Only Child - A Burke Novel [Paperback]

Andrew Vachss (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Vintage Books / Random House; 1st Thus. edition (1997)
• ASIN: B000VZSOUC
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,694,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for "aggressive-violent" youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, and many other forums. His books have been awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, the Falcon Award, Deutschen Krimi Preis, Die Jury des Bochumer Krimi Archivs and the Raymond Chandler Award (per Giurìa a Noir in Festival, Courmayeur, Italy). Andrew Vachss' latest books include Heart Transplant (Dark Horse Books, October 2010), a collaboration with Frank Caruso that attempts to reset the cultural software as it pertains to bullying, and The Weight (Pantheon, November 2010), a crime novel. The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is vachss.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guess who's back?, November 4, 2002

By 

Belinda Kameron (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only Child: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)

In the mid 1800s, Gustave Flaubert described France as a place where "the banal, the facile, and the foolish are invariably applauded, adopted, and adored." Flaubert's lament is an equally apt condemnation of early 21st century life in America, or indeed, much of the modern "developed" world.

I have never written a book review before. I have never read a Burke novel before either. The convergence of the two firsts is no accident. I loved this book, but from reading the descriptions and professional reviews before getting my copy, I didn't necessarily expect to even *like* it.

I'm not a stranger to Andrew Vachss' writing, having enjoyed all the comics, short fiction, and full-length novel "Shella." And Vachss is well known as the author of the Burke series, so most fans are presumably already closely acquainted with the characters I just discovered in fall of 2002.

"Only Child" has been promoted by pros and fans alike as the book "we" have all been waiting for, the one that sees Burke return to his native New York. And if you've ever read even a single review of any Burke novel, or any article about Vachss for that matter, then you already know that Vachss, and Burke, are both the ultimate New Yorkers. One review of the books I've seen stated that New York City is actually the "predominate character" of the entire series. For those people who are "fans" of New York, this is bound to be a draw, but Vachss' and Burke's fans come from all over the world. If you're one of those people who hated "Dead and Gone" and "Pain Management," and couldn't wait for Burke to get back to his home turf, then you've probably already ordered "Only Child" and need no encouragement to give it a shot. If you are more like me - West Coast to the core, never been to New York, nor had any special desire to go there, met plenty of people *from* NY who pay homage to the Holy City, but would laugh in your face if you offered them a pre-paid one-way ticket and guaranteed job back to where they're from - then you might be a little more dubious about jumping into an established series at the "coming-home-after-an-enforced-absence" point.

If so, DON'T BE. Perhaps people familiar with and fond of New York see the city as a character, but if this is not the case, it's no kind of problem at all in my eyes. The themes Vachss deals with are international and timeless, and so are the characters. If you've never been closer to the east coast than El Centro, don't fear that you'll be left out. I think every single review I've read so far stresses the back-to-New-York angle, and the fact that Burke must "infiltrate the teenage subculture" of Long Island as pluses. The first drawing point initially made me worry that I'd be confused by endless local references, and the second I admit had me half expecting some kind of "Samurai Jack undercover at the rave" trick, but both worries proved so groundless that it was amazing. Yes, Burke is home, and if you're a NY native, you'll doubtless rejoice, but rather than a passel of location minutia, this fact is written in a way immediately comprehensible to anyone who's ever returned to *anything* that felt like coming home. Crossing the Triborough, crossing the Grapevine, crossing the threshold to anywhere one has missed from someplace else - what's the difference? When the writer is as good as Vachss, there isn't one.

I found (to my relief) the "teenage subculture" sections to be both believable *and* not entirely integral to the plot. I noticed things in this book I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere, and those are what truly impressed me. There's a totally excellent kid early on in the book that I fell in love with right off.If there's a god in this world, then Hugh (and BOO) will find a way to cross paths with Burke again. This kid is so real you've probably birthed or babysat him, and so cool that you were probably truly enriched by the experience! The part that impressed me the most is difficult to express without giving away too much, but it involves the book's villain (one of them at least). Someone I know was reading "Only Child" around the same time I was, and both of us were like "Hey -- did you think of..." and both immediately said the same acquaintance's name - it was honestly freaky. A certain number of us have probably met people a lot like Cyn and Rejji in childhood, probably a lot more of us as teenagers...but the really soul-tweaked specimens often make themselves known, in other guises, to the college-aged masses, of which I am a member. If you read certain portions of the "Only Child" dialogue, there would definitely be dozens at my own school, and thousands across the country, so sure they recognized an actual person from their own lives, that one can begin to understand the "Vachss is reading my mail" phenomenon.

