Country: USA
Genre: Crime/Noir
Pages: 225 (517 KB)
If you want to order Frank Sinatra In A Blender (which I strongly suggest you do), you can go there.
Forget everything you know about crime fiction. Forget what you thought you know about P.Is, drunks and violence in literature. Nothing can prepare you for Frank Sinatra In A Blender. Matthew McBride's first novel is an assault on your senses and on human morals in general. He is an offensive writer that skilfully depicts the worst in mankind and yet, does it with a sense of humor that will leave you disturbed for many years, but not depressed. It is only available as an eBook so far, but I would tell you that it's the best reason yet to buy an eReader. If you thought Guy Ritchie's gangsters were tough guys, guess again. If you thought you needed a stomach to watch Takashi Miike's movies, you might want to reconsider that. Nothing can prepare you for Nick Valentine and the underworld of St-Louis.
If I'm referring to film directors a lot, it's because McBride's style is very visual. That's the beauty of it. Frank Sinatra In A Blender's plot is very simple. I would go as far as saying it's paper thin. But it doesn't matter, because it holds up spectacularly well. Two idiots rob a St-Louis credit union with a bakery truck. Of course, it goes wrong and the money starts changing hands at an increasing speed. That's all there is. Burning hot money, and a cast of joyous, trigger-happy psychos, hell-bent on getting their hands on it. Throw into this Nick Valentine, private investigator and functioning alcoholic, and you get a very entertaining story about how shitty people can get whenever money is involved. They make something that should have been SO simple, very complicated.
Frank Sinatra In A Blender is all about its cast. Nick Valentine has to be the very best drunk I have ever read about. Not only is he the funniest guy, but his drunken behavior has a very subtle, realistic touch. It's half-way in between performance and lack of inhibition. But don't let that fool you, he's quite apt around weapons and has the trust of both law enforcement and local thugs. Joe Parker, English Sid Godwin and Johnny No Nuts are also a fun bunch, but they are just demented enough to make you fear them. Matthew McBride keeps switching his point of view throughout the novel, from first person for Valentine, to third person when the heist is involved on a larger case. I found it brilliant, because it gave a life to the money everybody was after. It became the second main character, like a very elusive siren.
I didn't find anything to compare Frank Sinatra In A Blender to, but I didn't find anything to dislike about it. Everything is off and defies the rules, but everything works. The point of view constantly switches from first to third person, the tone of the novel drastically switches from humorous to dark (and disturbingly humorous) about a hundred pages in. It's just short and bulky enough to hold the road and climax into that unspeakable ending. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but it's disturbing as all hell and completely free. A good, swift kick in the nuts to finish the two hundred pages beating McBride puts you through. Frank Sinatra In A Blender will offend the well-thinking, get religious fundamentalist to undergo therapy for many years and will leave you permanently scarred. To me, that's literature at it's best. A good novel is supposed to stay with you and Frank Sinatra In A Blender packs enough punch for that. Read this and let Matthew McBride work his number on your mind.