| Bad date
brings out the bastard by Anne Darling Reprinted from HippoPress Ever have a painful experience with someone you care about, an experience that turned out later to be nothing more than a misunderstanding? Who hasn't? Ever spend the next 10 years of your life behaving like a total jerk before you got around to clearing it up? I'm guessing not. But that is the rather implausible premise of John Scott Shephard's nonetheless entertaining first novel. "Henry's List of Wrongs" tells how, after an apparent rebuff by a new girlfriend, Henry, a sweet, decent young guy, becomes a total bastard (called the Assassin) and remains so for the next decade. The "List" refers to the people-business rivals, friends, girlfriends-the Assassin has stepped on to reach the top, and whom he decides to apologize to once he discovers his life was based on a mistake. Shephard's previously has written screenplays, including "Joe Somebody" and "Life or Something Like It." So of course I was worried. And the first few chapters seemed to confirm my fears: The prose, in the way of many first-time novels, tries too hard to be clever, in the Bret Easton Ellis one-brand-name-per-paragraph style, and many of the establishing scenes seemed rushed, coming off as though they were meant to be filmed rather than read (in fact, the film rights were optioned before the book was on the shelves). However, the book picks up considerably once the premise is in place, and more importantly, once Sophie, the woman who helps Henry write the list, enters the story. For one thing, she says what the reader may be thinking-that a bad date is a pretty sad excuse for becoming a lousy person. She's also a very likable character. From then on the writing stops trying to be clever and manages to actually be clever, and settles down to the major business of the book-Henry's getting justifiably assaulted and abused by his former victims, while Sophie provides commentary. Anyone who has ever seen a movie will know that Henry and Sophie fall in love. Fortunately the story, as well as Sophie, has a few more surprises. It's pretty much a given that Henry will achieve the redemption he set out to find, but it's fun getting there and despite many contrived elements, it ends up being a believable redemption. I'm not sure I buy "Henry's List of Wrongs" as the profound philosophical concept about the past and forgiveness it ultimately seems it would like to be, but it does succeed in being an entertaining and, in the end, surprisingly touching book. |