From Margaret Wise Brown to a book that I can’t believe I didn’t read sooner:
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Boy, did I have the wrong idea about this book. Maybe because it was so popular when it came out, or (look, I’m shallow) maybe because the author’s name is so snazzy, I somehow assumed that it was a trashy beach book, or some kind of dated, two-bit thriller. Boy, was I wrong. This is the real deal — real literature, a genuinely great novel. Almost Dostoevskian at times.
The characters are so real. Their sorrows and loves are so real. The places are so real. My memories of passages I read are as strong as memories of places I’ve actually, physically visited. The plot is insanely complicated, but it’s never outside the realm of what might, actually possibly happen to someone who is as unlucky, as talented, as driven, and as flawed, and as Russian as Moscow homicide investigator Arkady Renko.
