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Title: Foul Matter by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0-670-03259-X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 18 August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (23 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A satirical look at the publishing industry.
Comment: Martha Grimes's new book, "Foul Matter," is a funny and off-beat treatment of the corrupt, venal, and nasty side of the publishing industry. Paul Giverney is a best-selling author who can write his own ticket. He decides to change publishers, and he agrees to sign on with a house named Mackenzie-Haack on the condition that they drop a talented writer named Ned Isaly. Ned loves his craft and his characters live vividly in his head. He cares little about wealth and adulation. In short, he is the exact opposite of many of today's high-priced authors. Critics love Ned, but, alas, he does not command big publicity tours and his books are not displayed in the front window of major bookselling chains.
Paul Giverney negotiates a deal with an ambitious Mackenzie-Haack editor named Clive Esterhaus, who knows that getting Giverney would be a major coup for his publishing house and for him personally. Esterhaus's boss, Bobby Mackenzie, has no scruples about doing whatever it takes to get this hot author. He can actually see the dollar signs dancing in front of his eyes. To what lengths will Bobby go to get Giverney? How will Bobby get rid of Ned, who is under contract?
Grimes must know some reprehensible and unscrupulous publishing types, because her book is a scathing indictment of the business. Although the author is a bit heavy-handed in her distaste for the sordid aspects of publishing, she makes up for it with her deliciously deadpan humor and her amusingly eccentric characters. The two funniest individuals in the book are Karl and Candy, hit men with a conscience and an appreciation for a good book.
There is a farcical interlude in which Ned Isaly travels to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a virtual posse of his friends, acquaintances, and the omnipresent hit men follow him. Although everyone is trying to be incognito, all of these characters practically fall over one another. Grimes's wacky and whimsical sense of humor makes "Foul Matter" delightfully entertaining.
Rating: 4
Summary: Wicked, Witty, Fun
Comment: How did Martha Grimes get this book published?
Foul Matter is a departure for Grimes. Instead of her usual cast of characters in England, she focuses on the vicious world of publishing in New York.
The plot: a top NY publishing firm is dying-literally-to sign hot writer Paul Giverny. Giverny has one condition-the firm must give him their top literary editor and they must get rid of one of their finest, though not best selling, writers, Ned Isaly. Giverny simply wants to see how far the firm will go to get him-he has no grudge against Isaly. Nor does he want him killed. But the firm takes their job seriously and hires two of the most memorable hit men in history-two individuals who like to get to know their target, his world, and their employers before they make their hit. Grimes' caricatures of these two rivals "The Sopranos" for dark humor in the world of the mafia.
The plot is an excuse to satirize the NY publishing world, its cast of characters, its watering holes, its evil. The book is basically a series of very funny scenes as the cast of characters live their lives with one of them a target for murder. When Isaly goes to Pittsburgh to discover his roots, everyone (hit men, Giverny, publisher, friends) follow him. And they are all lost away from New York.
I would recommend this book to book lovers-it is an interesting look behind the scenes of the industry. I would caution mystery lovers-this is basically a satire and not a typical Grimes mystery. But it is a lot of fun.
Rating: 4
Summary: An Author's Revenge!
Comment: Most people I know who write novels have little good to say about publishing companies, acquisition editors and the whole process of marketing their books. In fact, a fair amount of malice can seep out in these authors' comments.
Foul Matter takes a slapstick approach to describing how low a publisher will stoop to gain an advantage over other publishers. In the process, the book will bring many chuckles with its satirical names (Mackenzie-Haack publishers, Grunge publishers, DreckSneed publishers and American Dreck), endless conniving over nothing (getting a dinner reservation at the Old Hotel), lack of morals (hiring Mobsters to do dirty deeds), and lack of interest in authors as people (being more concerned about potential profits).
The story unwinds as a sort of mystery. Mega-best-selling author Paul Giverney demands that Mackenzie-Haack drop another author and assign that author's editor to Giverney's books. Giverney assumes that the legal team at Mackenzie-Haack will simply use obscure contract clauses to accomplish this . . . but the truth is chillingly more sinister.
Why does Giverney want this result? It looks like ego . . . but could it be something else? If so, what?
Most readers will see this book as being too exaggerated, and may grade it as a three star effort. Most writers who've had a bad a experience with a publisher will see this as hugely humorous and not so exaggerated. Many of them will grade the book at five stars. In a compromise I have chosen a four-star rating to reflect both potential viewpoints.
Personally, I found the book to be the funniest novel about publishing I have ever read.
As I finished the book, I was piqued by the ending to think of other ways that the human tendency to err can be used constructively.
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Title: The Murder Room by P.D. JAMES ISBN: 1400041414 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 18 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: A Place of Hiding by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0553801309 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Now May You Weep: A Novel by Deborah Crombie ISBN: 0060525231 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Babes in the Wood: A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery by RUTH RENDELL ISBN: 140004930X Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Blacklist: A V.I. Warshawski Novel by Sara Paretsky ISBN: 0399150854 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 29 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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