{"id":191,"date":"2013-05-07T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T21:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/?p=191"},"modified":"2017-11-23T22:53:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T22:53:13","slug":"how-to-like-reading-about-a-hero-you-dont-like-the-goodbye-kiss-by-massimo-carlotto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/07\/how-to-like-reading-about-a-hero-you-dont-like-the-goodbye-kiss-by-massimo-carlotto\/","title":{"rendered":"How to like reading about a hero you don\u2019t like \u2013 \u2018The Goodbye Kiss\u2019 by Massimo Carlotto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Massimo Carlotto\u2019s crime novel\u00a0The Goodbye Kis<\/em>s, I was once again reminded how intriguing an unsympathetic main character can be in fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My own novel\u00a0No-Brainer<\/em>\u00a0features a main character some readers find too hard to like. However, I do ascribe to the accepted truism of writing that the reader should care for the main character and preferably like them enough to root for them. I also wrote\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0that one of the reasons I don\u2019t like reading books about serial killers is that I don\u2019t want to spend time with sickos.<\/p>\n

So why did I enjoy Carlotto\u2019s book so much when the main character is a lying bastard, robber, serial abuser of women and commits a string of murders?<\/p>\n

For one thing, he\u2019s not a sicko. He commits these crimes, but unlike the serial killers I detest, he doesn\u2019t derive particular pleasure from doing so. Although he does confess in one place to always having enjoyed murder, that is not the motivation for his actions. He is simply trying to look after number one the best way he knows how. He is callous and cruel, but not sadistic.<\/p>\n

The way the book is written, with its incredibly fast pace, is also not indulgent. You never get the feeling that the narrator is enjoying the gore or is hoping that the reader will get kicks from descriptions of violence. The violence happens, matter of factly, and the story moves on.<\/p>\n

Massimo Carlotto reminded me of nobody so much as Jim Thompson, whose main characters can also be morally corrupt. Both these authors write lean and mean fiction\u2026 and these words are not just chosen because they rhyme. There is a commendable, merciless quality to the writing of both these men.<\/p>\n

I read\u00a0The Goodbye Kiss<\/em>\u00a0without as much as a glance at the blurb. I saw the book at a second hand store, liked the look of it and decided to simply open on page one and start reading. It is only afterwards that I read the blurbs and discovered the degree to which Massimo Carlotto\u2019s life story mirrors that of the protagonist in this book. (Presumably the author is not really a murderer, though he did spend five years in prison before his conviction on a murder charge was overturned.)<\/p>\n

While Carlotto\u2019s biography can be considered to lend credence to his work, I believe that\u2019s neither here nor there. What you read in the book is the work of someone with a hard-nosed approach that is clearly not put on. (I\u2019m so bored with narrators who pretend to be tough. Isn\u2019t it far more compelling to read stories, especially crime stories, courageous enough to show vulnerability?)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I also recently read two other books where the main character didn\u2019t entirely win my sympathy: John le Carr\u00e9\u2019s\u00a0Absolute Friends<\/em>\u00a0and James M. Cain\u2019s\u00a0Mildred Pierce<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s case, the character was a victim of larger forces and should\u2019ve evinced more sympathy. Yet somehow he just never came alive to me, despite all the pages and all the information and everything that was done to him. A spark of life was missing. Brilliant writer though he is, I think Le Carr\u00e9 didn\u2019t quite get this character to come off the page.<\/p>\n

The title character of\u00a0Mildred Pierce<\/em>\u00a0was more appealing, at least at first, though her actions made one care about her less as the story progressed. Still, it is a marvellous book and one I can almost not believe has been as successful as it has been. It certainly doesn\u2019t follow the popular pattern. It\u2019s actually an incredibly brave book.<\/p>\n

And one cannot consider unsympathetic main characters without a nod to Nabokov, whose works feature a succession of them. In his case, the trick is that you recognise the humanity of these characters. You may not admire them, but you feel you know them and, however begrudgingly, are willing to indulge their weaknesses. And, of course, there\u2019s that Nabokov style to make the reading a pleasure.<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to Massimo Carlotto\u2019s book. If the writing is good, then the book is a joy to read. As Oscar Wilde said: \u201cThere\u00a0is\u00a0no\u00a0such thing as a\u00a0moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Massimo Carlotto\u2019s crime novel\u00a0The Goodbye Kiss, I was once again reminded how intriguing an unsympathetic main character can be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[24,28],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}