Another critic has joined the chorus recommending the superb mystery novel The Red Right Hand, by Joel Townsley Rogers:
I had heard that it was a difficult book to read, that the language was turgid and the action was slow-moving, but in fact I was soon into things and though the layout was rather unusual it never lost my interest. . . .
An unusual style, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I’m glad I can now add it to my list (still being compiled) of books read.
Read the review here. Then, buy the book.
–S. T. Karnick
Your response is great. It helps me see why people enjoyed the book. Sadly, I still don’t see it. You’re right; the book seems to be some sort of Rorschach Test…although I’m at a total loss to interpret the results.
I think my problem with Right Hand is what I see as its basic inaccessibility. All those themes that you see in it don’t come through to me at all because the entire piece seems to be taking place in another universe. None of the people seem real to me and even if I can see the greed, perversions and all the rest as being inherent here they are inherent in characters not of this world.
I’m a big fan of literature that plays around with the themes you see here. But they only work for me if I can see them being acted out by people I can imagine as really walking this Earth. That’s what I felt was lacking here. Nobody like these characters has ever really existed. Or perhaps that’s just a failure of imagination on my part…
Anyway, keep take the 6 Washingtons and put them into this site. That way I get my money’s worth and we both come out winners.
Really interesting discussion. Thanks.
Oops!! Well of course I’m very sorry you didn’t enjoy the book. It seems as it it’s something of a bizarre Rorshach test, as readers either love it or despise it.
I think the power of the book for me, and perhaps for other readers, lies in great part in its ability to evoke a strong sense of evil so powerful that it seems to distort the entire universe, making space and time themselves unreliable–and then resolve it and restore things to normal by the workings of simple, humble human goodness.
Clearly you did not get that sense of the book, and that has been the case for some other readers I know, too. That’s why in writing about the book I try to warn people about its unconventionality and help them understand what is to be appreciated about it. Here, for example, are a few things I think the book accomplishes:
Evocative, well-chosen writing style
Powerfully conveyed and meaningful atmosphere
Vivid characterizations and dramatic choices–descriptions of people’s clothing, language, and thought processes is particularly smart, in my view
Thematic resonance–themes of doubles, various kinds of perversion, seeming unreliability of time and space, question of free will versus determinism, etc.
A powerful sense of the demonic and its opposite, God’s providence. The former is made manifest in the perversions, the central murders and bizarre characters, the wicked motives, the disorienting disturbances to the fabric of space and time. The latter is made manifest in the continual background thread of love–one character’s love in particular, of course–and the sense of justice and the continual search for it, and in the sense of basic logic and goodness that are disturbed by the very elements noted above as representatives of the demonic.
Vivid depiction of eternal human impulses such as greed, lust, love, sympathy, anger, jealousy, etc.
Emotional power–young marrieds at center of story, aging of Dr. Riddle and waning of his sense of purpose in life, callousness of some characters toward others’ needs, etc.
Powerful sense of justice, awareness that liberty requires human responsibility, and desire to protect the weakest among us.
Those are a few of the things that I, and I believe the book’s other admirers, see in The Red Right Hand.
I acknowledge, however, that some people just see it as a failure, and I can certainly sympathize with that reaction; I just don’t “get” some works that others think quite sublime.
So unless you want to contribute your $6 to the support of this fine publication, let me know where to send the dough, and I’ll pony up. You’ve earned it.
S.T.:
About those six dollars…LOL.
I just finished reading The Red Right Hand and my reaction is…huh? Maybe I’m missing something, but after all the build-up (I read the reviews on Amazon and some other discussions as well) I found the book (in no particular order):
Terribly dated
Convoluted
Unconvincing
Forced
Preposterous
and (worst of all)
Tiresome.
I understand that the story structure is intentionally (how do we know this, exactly?) unconventional, which is fine if that works. I don’t think it did here. It just felt slap-dash. Maybe Rogers was drinking while he was writing it?
The Riddle character would have worked better if he hadn’t seemed so strange and unstable. I really didn’t have any emotional interest in him. I don’t think that there was a single believable character (with the possible exception of Elinor) in the entire cast of Adams Family wannabees.
And the legendary denounemount struck me as Rogers being tired of writing the damn thing and wanting to wrap it up in a hurry. Riddle having spent the whole night trying to figure this hallucinatory mess out seems, out of the blue, to solve it all – every twisted, unlikely, absurd detail – in a matter of seconds. Wigs, uncles, 45 year-olds-passing-for-65, envelopes filled with who knows how much cash, bodies bodies everywhere. Agh! Enough.
It strikes me that a hallucinatory story of this nature can only work if the “solution” makes all the “hallucinations” work in a very real way. In this case however, the ending is even more preposterous than the peculiar mystery it attempts to solve.
I realize the genuine acclaim the book has gotten must be based on some quality of excellence. But for the life of me I just don’t get it.
Oh, and I’ll take that $6 in a cashier’s check. 🙂
Edmond, I look forward to hearing your reaction to the book–especially with six of my hard-earned simoleons on the line!
Good question about Ardai and Hard Case. It would seem a natural.
Damn you, Karnick, you have me intrigued and are forcing me to spend money (which here in the Age of Obama is naturally in short supply). LOL
It looks like just the kind of thing Charles Ardai would put out under his Hard Case Crime imprint, of which I’m a big fan. (I wonder if he tried to get the rights to it?)
After I pick it up and read it I’ll let you know if I owe you thanks or you owe me a cool $6.