Get a Clue
Note to self: Try to write next book review so as not to convince fully half of commenters to resolve NOT to read the book based on the review. If it helps, I also recently read Hardball by Sara Paretsky, which is a V.I. Warshawski novel, for anyone familiar with the character. It was pretty good, except way too many characters had red hair. Really. Every second chapter she was meeting someone's wife with faded red curls, or a red-headed secretary, or a kid on the street with a baseball cap over red hair. It strained the bounds of credulity! If it was me, I would have dropped the investigation and concentrated all my resources on figuring out where all the carrot tops were coming from -- it's rare enough that I see one red-headed person a month. When I was walking to school to get the kids the other day, there was a mother with a brilliantly red-haired little boy walking across the field, then when I got to the other side of the field there was a father with an equally brilliantly red-haired little boy which stopped me in my tracks until I realized that they were all together.
There was also the fact that V.I. Warshawski was her usual self -- stubborn, hard-headed, a little judgemental and staying doggedly on the case even after being shot, stabbed and set on fire. At least in a series where the character is a former policewoman and private investigator there's a little sense to this, but I still find it ever so slightly wearying at times. I used to vacillate between reviling this type of woman (fictional or real-life) and feeling inferior to her -- not specifically the shot/stabbed/set on fire thing, but women who put careers and personal passions over marriage and children, women who can never maintain a relationship because they can't loosen their principles even an inch in order to accomodate someone else's needs or opinions (Jane Tennison, anyone?). While reading this book, I suddenly realized I don't have to do either. I can just accept that they're different from me. For starters, they run into way more redheads.
There was also the fact that V.I. Warshawski was her usual self -- stubborn, hard-headed, a little judgemental and staying doggedly on the case even after being shot, stabbed and set on fire. At least in a series where the character is a former policewoman and private investigator there's a little sense to this, but I still find it ever so slightly wearying at times. I used to vacillate between reviling this type of woman (fictional or real-life) and feeling inferior to her -- not specifically the shot/stabbed/set on fire thing, but women who put careers and personal passions over marriage and children, women who can never maintain a relationship because they can't loosen their principles even an inch in order to accomodate someone else's needs or opinions (Jane Tennison, anyone?). While reading this book, I suddenly realized I don't have to do either. I can just accept that they're different from me. For starters, they run into way more redheads.
Comments
I will report back with the results of my redhead count.
Do I want to spend my extremely limited discretionary time laughing or crying? Hmmm. No contest there.
Is Sara Paretsky a red head? I'm too lazy to look.