Born in 1933 as Mary Beth Kuczkir, Fern Michaels brought five children into the world before turning to writing. She has had spectacular success, her 100+ novels selling more than 200 million copies. She is a frequent presence on the
New York Times and
USA Today best sellers lists. Her wealth has allowed her to be very generous in charitable giving. Given her popularity, I decided to sample one of her works, although I sensed I wouldn't like it. I didn't. She seems like a great lady, so it's difficult criticizing her, especially since she is at the pinnacle of the literary totem pole and I'm at the bottom.
Point Blank is the 25th in her Sisterhood series. It goes from A to Z without a surprise until a mild one in the last two pages, which may have been done to set up entry #26, which is available. The plot concerns the rescue from China of the daughter of one of the ladies. The child is threatened by a kidnapper, an old foe of her martial arts master dad. Although it is a fast, easy read, much of the 330 pages of the mass market paperback seems filler. Of course, I had no prior investment in the characters, so fans would likely enjoy the banter a lot more than I did. The story suffers from a complete lack of authenticity. It also adheres to one of Hollywood's modern cliches - that female operatives are physically equal to trained male assassins, in this case far superior. The bad guys are easily dispatched. The book reads more like fantasy, especially since one of the central figures is a dog with mystical powers. The text could have used another wash, which is more the fault of the editor than the author. At several points I was so exasperated I was tempted to abandon the book. I was reminded of the lone Catherine Coulter work I've sampled, which at least had one interesting aspect. She too is a runaway success. The only impressive aspect of
Point Blank is the juggling of the multiple characters, but even that has a downside. She constantly injects the name of the character who is being addressed in the dialogue. That is one of my literary pet peeves. I'd guess she does it for clarity, since there are so many players, but it doesn't correspond to real life, at least in my experience. Fortunately, my negativism will not harm Michaels, whose fan base is large and enthusiastic. a sharp counterpoint to my opinion. 533 readers at Amazon have rated
Point Blank, forging to a consensus of 4.7 on a scale of five. I rate it one. I admire what she's accomplished and applaud her charity, but
Point Blank is the least enjoyable novel I've ever read. I hope this was the last time I don't abandon an unsatisfying work in midstream. Being so critical makes me feel like a traitor to all writers, all of whom spend countless hours at their craft.
Barry Spunt, professor of Criminology at John Jay College and author of
Heroin and Music in New York City, visited the floating book shop today. He's just back from a vacation in Guatemala. While he was away, his beloved Red Sox won eight straight games. He joked that he was thinking of going back. Meanwhile, his second book,
Heroin, Acting, and Comedy in New York City, has become available. Like the first, it is outrageously overpriced: hardcover $68, Kindle $64. Most of the business it does will be from libraries. His first is in Harvard's library, among many others. Best of luck, sir.
I did a bit of home repair last night - and the world didn't end. The flapper in my toilet tank wore out after 29 years. I ordered one from Ebay for less than six bucks - and shipping was free! I was sure it wouldn't be right for the job, but the package said "Universal" and, sure enough, it fits like a glove. It took a couple of minutes to install. Sorry, I don't do house calls.
My thanks to the kind folks who bought and donated books. The inventory has grown so much that I had to haul some of it to the apartment. Fortunately, there were at least two serious novels for my reading pleasure among this latest batch.
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