Amazon.com Nanette Hayes is sassy and brassy, as befits a statuesque street sax player improvising her way through Manhattan, mystery, and murder. After an April in Paris she'd rather forget, Nanette is back in New York, looking for gigs and staking out her favorite corners (without telling her mother, who thinks Nanette is teaching French at NYU). She's hit rock bottom and is crankily content to stay there, when a gift "mojo doll" from Harlem folk artist Ida Williams starts turning her luck around. But when Ida is suddenly shot to death in the middle of Nanette's new uptown gig, the guilt-stricken saxophonist wants to know why. Her investigation takes her from Ida's suspiciously checkered past to the recent murder of Black Hat, a rising young rap star; as Nanette struggles to make sense of these discordant notes, she and her closest friends find themselves whistling in an increasingly threatening dark. Charlotte Carter, who introduced Nanette in Rhode Island Red and followed it up with Coq au Vin, has a hot property in her heroine, whose independence and wry self-deprecation echo Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone (N Is for Noose, O Is for Outlaw). Nanette's gleeful sense of the absurd will also have readers thinking of Janet Evanovich's New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum (High Five, Hot Six). Unfortunately, Carter can't quite match Grafton's ability to weave tricky and disturbing plots, nor Evanovich's razor-sharp, dead-on prose. Drumsticks will satisfy readers eager for more of Nanette's quick tongue and keen wit, but its incoherent plot and half-hearted attention to secondary character development too often detract from its heroine's obvious appeal. Turn off the logic switch in your brain, then, and read for the sheer pleasure of Nanette's voice. --Kelly Flynn From Publishers Weekly African-American sax artist Nanette Hayes, a tough New Yorker, returns for her third gig (following Rhode Island Red and Coq au Vin). Nan is as low as she can go--hitting the booze hard, losing contact with friends and drifting until the gift of a voodoo doll seems to change her luck. An unexpected check and a chance to perform regularly at an upscale jazz club rouse her to seek out the voodoo doll's creator, an older woman named Ida Williams, whom she invites on impulse to hear her play. Her good luck ends in opening-night gunfire that leaves Ida dead. The old woman's checkered past, a vendetta among rap artists and an elaborate scam combine to thrust Nan into a maelstrom of violence. In search of answers, Nan finds that she needs her friends--Aubrey, a beautiful exotic dancer, and Justin, a white, witty drag queen. She also