IS FAT BOB DEAD YET?
Stephen Dobyns
Penguin Group
September 1, 2015
I have read several of Stephen Dobyns' books in the past; his Saratoga series and the chilling Church of Dead Girls. Therefore, I was expecting something that would be well-written at the very least. What I wasn't expecting was a book quite as diverting as Is Fat Bob Dead Yet?. Any novel featuring a group of small-time con men whose scams include Ex-Prom Queens Anonymous and Free Beagles From Nicotine Addiction has to be entertaining. The addition of bikers, thugs, a homeless man, vengeful wives and femmes fatale, battling detective partners, a hacker savant whose conversation is made up of malapropisms; and an innocent (somewhat) trying to navigate it all make a heady brew. I kept thinking of what the Coen Brothers could do cinematically with this material.
The narrator is omniscient which can be off-putting, but Dobyns manages it with a good deal of "snark" and a flowing storytelling style. The many characters are ridiculous on the face of it, but also completely human. Perhaps the book went on a bit long, but I enjoyed its dark absurdity. Thanks to Penguin's First to Read Program for an advance digital copy of Is Fat Bob Dead Yet? in return for an honest review.
RATING- 4 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment