Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Happened in Boston?, October 30, 2003
I just finished reading the new Modern Library edition of "It Happened in Boston?", which I had first read 35 years ago. It still seems as startling as it was then; all these strange characters, and the mad protagonist. What a feat of imagination! I had actually expected it to feel somewhat dated but it didn't - quite the contrary, it seemed completely of the moment. I think this edition should find a new audience, among readers who did not exist when it was first published.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now You Get It ..., May 23, 2005
In spite of its literary brilliance and its narrative genius, there will be people who won't like Boston?. I don't say this as a lofty proclamation or to cast aspersions on those folks. Consider a five-star restaurant's most expensive and well-touted fresh salmon entree. It may, in fact, be a meal of the highest quality and finest ingredients, but, hey, some people just don't like fish.
This book is populated by intriguing characters (our artistically brilliant and unnamed protagonist's goal is to assassinate God, if that tells you anything) with curious and delicate lives that flirt with the fringes of madness before plunging in headlong. It is really pointless to try to explain the basic plot, since it holds no more prominence than the philosophical inquiries and didactic ponderings that motivate it. These underlying ideas never drag the story down, as one might suspect, although they are probably at fault when it comes to why some might like this meal and some might flat out reject.
In kind, the ending does leave something to be desired, since it is a resolution of the ambiguous kind. Greenan doesn't kowtow to fortune cookie solutions, and he leaves the point of the book (as well as the answer to those inquiries and ponderings) in the hands of the reader, who may either be delighted to answer, or disgusted with the presumption. Again, it's a matter of taste.
I, for one, was licking my fingers when I was done.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest novel nobody ever heard of, August 31, 2000
I first discovered this book when living in Boston in the late sixties--and I was fortunate to meet the author at the same time. I found him to be a very quiet, shy, and introspective man, someone you would never expect to have written such a compelling novel. "It Happened In Boston?" is, to me, a true original. The reader is taken on a journey of murder, almost against one's will. The events that unfold are horrifying and surprising at the same time. And yet there is a kind of humor in this novel, in the protagonist's perspective on the world. Novels on serial killers are a dime a dozen these days--just read the copy on the dust jackets of contemporary novels. It seems every detective in fiction is on the trail of a serial killer. Endless movies are made on this theme. Yet, Russell Greenan may not have set out to make serial killing the most important element in his book. I believe he was merely trying to show how one man might defy society's stranglehold on the individual. On the other hand, perhaps Greenan was doing no such thing. Perhaps he was just weaving an extraordinary tale without a thought about oppression or society. Whatever his reasoning, this book has been at the forefront of my mind for over 30 years. Were I to come up with a list of my favorite books in the non-fiction genre, this book would be in the first ten. Russell, if you are still alive, and perhaps reading this review, I would love to hear from you. That would be as much a thrill as having read the book. Okay, enough kudos for this writer--except to say that I hope one day to find "It Happened In Boston?" rediscovered and reread, this time by the general public. As I said before, Russell Greenan was a very quiet man--certainly not someone to hawk his own work. It is unbelievable that his publisher didn't do it for him, and that the terrific reviews Russell got at the time this book appeared didn't create a major stir in the literary world. If there's anything I can do to help make people take notice of this novel, I certainly will. Actually, since '68, I have told anyone who would listen about this book--but since it has been out of print so many years, I doubt others could get a copy. I don't believe Russell ever wrote another book--if anyone knows of another, would you please let me know? One last thing: since reading this book, I have been very wary of open sugar bowls.
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