Brian Finney
Auteur de Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography
A propos de l'auteur
Brian Finney is an associate professor in English at California State University, Long Beach, USA
Œuvres de Brian Finney
Dangerous Conjectures 2 exemplaires
Oeuvres associées
L'Officier prussien et autres nouvelles (1914) — Directeur de publication, quelques éditions — 411 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 7
- Aussi par
- 1
- Membres
- 59
- Popularité
- #280,813
- Évaluation
- 3.4
- Critiques
- 2
- ISBN
- 12
With a part-time gig watching surveillance tapes and another watering plants, Jenny's an unlikely sleuth. I felt like she took this challenge mostly because she was bored. But she stumbles into more information, and can't let it go. She keeps uncovering new layers and new connections, turning her look into a missing ex-girlfriend into a high-stakes international drama. As she investigates, Jenny discovers more strength in herself, too.
Selfishness and money motivate the antagonists to do horrible things, a realistic motive, although some of the villains were a little too mustache-twirlingly evil for me. Jenny -- and the reader -- could always tell who's good and who's evil, because there's not a lot of grey here. The plot really highlights the haves and have-nots in our society. Jenny, who's just getting by on part-time work, sees both the extreme wealth of CEOs and political candidates, and the constant financials struggles of Felicia, Miguel and other undocumented workers. Money is power here, with wealthy men able to make problems disappear, and undocumented workers powerless to get their full paychecks. This doesn't just set the conflict in motion, it helps Jenny discover what she needs, too, and grow from being shruggy and accepting, to a young woman determining her own goals.
At times, the characters are told, not shown, to the reader. For example, hard-working Felicia is described as "fiercely independent" more than once, but we only really see her asking Jenny for help and asking her what to do next. Still, I laughed at the descriptions of slacker Gary, Jenny's "boyfriend" who really just wants to get stoned and play games.
The final pages are a letter from a young man who was deported back to a country he can't remember. This brings the story back from an investigative adventure to a reminder of the very real human cost of deportation.… (plus d'informations)