Learning more about his dead wife (Thanksgiving - Michael Dibdin)

Member Name: CPTDANIELS

Product:	Thanksgiving - Michael Dibdin
Date:	24/06/09 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Few but I thought Darryl the ex was facinating

Disadvantages: Poor story and lack of direction

Background:

My experience and knowledge of Michael Dibdin work is very limited. A couple of months ago I read and reviewed 'Back to Bologna', which I thought for a crime novel was witty but lacked depth in terms of the plot. So I thought I'd try another one but with a slightly different theme.

About the author:

Michael Dibdin was born in 1947 and died last year. After travelling around the globe he settled in Seattle where he married the writer Kathrine Beck. Many of his successful crime novels have been set in Italy and deals with the fictional character of Inspector Aurelio Zen. In his career he wrote a total of 18 books with this one being written in 2000.


Synopsis of the book:

When Englishman Anthony's American wife Lucy is suddenly killed in an air crash, he embarks on a journey. He is grief stricken and looks to uncover all the things in her past that he knew nothing about before he met her. In a bid to not only understand her but also to get some kind of closure so he can move on.

He begins his journey by visiting her ex-husband Darryl Bob Allen in the Nevada desert. As he knew Lucy when she was only 20 and married and had two children with her. However he leaves disappointed and frustrated as all the man wants to do is brag about how great her body was back then and what a great sex life they had together.

Anthony is haunted by Lucy and sees and believes he sees her while he searches for peace. He re-lives their meeting on a plane and some of their conversations following sex .He ends up at his parents Villa in France under suspicion of murder of Lucy's ex husband, where he will either sink or swim.

It is a book about love, understanding, the past and sex.


My thoughts on the book:

I am sorry to say I thought this book was terrible. I did not enjoy it at all and it was only with a lot of persistence on my part that I managed to get throw to the end. In the end I just wondered what the point of the book had been and if it had just gone completely over my head.

In his previous book that I read (Back to Bologna) I also found difficult but at least in that one there was plenty of humour to keep the reader going in this one there was none. I think that book was average and this one quite simply was awful.

On the positive side, I liked the concept and I could understand this man's motives for wanting to know all there was to know about his dead wife's past. But, I thought the author did it in a disjointed and unappealing way. He for me could have made it far more interesting by bringing in old school friends or relatives with new or different revelations to keep the story developing.

The book I thought began well, with the meeting with her ex-husband. Again the concept was good and the rivalry between the two men was fascinating, but it all seemed to come down to sex. There is far more to a relationship than sex and I think by doing this the author missed a great opportunity to develop his storyline.

I did too enjoy Anthony's recollections of his dead wife. Some where painfully honest and demonstrated a super understanding of both the male and female perception. However again for me he ruined this by focusing on the sex side when he could have put far more depth into the novel by bringing far more ideas into the writing.

To be honest I did not see where the book was going if anywhere. I understood why he was looking into the past and why he went to France to escape and be on his own. I just didn't feel the author in any way managed to link the different ideas together in a logical way.

Anthony was the main character in the book and through it you got to know and understand his personality. It was done in such a way which was interesting to me as Dibdin didn't described him physically, so you were left to make your own mind about what he looked like. I thought that actually was a good touch and made him quite mysterious.

Lucy his wife you got to learn a lot about. She was clearly a fascinating character, who had a fun personality if again a little obsessed by sex. Of the other characters I liked her ex Darryl persona. He had dropped out of society and was very different with secrets and cunning. I think the author should have extended his role in the book as there was so much that could have been done with his characteristics.

Despite my criticism I did think the author's quality of description were very good. He certainly knows how to set a scene so you feel you are right there throughout the story, even if the story itself is not great.

The book is on the short side and I felt it could have been made far more interesting and longer as the original idea was very good. It was split into four acts, which I did not mind as it was such a short book, which I was hoping and expecting to burst into life at any moment. Sadly I am still waiting for this to happen.


Conclusion:

This is probably the worst book I have read in a long time. As a result I would not recommend this book to anyone. All it has going for it is a good concept and interesting opening. The storyline was poor and never really went anywhere on this showing I will not be looking to read any further books by this author.

Other information:
Pages: 184
Price: £5.49
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 0-571-20572-0 (Paperback)
Web Site: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06.dibdin.html


Thanks for reading.

This review was published under my name on both Ciao and Dooyoo.

@CPTDANIELS June 2009

Summary: Simply awful