Carmine, a gregarious, proud Italian-American senior citizen, purchased A Hitch in Twilight about two years ago. Today, outside the Dolphin Gym at 24th Avenue and 86th Street, he raved about it, especially stories Nowak's Dreams and The Dead Pool. He eschewed a handshake and went right to the goombah kiss. "I'm proud of you, " he said, and handed me five dollars. I asked that he take a book, but he wouldn't hear of it. I suspected it would be taken as some kind of guinea insult if I handed the money back to him, so I stuffed it into a pocket. He said the stories should be made into movies. Your lips to a producer's ears, sir. Thank you. And thanks to the kind middle aged woman who not only bought a non-fiction book on police corruption but gave me Tina Zahn's Why I Jumped, an Oprah selection, which she'd just finished.
Karen Hall has an impressive resume in prime time television, having written scripts for MASH, Eight Is Enough, Hill Street Blues, Judging Amy, The Good Wife and other shows. She is credited for the MASH finale, which drew one of the highest, if not the highest, audiences in the history of TV. I just finished her only novel, Dark Debts. It's theme is demonology. While it pales compared to William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, it does make one ponder the cause of heinous acts. Of course, this leads to the problem of accountability for such acts. I don't know if she was simply trying to create an effective thriller or wrestling with the perplexing issue or both. I wasn't sold. As usual, I thought the novel way too long at 498 pages. Its length diminished the excitement and did not increase illumination on the troubling issue. Of course, it is a difficult one, as are all of the great questions. My first novel, Close to the Edge, tries to get at the reason for a heinous act. I think I succeeded on an individual level but failed completely on the grand. On a scale of five, I rate Dark Debts two-and-a-half.
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