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The dilemma of a voracious genre reader is the following: you're always craving the variables you like about your go-to genre, yet the only craving that's stronger is for originality. If you walk through the mystery section of your local bookstore for example, try and find thick books. Except maybe for my boy James Ellroy, most mystery fiction seem trapped between 250 and 400 pages. Fat book are extremely rare in that section of your local, friendly-neighbourhood book store. THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH caught my eye by its sheer size and its alluring title. It's a perculiar cat. I wouldn't call it an unforgettable novel, but it's sound hardboiled fiction with quite a bit of ambition.
So what is THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH about? It's kind of complicated. It's not one novel per se, but three novels written in the distinctive style of legendary hardboiled authors George Simenon, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson. They tell three seemingly unrelated stories that highlight the long and painful self-destructive cycle of a man, Shem Rosenkrantz. In MALNIVEAU PRISON, a man is found dead in a gutter of a small town in France. THE FALLING STAR tells the story of a private detective stumbling into a horrible situation after being hired to keep a young Hollywood starlet safe and POLICE AT THE FUNERAL tells the story of Rosenkrantz' absolute worst decision and the consequences that ensue. It's a beautifully orchestrated, epic piece of drama.
A couple weeks ago, I reviewed a new Philip Marlowe novel and praised the originality of the author's tone when tackling such an iconic character. THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH kind of redefined that notion for me, using style and setting to pay tribute to legendary authors, but using its own characters and most definitely its own tone. They felt like new, contemporary novels by Simenon, Chandler and Thompson. I've never read George Simenon, but THE FALLING STAR and POLICE AT THE FUNERAL were noticeably darker and more tormented than the iconic work of Chandler and Thompson, so it gave THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH a life of its own. Reading Ariel S. Winter felt like having a dream about finding a long lost novel from your favourite 20th century hardboiled fiction author. Sometimes it was almost too good to be true.
The immortal Jim Thompson approves.
THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH raises the following question : is it just a very long pastiche? I have a definite answer for you: no. A lot of the criticism from readers highlighted the long, stale parts that don't seem to go anywhere. Experienced readers will recognize and appreciate these parts as a crafty recreation of another author's universe, but I can see how they could how they could infuriate a less experienced hardboiled reader who doesn't know what he bargained for when he picked up THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH. The story of Shem Rosenkrantz's destruction emerges beautifully from the novels and tie them together rather beautifully. Ariel S. Winter's clever, almost magnificent plotting, as well as his command of his own tone give THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH a strong enough sense of identity to transcend its initial purpose of paying tribute.
Something that rubbed me the wrong way though: the dialogues were a little clumsy. Often, the person that has something to hide acts parodically, like a stage play character. They stick out like a sore thumb in every novel of THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH and it's a pretty bad trait for a novel that's targeting experienced readers. I'm far from being the best sleuth and I debunked the intrigue about half-way in every time. It's not supposed to be about the mystery, but about the characters, yet when they can contain themselves they often don't come off as a hardboiled cast.
I really liked THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH, but I was not swept away by it. There are factors that explain the lack of emotional transcendance like the dialogue and the overbearing bleakness. Lots of hardboiled novels fall into that trap. Bleakness is a variable of the genre, so it's easy to paint the walls with it, but hard to make it seem like something tragic, an accident of destiny. THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH is a bit guilty of that, especially in POLICE AT THE FUNERAL, the Jim Thompson tribute. Otherwise, it's a sound hardboiled novel with ambitions of creating something unique out of pieces that already exist. It does a lot of things by the book, exceeds expectations at time, but ultimately doesn't stand out as a great novel of its genre. It's still a good time, though.
Something that rubbed me the wrong way though: the dialogues were a little clumsy. Often, the person that has something to hide acts parodically, like a stage play character. They stick out like a sore thumb in every novel of THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH and it's a pretty bad trait for a novel that's targeting experienced readers. I'm far from being the best sleuth and I debunked the intrigue about half-way in every time. It's not supposed to be about the mystery, but about the characters, yet when they can contain themselves they often don't come off as a hardboiled cast.
I really liked THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH, but I was not swept away by it. There are factors that explain the lack of emotional transcendance like the dialogue and the overbearing bleakness. Lots of hardboiled novels fall into that trap. Bleakness is a variable of the genre, so it's easy to paint the walls with it, but hard to make it seem like something tragic, an accident of destiny. THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH is a bit guilty of that, especially in POLICE AT THE FUNERAL, the Jim Thompson tribute. Otherwise, it's a sound hardboiled novel with ambitions of creating something unique out of pieces that already exist. It does a lot of things by the book, exceeds expectations at time, but ultimately doesn't stand out as a great novel of its genre. It's still a good time, though.