe: Logomachizer", which discusses the roles of books in the Wolfe stories [editor Kaye notes that Logomachize means to contend with words].

The next section contains articles about Archie Goodwin, including rather obvious subjects as Archie's love life, his relationship to Nero, and not so obviously, an investigation to discern Goodwin's likely birthdate.

The third section's collection includes exploration into the actual location of Wolfe's brownstone, the role of Lon Cohen in the stories, the secretaries (good and bad), and the possible origin of Wolfe's nemesis Zeck.

The final section contains three short detective stories, a stage play and a sonnet, all featuring Nero and company. The story "Firecrackers" is a special treat as we finally read about the first meeting of Nero and Archie.

With such excellent content I happily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Nero Wolfe, or even in the detective genre in general. Fair warning however, the book does contain many spoilers, but then people who get this book will most likely have already read most of the stories anyway!

The follow up to The Nero Wolfe Files, it has both factual details about the Nero Wolfe novels but also some wonderful short stories set in the universe. Neroverse? Not sure that works as a word but no matter how you say it, or type it, the files are a delightful addition to any collection of Nero Wolfe related books. Get it used or new, but get it.