Trent Zelazny writes like someone who in another life threw back whiskey with Dashiell Hammet, dated a young Elizabeth Taylor (between marriages), died in a fiery car crash, and was born again to discover that nothing ever really changes. Life's still hard.
The main character of "To Sleep Gently" is Jack Dempster. Jack wants to be a good man. In many ways, he is a good man. But he gravitates to crime like a magnet is drawn to steel. He is just out of prison, and already reluctantly agreed to be part of a burglary that could make everyone, from Jack to the bumbling hired guns, to the Big Boys who wait in the wings. Jack even begins to think he might take this one last crime to fund a "normal life", a life with someone to love and a place to be. Even as he heads toward Santa Fe and the "job", Jack gets a glimpse of that normal life when he stops to help a family whose car has broken down on the highway. When he meets Sandra, beautiful, classy, interesting Sandra, he is even more drawn to the idea of leaving the criminal life.
Jack's life seems to tumble him around like a pair of dice, and he's left to go with whatever rolls up. His best intentions always, always seem to hit a stumbling block. Even his efforts to reunite with an old friend and encourage his friend to pursue his career as an artist pulls Jack through memories of a horrible time in his life, another bad roll of the dice. By the end of the book, I was shaking my head, thinking "Can this guy catch a break?" No, he can't. Life doesn't give guys like Jack a break. Life breaks guys like Jack. Or does it?
Every character in the book is well-drawn, vivid and you will either love them or hate them. Even Jack -- sure he is a criminal, sure he is planning to rob people of their possessions, but he's a helluva guy. He stops and fixes cars. He educated himself, reading classic literature, even studying art. He's good looking, he's passionate. Every time Jack craps out, I couldn't help but groan and hope the next page would bring salvation. He should have been okay. He should have sailed through the crime, he should have just swept Sandra up in his manly arms and run off into the sunset. And he should have never been in that particular place on that particular day. Over and over, that is Jack's problem -- he's not a bad guy, he just can't catch a break.
Zelazny is a terrific writer, full of description, full of passions, but possessing a firm control of his characters and his storyline. It's amazing how these jagged-edged jigsaw puzzle snap together and form a flawless book. I'm very happy I discovered Trent Zelazny's books.
