Critical Mick

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Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Ruth Rendell
Vintage, 2003

"Go Away!" she hissed. Wish I'd taken heed...

Minty should have taken her knife to this manuscript. At least half should have been cut. A&E&PE is a book both wandering and repetitious.

Over the course of this novel, the main character takes almost sixteen million baths. I counted! There's also long lists of meals prepared, detailed fashion descriptions of eighty thousand outfits, and in-depth cinema visit scenes for every film that appeared around the year 2000.

Pinch me?

No.

Pinch off half the chapters and there's be enough room for the amount of plot and character invested here. On second thought, pinch off half the characters too: there's little that's interesting or sympathetic to several of them, and their stories' impact on the main plot is tangential. At best.

In fairness: I was expecting a mystery. Perhaps I'm just disappointed that there was very little crime in this novel, no investigation (at all), and no doubt as to what the conclusion would hold. There's never a moment when "it all comes together," no long-awaited twist that would make the whole read worthwhile. Instead of surprises we have bath after bath after bath and a lot of weeping into hankies over failed relationships.

Summary: Don't bother.

Critical Mick would rather read tax forms than another Ruth Rendell. Ugh! It's like coffee you could read a newspaper through. Gimme espresso, baby.

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2005 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 1 June, 2005.