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Every so often, you stumble across a book that succeeds so well on every conceivable level that you feel like you're going to have to give up reading for a while. You still want to read, but you realize that, if you pick up another book immediately, or in a day or two, or a week later, you're going to compare it unfavorably and unfairly to the book you just read. So here is fair warning: read Lawrence Block's SMALL TOWN, but once you finish it, plan on doing something else for a few days.
The small town to which Block's title refers is New York City, post 9-11 New York City, a city bent but not broken, damaged but not destroyed, changed but not transformed. It is a city that Block loves and, equally as important, knows and understands on an intimate basis. His title demonstrates this; it is one of the city's many conundrums that, while you might not know your next door neighbor, there are in all likelihood only a couple of degrees of separation between the two of you. Block uses this kismet of happenstance, and many others, to great and enthralling advantage here.
Those who come to SMALL TOWN expecting a crime novel will find it both more and less than that. It is a crime novel in the sense that murder is committed. It is a suspense novel in that the murderer is at large, is continuing to kill and must be caught. It is a romance novel, of the heart and of the mind and of the person and of the place. It is also, and not the least of these, an extremely erotic novel. The thought came unbidden to me at one point that Block writes extremely well while typing with one hand. There is something here for everyone who loves good writing.
Heartbreak is often the well from which the best art springs. Here too, the obvious inspiration for SMALL TOWN, in its execution as well as the implicit and explicit motives of its key players, is the 9-11 attack. The events are set in motion by Jerry Pankow, a recovering alcoholic who discovers the corpse of his employer, Marilyn Fairchild, a real estate agent who was last seen in the company of John Blair Creighton, a marginally successful novelist for whom the edges of fiction and reality often blur. Creighton is obviously suspect Numero Uno in Fairchild's murder.
The reader soon knows more than the police on this account, but by the time the police come to realize they may be wrong, Creighton's newfound notoriety affects him in ways that neither he nor the public could reasonably have anticipated. While the reader journeys with Creighton through his ordeal, introductions are made with Maury Winters, Creighton's delightful defense attorney; former New York City police commissioner Francis Buckram, who is about to undergo two of the most bizarre experiences of his life; and the utterly unforgettable Susan Pomerance, the improbable erotic nexus between Creighton, Winters and Buckram, who indirectly provides the key for solving the murder of Fairchild, as well as others. SMALL TOWN also introduces an individual who is arguably the most sympathetic monster in literature since Shelley presented Frankenstein's creation.
Block also drops factoids about New York City along the way, in much the same way that you might tell a friend about a longtime lover. The reader of SMALL TOWN will also come away with an understanding and an appreciation of how a book is written and how, God forbid, it is published. That account is almost as fascinating as the spellbinding tale of who killed Marilyn Fairchild and many others --- and how and why. As to the why, the reader will understand. Not approve, mind you, but understand.
SMALL TOWN is so good --- so perfect --- that, upon completing it, one almost wishes they hadn't read it, so that they could have the pleasure of reading it again for the first time. It is, however, wonderful a second time through and one suspects will be just as good the third, the fourth and the fifth. Reserve a shelf for this one, all by itself. Highest possible recommendation.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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