Total Recall [Hardcover]

Sara Paretsky (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 826 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1st edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739420453
• ISBN-13: 978-0739420454
• ASIN: 0241141605
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,671,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sara Paretsky is the award-winning creator of the V I Warshawski detective novels. When Sara introduced V I in Indemnity Only in 1982, she revolutionized the mystery novel. By creating a female investigator who uses her wits as well a her fists, Sara challenged a genre in which women were traditionally either vamps or victims.

V I is the quintessential urban woman. She grew up in the shadow of the old steel mills on Chicago's Southeast side and knows her way around every alley in town. She's a street fighter, a singer, a bit of a clothes horse, and a woman of great intensity and passion.

So how much like V I is her creator? They certainly come from very different places. Sara grew up in rural Kansas where she attended a two-room school. She continues to believe the high point of her life came at the age of twelve when she was picked to play third base for the Kaw Valley District 95 baseball team.

Bleeding Kansas, Sara's 14th novel, is set in the part of the Kaw River Valley where Sara grew up.

Sara first came to Chicago in 1966 to do community service work in the same neighborhood where Martin Luther King was organizing. It was a time of fierce passions in the city and in the country as people fought over racial justice, the rights and wrongs of the war in Vietnam, and women's rights. Sara has always felt that that summer changed her life forever, and when she finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, she came back to make Chicago her home. Some of the history of that summer is recounted in her essay collection, Writing in an Age of Silence.

Like V I, Sara likes to sing, in an amateur way, has a hopeless passion for the Cubs, loves Italian shoes'and is obsessed by the search for the perfect cappuccino, so much so that she even went to cappuccino school.

In other academic ventures, Sara received a PhD in American History and an MBA from the University of Chicago. In 1976, she married physics professor Courtenay Wright. The two live in the city of Chicago with their wonder dog Callie. Their lives are made brighter by their adored granddaughter, Maia.

Sara shares V I's passion for social justice. She founded Sisters in Crime in 1986 to support women readers and writers in the mystery world. To give back to the community, Paretsky established the Sara and Two C-Dogs Foundation, which primarily supports girls and women in the arts, letters, and sciences. She has endowed several scholarships at the University of Kansas, and has mentored students in Chicago's inner city schools. She serves on the advisory boards of Literature for All of Us, a literacy group for teen moms, and Thresholds, which serves Chicago's mentally-ill homeless.

Sara has received numerous awards, including the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers Association, the Gold Dagger for best novel for her book Blacklist, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from several different universities. Sara's books have been translated into almost thirty languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book intended for Regulars, June 29, 2002

By 

Ricardo Garcia Mainou (Queretaro, Mx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

This was my first aproach to V.I. Varshawski, not mentioning the movie years ago. Total Recall is a long book in a genre that usually rounds mysteries on 300pp (Elizabeth George an exception). Paretsky won't settle for that and sets it up for us to think we're deep into very differents plots: an insurance fraud and a disturbed outcrying holocaust derived patient harassing her friends (Paul Radbuka).

During the book I kept wondering what was wrong with V.I.'s way of treating people, everyone is, for a moment or two, against her, abusing her verbally, doubting her judgement, etc. even her friends and help (except maybe Mr. Contreras an odd character himself). It's like Paretsky likes to mount as much obstacles as possible for Vic to face.
The book has several interwoven chapters recovering the Lotty Herschel story that goes back to World War II, the Kindertransport, remorses and guilt. This chapters are great and probably the best in the book.
The thing I found a bit anoying comes from when Lotty feels, strangely treatened by Radbuka and behaves very irrationaly for hundreds of pages attacking and insulting V.I. Probably this isn't new for the V.I. frequent reader: Why does this woman stands that much abuse from a alleged friend? I assumed they were very close in other books, but Paretsky fails to convey that for the first time reader (something Sue Grafton always holds in mind). Vic says many times that she loves Lotty and so on but that didn't make it for me. Somehow Paretsky should have introduced the main characters as they show so their role, importance and oddities were understood.
If you never read a novel in this series you can find many open questions in the behavior of its characters. Its like if Paretsky is writing only for the regulars.

Not withstanding this little shortcomming, the book is engrossing. You are going to read it top to bottom (of course not in one sitting). And once you go beyond the first 100 pages a bit slow paced but I guess needed to set up the plot, and the first corpse is found, you are caught in the book. I won't spoil the book writing about a few contrived points in the resolution, but be assured I plan to read more of this series.

I couldn't say if its the best of them but it certainly is a good read.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Detective Story; Really Good Novel, October 17, 2001

By 

ReggieRoy (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book from start to finish, couldn't put it down, didn't want it to end. Why can't I give it 10 stars?

V.I. Warshawski has become a mature woman with a realistic lovelife and real friends. It was a pleasure to spend time with her (although I'm worried she's going to starve to death; she never seems to eat anything). The complex insurance and "recovered memory" scam she is "detecting" was interesting and I never doubted any of it. Plenty of blood, gore, action and surprises. As usual I enjoyed the Chicago scenery, especially the occasional notes on the Cubs.

The story of Lotty, finally revealed after all this time, makes perfect sense. I always wondered what her "problem" was, as no doubt did Paretsky. I think Paretsky handled it well, revealing it as if Lotty is telling her the story, which in the end it turns out, she is.

Why do so many people think less of a book because it's a "mystery?" This is as good a novel as many pieces of "literature" I've read, and way better than some of those lyrical and tedious first novels reviewers go nuts over.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Surprise, October 19, 2001

By 

Joseph A. Hines - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

I read some of the Amazon reviews before reading this book and I wasn't expecting much. Sara Paretsky's characters and plots are a little hard to decipher at times. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by TOTAL RECALL. The plotting was interesting and integrated and held my attention well. The characters were a mix of old familiar people like Max and Lotty and new ones such as Paul Radbuka. Paretsky handled the characters well even through she did a lot of skipping around between plots and subplots.

V.I. Warshawski is a "real pip" of a main character who always has a dozen things going on. In this novel she is verbally assaulted and professionally abused by friend and foe alike. Even Max's young granddaughter, Calia, gets down on "Aunt Victory". Nothing she does pleases anyone, but she keeps plugging along, tying threads together until things make sense.

Paretsky uses Chicago as her setting and really manages to paint a very believable picture of the town. TOTAL RECALL is a solid combination of place, people and plot that entertains the readers and can be recommended with confidence.