needs the help of both her high school principal father, who left her mother to marry a much younger white woman, and gruff NYPD detective Leman Sweet, who proves to be an unexpected guardian angel. Underneath the street trappings and the jazzy, bold sexuality, Nan seems a nice middle-class gal seeking bohemia who instead finds adventure and romance. If Carter doesn't quite convince with this brash first-person narrative, she does manage to entertain. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. See all Editorial Reviews
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我必须承认,这本书的阅读过程是充满摩擦力的,但这种“难啃”恰恰是其价值的体现。它探讨的伦理困境和政治权谋的复杂性,远超一般的小说范畴,更像是一部深厚的政治学或社会人类学著作,只不过被包裹在了引人入胜的虚构故事外壳之下。书中对于权力运作的刻画,尤其是在描述那些不为人知的幕后交易和妥协时,那种冰冷而务实的现实主义,令人不寒而栗。没有浪漫化的英雄主义,只有赤裸裸的利益计算和生存策略。我特别被其中关于“记忆的代价”的那段论述所触动,作者似乎在暗示,一个社会要想向前迈进,必然要牺牲掉某些被珍视的过往,而这个代价由谁来承担,是故事中永恒的痛点。这本书不是用来消遣的,它是一次对读者认知边界的挑战。它要求你放下既有的偏见,去理解那些反派角色的逻辑,去接受世界的非黑即白。读完后,你可能会感到有些沉重,但你的世界观无疑会因此变得更加宽广和审慎。
评分从文学技巧的角度来看,这部作品的语言运用简直是鬼斧神工,完全超越了我对当代小说的预期。作者的句法结构变幻莫测,时而长句如溪流般绵延不绝,细节描摹入微,充满了古典的华丽感;时而又用极短促、近乎新闻报道式的短句,营造出一种令人窒息的紧迫感。这种语言上的不稳定和多变性,恰恰反映了故事内核的不安与动荡。我特别留意到作者如何处理不同阶层人物的对话,贵族的措辞考究,带着刻意的疏离和典雅的腔调;而底层人物的对话则充满了地方性的俚语和粗粝的生命力,两者之间的差异被刻画得入木三分,使得人物身份的辨识度极高,几乎不需要作者的提示。此外,书中的环境描写并非简单的背景板,它们是活着的、具有情感的实体。例如,对某个古老港口的描绘,那种潮湿、腐朽和永恒的喧嚣感,仿佛能透过纸页渗透出来,让人打个寒颤。这本书的魅力在于其对“语境”的极致捕捉,它不满足于讲述一个故事,它更是在精心构建一个可以呼吸的、充满细微气味的文化生态系统。对于那些醉心于文字本身美感的读者而言,光是沉浸在这种语言的海洋中,就已经是一种莫大的享受了。
评分说实话,初翻这本书时,我有些不适应它那种近乎冷酷的客观叙事角度。它不像许多畅销小说那样,急于拉拢读者的情感,而是像一个远古的观察者,冷眼旁观着芸芸众生在命运的洪流中挣扎。这种疏离感最初让人感到难以亲近,但随着阅读的深入,我开始理解并敬佩作者的这种克制。正是因为没有过度的煽情,当关键的情感爆发点来临时,其冲击力反而成倍增加,显得更为真挚和震撼。它探讨的主题非常宏大——关于信仰的瓦解、旧秩序的崩塌、以及个体在面对历史巨变时的无力感——但作者始终没有给出简单的答案或道德评判。他只是呈现了事件,让读者自己去消化、去感受那份沉甸甸的重量。这种非说教式的叙事态度,使得全书的哲学思辨性大大提升。我花了很长时间去回味其中关于“遗忘的必要性”的那几章,那里面的辩论锋利无比,直指人心最脆弱的部分。这本书的阅读体验是内向的、需要反思的,它不提供廉价的慰藉,而是提供一个面对复杂世界真相的视角。
评分这部作品的结构设计简直是一件建筑学的杰作。它不是一个直线式的叙事,而是一个复杂的网状结构,多个时间线、多重视角在不同的章节中交替出现,如同多面棱镜折射出同一个核心事件。初看地图和时间轴可能会感到头晕,但一旦你掌握了关键的节点——那些反复出现的地点、被赋予不同意义的符号——你就会惊叹于作者如何精心地将这些看似分散的碎片缝合在一起。最妙的是,作者对信息流的控制达到了炉火纯青的地步。他知道何时该倾泻大量背景信息,何时又该完全留白,让读者自己去脑补那些悬而未决的谜团。这种“知识的阶梯”设计,确保了即便是初次阅读,也能感受到故事的推进,但只有那些愿意深挖的读者,才能真正解开隐藏在章节之间的历史互文和人物动机的深层联系。我个人非常喜欢那种在阅读即将结束时,猛然间明白前文某个看似无关紧要的细节其实是核心线索的“顿悟”时刻。这种智力上的回馈,是许多平庸之作无法给予的。
评分这本书的叙事节奏把握得犹如精妙的鼓点,起伏跌宕间充满了令人屏息的张力。作者在构建世界观时,展现了一种近乎偏执的细致,每一个角落、每一个习俗都被赋予了独特的纹理和历史的重量。初读之下,可能会被那些繁复的设定稍稍阻碍,但一旦适应了那种独特的韵律,便会发现自己完全沉浸其中,无法自拔。故事的主角群像塑造尤为出色,他们不是传统意义上的“英雄”或“恶棍”,而是被复杂的人性驱使着,在道德的灰色地带挣扎前行。我尤其欣赏作者对于“选择”的探讨,书中没有廉价的解决方案,每一次决定都伴随着沉重的代价,这种真实感让情节的推动力异常强劲。尤其是在处理历史遗留问题和权力更迭的章节,文笔老辣,笔力千钧,仿佛能感受到字里行间弥漫着的尘土与硝烟味。尽管篇幅宏大,但作者的控场能力极强,即便并行叙述着多条故事线,信息密度极高,也从未让人感到混乱,反而有一种宏大交响乐的和谐感。这本书无疑是一次对耐心和专注力的考验,但回报你的,将是一场无与伦比的文学冒险。它更像是一部等待被细细品味的史诗,每一次重读都会发现新的层次和微妙的伏笔,绝对值得书架上留出最显眼的位置。
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