To say any more would spoil the enjoyment of discovery, so I'll close by saying -- if I was pitching a screenplay, I'd probably describe this book as "Hannah Arendt meets Antonin Artaud"...and then throw in some crap about "...on a gritty urban landscape" to try to hook the reader, but this book is written for people too smart to get hooked, so I'll just say: Take a chance, buy this book, if you're anything like me you won't regret it. (If you're nothing at all like me, you might, but you're probably not sufficiently interesting for me to care, LOL.)

Great book. Buy it and see for yourself.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burke's Back!, October 14, 2002

By 

"alant_ny" (NEW YORK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only Child: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)

Here's the thing. Vachss keeps turning out the most realistic bad guys ever. After every one of his books get released, there's a story in the news about the Feds busting a gang of bad guys (and bad girls) doing just what Vachss warned us about.

Again, the characters in Only Child are bound to turn up on tonight's news. In his quirky and serious style, Vachss sets Only Child on Long Island, a densely populated suburb of New York City. Its bad guys who prey upon the (mostly) sanguine suburbanites are exactly the kind of predators that your Mom warned you about.

This is not a novel ripped from the headlines, quite certainly, it's the other way around. Tomorrow's headlines will, once again, be written about the real people behind the fictionalized characters in this book.

Only Child is another Burke novel. If you think you're getting tired of yet another one, don't worry. It's fresh, (in Vachss' punishing kind of way) it's twisted, and the ending plays out like a novel written with a sense of fairness in a decidedly unfair world.

Vachss writes dialogue like every writer wishes he could. No matter what crime/noir/verité writer you've been hooked on before, you never really get hooked until you've read Vachss.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burke back from the dead, October 14, 2002

By 

Scott Morris (Columbus, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only Child: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)

I'm a slow reader. I finished Only Child in about 2 days. Vachss' writing is like a pitbull locking onto you - you just can't shake it loose. When one of Vachss' books hits the stores, I drop everything else to go get it and read it. Not many writers I can say that about, and there are several reasons.

Real characters that inspire true emotions from the reader, with depth and development across time; intricate plot line; sledge hammer prose; a perfectly-woven story - all are standard issue with any Vachss novel. I can't guarantee you'll like his work. I've heard people say it's too intense, too scary, too gritty, too real - but never boring, and never bad writing. Maybe those people were looking for a "light read," I don't know. This stuff is more like mercury. If you read one of his stories and you dig his work, you'll be hooked for life.

Because this man brings together two elements in his writing that make for a potent combination. First, Vachss is a warrior. Read his credentials on the sleeve of the novel, and you'll know - he's been there. He has lived the stories he writes - or has battled for people who have. Like any true warrior, Vachss stays with the mission until either the job is finished or he is. Vachss' war is against child abuse. His writing is one powerful weapon in that war. It has inspired legislation (see the CARE Act) and recruits an increasing number of soldiers to the cause with each new book.

Second, Vachss doesn't just have an inborn talent for writing. He is a master - and I mean skill, as you can only gain from practice. And like any true master, Vachss never stops becoming more skilled at his craft. Only Child proves that. Beautiful writing about an ugly subject. "Criminal psychology" through the criminal's eyes - Burke (the main character) seeking redemption in the only way that matters, and telling us where evil truly comes from. Vachss clearly views writing as a medium for accurately conveying experience, emotion, and truth. Few things are more beautiful than the truth; and if any writer is more qualified to pull it off, I'd like to hear about them.

The passion that drives Vachss' mission hits you with the power of a .50 cal, firing words like voodoo-cursed bullets - aimed with the grace of a samurai's blade. This isn't just hard-core, top-notch writing. It is the stuff of life-and-death; the pulse of the streets. You will be educated, enlightened, angered, scared, empowered, and, hopefully, spurred into action. "I just open the case files and change the names," says Vachss. But he does far more than that. A good story goes miles further than a good sermon. Vachss writes great stories - the message behind the writing woven in as deeply as sinew, and will strike you just as deep. College criminology classes need to make Vachss required reading.