(Amazon.com link)
Yet another book report. Didn't I hate to do them when I was in school? How things change. Anyway, The Ax is a new genre for me, being a selection from one of my book clubs. It's listed under "Mysteries and Thrillers", which is one area that I haven't read much of before.
The book is the story of Burke Devore, a line manager at a paper mill who is laid off when his job is outsourced. He's in his early 50's, and is finding the competition fierce for the dwindling number of available jobs in his area of specialty. So, he concocts a plan to reduce the competition: just kill enough of the job-seekers in his particular area, which will leave him the best (and only) man for any job (that just might happen to become) available.
As the story progresses, it becomes a battle against time. Will Burke be able to kill enough people and land a job before he's caught by the police or before his marriage or family falls apart? There are, of course, social commentaries about justness of a society that can toss people like Devore out of his chosen line of employment. Perhaps this is meant to get the reader to sympathize or identify with the protagonist in the story, but I can't say it was effective on me.
One thing I've noticed about books, but I can't really quantify, is how "easy" they are to read. As a self-styled slow reader, with some books, it can seemingly take "forever" for me to get through ten pages. With others, including this one, I can whip through 30 pages before I know it. I'm sure this is mainly due to the author's choice of words and sentence structure. According to a review on the back of the book by the Detroit News and Free Press, "No one can turn a phrase like Westlake." I'm not exactly sure what that is supposed to mean. This is a "page turner" novel that might be described as a "psychological thriller", not a great work of literature. While the writing style did make Devore seem to be an ordinary guy, I certainly don't recall any phrases that stand out as being noteworthy.
As I said, this is a genre that I haven't read much of in the past, and I'll say that I don't have any plans to read much of it in the future. When giving a rating of a book, I am torn between just saying how much I liked it and saying how "good" of a work it may be. Just because I don't care for something doesn't make it garbage. However, in this case, I'll rate the book by how much I liked it. I have to ask myself some questions. Why did I read this? What did I gain by reading it? I certainly didn't enjoy it. It wasn't "educational" in a meaningful sense. While some might consider it to be something one reads for pleasure, I didn't find much pleasure in going along for a ride with a murderer. So, I'm forcing myself to give this book my lowest rating so far: one star out of five.
1 comment:
What sort of book group chooses trashy stuff like this for their monthly discussion. Amazing! I think it's a ground breaking move - at least most of the people will have read the book (which is more than I can say for the book group I was in before) which makes for some half decent discussion. Kim and I joined a book club again last month, and because they hated the book from the previous month so much, they spent their time convincing us to read Stasiland, which they they had read last year and all raved about. -DFV
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