I.S.P BLOG #7

DEAD SOULS by Ian Rankin

The narrative in the opening chapter of this novel is based upon getting the reader familiar with the traits of the protagonist. John Rebus stars in his tenth novel and for someone like me who has not read any of the series, after a paragraph of description I get the idea of the 'everyday man who happens to be an inspector' and I'm ready to discover who and what he's all about.
But even if you already know who this guy is, Rankin draws in all readers with his opening line "..he saw the man, and knew he wasn't the one." Who is he on the hunt for? Are we going to run into him soon? Narrative drive should be established as soon as possible, and that is done here right off the bat.

We do not meet the animal poisoner, yet Rebus informs us on his motives, which are odd.

I enjoy the setting that the story opens in; a zoo filled with all sorts of animals which do not need much description to get a picture in the reader's head, so their is already a great deal of depth to where we know we are. The voice sounds like the perspective of Rebus, although not in 1st person, it details how he feels and what is going through his mind in the appropriate places.

What makes someone kill an animal in captivity? Or abuse children? The applicability of the title is one of few in my studies that can be discovered early on; the views of most people, Rebus and Rankin is that they are dead souls.

I.S.P BLOG #6

THE SNAPPER by Roddy Doyle

There is good reason as to why The Snapper became a major film. People enjoy reading about a motley bunch of lovable ne'er-do-wells, and screen play adapters enjoy how little work they have to do.

There is 100% believable dialogue in this chapter. We hear less from the narrator than from the characters and that adds to the strength of this book's finest quality; the narration is there only to tell us what cannot be shown and being able to have your characters reveal the story on their own, as it does in real life, is a great technique because along the way we learn the who the characters as well. The voice of the narrator does not have anything special to say, it has the local as the rest of the cast and speaks succinctly and avoids "she said and he said" which allows the reader to watch what the characters are doing.

We know where we are, that is what is told to us, the dialogue is what does so much more. The direct speech between the characters is the most authentic out of any of the novels I studied for the I.S.P. The drive comes from how Doyle reveals the necessary information, the talk between the family leaves readers eager to overhear the 'gossip.' The tone is always light-hearted and that makes this book a pleasure to read; Jimmy Rabbitte is concerned about his daughter's pregnancy, but he isn't going to lose his mind over it.

Each character is created in the same way we learn about what is going on. For the size of this first section, Doyle successfully squeezes in an introduction to most of the characters if not all the family.

This book reads like a movie, and is not too difficult to plow through seeing as all a reader has to do is listen to what the people are saying.

I.S.P BLOG #5

LET IT BLEED by Ian Rankin

Through good sensory detail, the harsh winter night is pictured as a car chase screams through not allowing the dangerous conditions to deter any of them away from their objective; whether that be cat or mouse. Then, the picture in our minds has another dimension added to it when Rankin follows the classical order of the introduction 0f a story by introducing the characters; Inspectors Rebus and Lauderdale as well as noting their character traits with their action. The rule is to show what you can rather than tell. "Rebus had his teeth bared. He gripped the door handle with one hand, and the front end of his passenger seat with the other." A cautious inspector, willing to catch the bad guy yet would rather keep all his bones intact. This describes his partner as well, specifically how he handles an automobile in the winter which clearly is quite distant from relaxed. An 0n the edge r0ad rager is at the wheel, we are in the back seat listening; "We'll get them! We'll get the bastards!" If I were Rebus, I'd be 0n edge as well; "Rebus c0uldn't unl0ck his jaw l0ng en0ugh t0 reply." Rankin continues t0 show us character's emoti0ns thr0ught0ut this chapter, t00 many t0 write d0wn all.

We learn a backst0ry bef0re anything is 0verc0me 0r acc0mplished, via flashback. There is n0 sentence bef0re t0 prepare a reader, the reader sh0uld get what is g0ing 0n seeing as it has nothing t0 d0 with the present. This effect gives a 'c0p drama' t0ne that 0f which seen 0n T.V and adds t0 the wh0le idea 0f watching a b00k.
The characters are well established thr0ugh speech. In the flashback, a tapped phone call shows the dialect and traits 0f the kidnappers, "'We' phone tonight with the details. One last thing, no police understand?'... The ph0ne caller had sounded, working-class. In the mouth, understand had become unnerstaun."

I have not read any of the Inspector Rebus Series, but I can see why it is popular.

I.S.P BLOG #4

PERSONALITY by Andrew O'Hagan

I appreciate how O'Hagan succinctly introduces the subject to open the novel. "The body of Enrico Colangelo" will intrigue lovers of mystery or murder, but it keeps all other readers on the line by giving him a name; we know that there is more than just a decaying corpse on the shore. The setting is well set up as well in the beginning, life is given to the sea by it being called "violent." After all, so far as we know it was the violent sea that murdered this man.

There is unique character drive; we do not have a random gross dead person, this European tenor still is given motive, a thought process that his heart- although dead-keeps alive. "He could swim to the lifeboats, he'd find her there." The protagonists, a group of local boys, come across the body; we feel slight suspense in that we already know there is a body there and we are just waiting for the naive kids to come across it.

The narrative is omniscient and comes with a perspective of one of the boys, grown up, looking more than 50 years into the past. I get this number from the book itself: "only then, as a man of sixty-two, would Neil remember the fingers of the washed up man at Traig Iais." The voice also supports that idea, it uses the local tongue ("jumpers, crofters") and brings up personal details that only a local would bring up long after, as a way of reminiscing. "From the top you could look across the sound to South Uist and the place where Charles Edward Stuart met Flora Macdonald at midnight." It's also that of a storyteller, who isn't going to dance around the subject of a corpse.

