Country: USA
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 283
FUN AND GAMES is Duane Swierczynski's eight novel, according to Wikipedia (I know they left out the Level 26 stories he co-wrote with CSI's Anthony Zuicker). He also wrote for Marvel Comics and has some pretty badass non-fiction to his credit. At thirty-nine years old, his resume would make other writers turn green with jealousy. With FUN AND GAMES, he's attempting something he hasn't done before, a trilogy of crime novels. This is the first volume, but number two and number three are already announced on the back sleeve of number one, which I thought was somewhat of a bold move. I thought trilogies happened, not that they were planned out. HELL AND GONE, the second book of the Charlie Hardie series is due for as soon as next October. That made my smartass sense tingle, so I decided to check out for myself what this trilogy project was about. FUN AND GAMES had prime display in my book store, so there is considerable weight behind it. Some important people must believe in Duane Swierczynski.
Charlie Hardie is a house sitter. His job is to keep people's houses intact when they are gone. It's a fairly easy job, yet it's difficult to get people to trust you enough to do it. Hardie has a background in law enforcement, so clients feel at ease to give him the keys while they are gone. All he does is to sit down on their couch and watch old movies all day. Hardie gets this gig in Hollywood hills, only to find out there's a very agitated girl already in the house. An actress who's career is in turmoil. She's violent and paranoid, talking about "them", the people that are "out to get her". They are a faceless menace who are in the process of isolating her from the outside world, before ending her life. She first thinks that Hardie is one of them, but she quickly realizes that they are also out to get him. They will both have to figure out a way to get out of this.
Reading FUN AND GAMES was odd, but it was somehow very enjoyable. The writing is very controlled, a bit like your usual doorstop thriller, but imagine this. Somebody hijacked your fun-loving doorstop thriller at gunpoint, emptied it of bland characters and asinine plot twists and replaced everything with crazy, fun content. FUN AND GAMES is a study in structure and it's a part of its appeal. Chapters and even paragraphs have their own use and often answer to each other directly. Duane Swierczynski obviously controls his art to the smallest detail, something that is not given to everybody. I felt that sometimes it got in the way. Some scenes could have been longer, crazier and others could have been shortened a little bit. It has some scenes of spectacular mayhem, but not quite the way a novel like Anthony Neil Smith's HOGDOGGIN' has. That novel set the bar of madness in literature for me.
Something I didn't expect to find in Swierczynski's novel (my first reading of his work, by the way) was a sharp sense of humor. I am not the only to laugh when reading a book. I find it extremely difficult to translate written comedy into direct laughter, but FUN AND GAMES had me laughing out loud quite a few times. The fight scenes (especially during the first half of the novel) often turn into scenes of great slapstick humor. Swierczynski can write an action scene, but he can do better, involve a character's personality traits in them. That gives life to otherwise bland action. Charlie Hardie used to work with law enforcement, but he got sedentary with the house sitting job, so he got fat and rusty and it shows. He dusts off his skills at the same pace we learn about his tragic background.
I grew quite fond of Hardie while reading FUN AND GAMES. He's an unlikely hero and he actually ACTS like one. Duane Swieczynski is a master at pacing and he gives you just enough in FUN AND GAMES to leave you aching and wanting more. While I found it a little Hollywoodian (even if it's actually a spoof in many ways) as it's discussing themes of redemption and existential choices (stop being a victim of your past, all that jazz), it's also flexing some literary muscle with references to Philip K. Dick, James Ellroy and a wink to thriller writer Dave White. FUN AND GAME is what it is, the opening chapter of a trilogy. It does a great job at leaving you hungry for more. It's hard to be fair to the piece of a bigger puzzle, but despite not being perfect, it can get only get better from here.
Charlie Hardie is a house sitter. His job is to keep people's houses intact when they are gone. It's a fairly easy job, yet it's difficult to get people to trust you enough to do it. Hardie has a background in law enforcement, so clients feel at ease to give him the keys while they are gone. All he does is to sit down on their couch and watch old movies all day. Hardie gets this gig in Hollywood hills, only to find out there's a very agitated girl already in the house. An actress who's career is in turmoil. She's violent and paranoid, talking about "them", the people that are "out to get her". They are a faceless menace who are in the process of isolating her from the outside world, before ending her life. She first thinks that Hardie is one of them, but she quickly realizes that they are also out to get him. They will both have to figure out a way to get out of this.
Reading FUN AND GAMES was odd, but it was somehow very enjoyable. The writing is very controlled, a bit like your usual doorstop thriller, but imagine this. Somebody hijacked your fun-loving doorstop thriller at gunpoint, emptied it of bland characters and asinine plot twists and replaced everything with crazy, fun content. FUN AND GAMES is a study in structure and it's a part of its appeal. Chapters and even paragraphs have their own use and often answer to each other directly. Duane Swierczynski obviously controls his art to the smallest detail, something that is not given to everybody. I felt that sometimes it got in the way. Some scenes could have been longer, crazier and others could have been shortened a little bit. It has some scenes of spectacular mayhem, but not quite the way a novel like Anthony Neil Smith's HOGDOGGIN' has. That novel set the bar of madness in literature for me.
Something I didn't expect to find in Swierczynski's novel (my first reading of his work, by the way) was a sharp sense of humor. I am not the only to laugh when reading a book. I find it extremely difficult to translate written comedy into direct laughter, but FUN AND GAMES had me laughing out loud quite a few times. The fight scenes (especially during the first half of the novel) often turn into scenes of great slapstick humor. Swierczynski can write an action scene, but he can do better, involve a character's personality traits in them. That gives life to otherwise bland action. Charlie Hardie used to work with law enforcement, but he got sedentary with the house sitting job, so he got fat and rusty and it shows. He dusts off his skills at the same pace we learn about his tragic background.
I grew quite fond of Hardie while reading FUN AND GAMES. He's an unlikely hero and he actually ACTS like one. Duane Swieczynski is a master at pacing and he gives you just enough in FUN AND GAMES to leave you aching and wanting more. While I found it a little Hollywoodian (even if it's actually a spoof in many ways) as it's discussing themes of redemption and existential choices (stop being a victim of your past, all that jazz), it's also flexing some literary muscle with references to Philip K. Dick, James Ellroy and a wink to thriller writer Dave White. FUN AND GAME is what it is, the opening chapter of a trilogy. It does a great job at leaving you hungry for more. It's hard to be fair to the piece of a bigger puzzle, but despite not being perfect, it can get only get better from here.