Customer Reviews

Under Radar

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4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This title is the kindest summation possible of my reaction to "Under Radar," a book whose editorial reviews made me look forward with anticipation to reading it. Usually I like black comedies and characters with quirks of character or psychological interest. And, as many reviewers included almost the entire plot line of this novel in their remarks on it, I assumed that the charm and fascination must lie in its development. Not so. Instead, almost half-way into my reading I found only what could easily have passed as the script for a film, and a skimpy one at that. This unattractive spareness of fictional detail dissipates slowly as the novel advances, but never completely disappears. How can it, when the story, covering decades of a man's life, is dispatched in 212 small pages with wide margins and 12-point type?
Yes, mysteries develop and profundities are hinted, but all are left hanging as the reader turns the final page. And that none too soon, for this reader. Promising script, perhaps, for the Coen brothers.

This book is nothing short of visionary. Deep, thrilling, unexpected, funny and very moving. Though much admired it has not been as widely read as it deserves to be. A true journey.

Tolkin tried to interweave a novel of criminal psychology and religious allegory, an ambitious enterprise. But the writing stumbles in both areas. The main character's (Tom) development into an enlightened (if chastened) man isn't credible, yet it's the main thing the author wants us to accept. Intervening chapters were apparently designed to provide an odyssey for Tom; though they're written in a fluid manner, they don't provide adequate or meaningful support for the main idea. It looks like Tolkin read up on the Kaballah and/or other mystical texts, and then tried to stitch them into a crime novel. The first part is written with the slickness of a screenplay outline; the second part goes fuzzy with spirituality. Neither part works. I'm puzzled by the mainly positive reviews this book has received and am interested to know what actual readers think.

Why read a book that tells you everything you already know? The more enigmatic on first reading, the likelier that subsequent readings will yield deeper meaning. I have my opinion of this book, but if the book has a point, it means to leave my opinion open to interpretation.