There is artful sensory detailing of the boys at play in the Marram grass; "it was frightening to hear the crash of the waves and feel the rush of the sand that would sting your face and push you back to the dunes."

I.S.P BLOG # 3

HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby

What drives the plot best in the piece is what I was taught should and usually does do the job, character and narrative. The character we meet within the first paragraph has a story to tell to an audience of one, and that's his ex Laura. The reason why the character drive and narrative drive work so well together is because the protagonist he supports the character is also the narrator. It's a first person narrative; a message to Laura, with a quick opening that instantly creates a comically sad Mr. Heartbreak who lists the most memorable breakups. We eavesdrop on a tone that feels like something we're not supposed to hear; we know he has just ended another relationship and that leaves men melodramatic and sappy so readers expect to hear something 'heartfelt.' "Can you see your name in that lot, Laura? I reckon you'd sneak into the top ten, but there's no place for you in the top five." Ouch.

There is a vivid description of U.K's Hertfordshire, Hornby paints a clear picture of the local hangout spot as a kid in the small English suburb. "right across the road from a little row of shops (a VG supermarket, a newsagent, an off-license). There was nothing around that could help you get you geographical bearings" he continues to explain the confusion of being lost in the town. Hornby brings back my own memories which allows me to relate to his character when he is detailing his puberty. Just as painful as mine, the unnamed protagonist empathizes with me by bringing up gut wrenching moments that clearly stick in his mind as a grown-up; his first breakup. "I stung, and I blushed, and I suddenly forgot how to walk without being aware of every single part of my body." The love able sadness emitted adds a familiarity to him, so we feel like we know him more.

The end of this section makes good use of writing something with cliffhanger qualities. "If we were doing this list in grief order, rather than chronological order, I'd put it right up there at number two." Number two? I wonder what number one could be...

I.S.P BLOG #2

ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby

When writing, your goal is to not only think about yourself but what will draw in your readers, a dramatic or action packed beginning can work in movies, most of the time in literature if there is too much happening right off the bat, surprisingly you will lose interest. What intrigues me to continue reading to the end of this novel is Hornby's opening scene; the moments after a breakup. As I said, dramatic and action packed could sound like the way to go, but it's the authentic drama that we readers are looking for. When people are breaking up, their emotions are running wild and melodrama will often take over. When we come in, it's all over and now we are going to watch real people not being fueled by their hormones. Marcus' mother and Roger had a big argument that he says "he hadn't understood a word of it," so how could a reader? Also, physically it is easier to write less. Eavesdropping on the breakup would tell us about the couple, we don't need to know Roger. The aftermath dialogue gives good background to Marcus' facts and character traits. Mainly, that he loves his mother and when she's upset "he ought to say something optimistic."

The narrative is present in this novel to only tell us what could not be shown by character action or speech, it describes the people and lets the reader read about them. It is fueled by English diction, filled with slang terms that we don't find in Canada. The voice of this narration is looking through similar eyes as Marcus the kid; he name drops popular children's movies of that time as well as his opinion on them, and the most interesting characteristic is the attention span. "And that when she was his age... something, he couldn't remember what."

The ending of this chapter is not as much of a segway into the next chapter as it is more enchanting narrative. Marcus' mother is depressed after ending another relationship, she feels alone and unwanted, her son turns on the 'tele' and hopes to find something that won't get her mind on her being single; he "zapped" to the channel programming "a sort of fish thing that lived right down at the bottom of caves and couldn't see anything, a fish that nobody could see the point of; he didn't think that would remind his mum of anything much." The naivete is humorous. A light-hearted way to end the introduction.

I.S.P BLOG #1

WHAT HAPPENED LATER by Ray Robertson

The first chapter of this novel is efficiently opens the story. Within pages two buddy characters Jack and Stanley are revealed, within paragraphs we know their favorite pub, and within sentences we see that Jack is a comical drunk. Despite the happy-go-lucky alcoholism and a moocher friend antics, Kerouac is more than just a buffoon. We learn more through the omniscient narrative than the direct speech; I do not frown upon Robertson telling us what he could show us because being a protagonist being dragged off the road after a drunken adventure still sauced as a pan, is not where I would expect to hear:
"Say Jack?"
"Yes Stanley?"
"How is life as French-Catholic-Writer going?"
"Not too bad at all my studio apartment friend!"
Since there isn't going to be any dialogue worth keeping in the story, it is appropriate we learn the facts above through the author's storytelling which enchants with his style.

Immediately establishing the skeleton's of the characters, the drive that resonates is that we are left to fill in the blanks of his/her personality; we are comfortable with him being a drunk yet we want to know Jack as a person.


The direct speech uses no quotation marks, it is italicized; the author credits the reader with knowledge by expecting him to understand also, this is a small technique used to keep the flow of the reading steady allowing a reader to watch the story in his mind. There are well chosen words that stick out and emphasize the other words that they're tied to. Jack is a "soggy drunk" and will eventually get the "crippling hangover" that he is used to.
"Well, there is Jack Kerouac, back on the road again." It feels like I am overhearing this story at "Gunther's Fisherman's bar" with the mates exchanging light hearted stories about themselves. The tone of the narrative sounds from the perspective of Stanley the reliable friend ("Stanley tried everything: reasoning, pleading, even threatening.") or Jack the writer ("how much money what's-his-name's agent got for him for his last paperback reprint deal.")