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I
have a consumer product warning for you. The good people at Ballantine
Books apparently had a print batch where they mixed a bit of super
glue in with the typeset. I discovered this when I picked up the
book THE ICE HARVEST by Scott Phillips and couldn't put it down
for three hours. Oh, yeah, one other thing --- after a few hours
of sleep I had to sit down and read it again. Yes, it's that good.
THE ICE HARVEST is Scott Phillips's first novel; he is reportedly
working on another, and I'm impatient for it already on the strength
of the first one. There are authors --- good authors, mind you ---
who have yet to write a book as good as this one. They'll be reading
THE ICE HARVEST a couple of times too, trying to figure out just
how Phillips slugged it out of the park his first time up to the
plate.
The story takes place on Christmas Eve, 1979, in Wichita, Kansas,
a mid-sized, middle American city that is quiet on the surface but
boils and festers underneath. The reader gets to spend the night
with Charlie Arglist, an attorney who traded a mildly successful
practice for employment with a group of shady characters. Charlie
is killing time, waiting for a 2 A.M. meeting with someone named
Vic. He makes the rounds in Wichita, visiting bars, strip clubs,
an adult bookstore, and a massage parlor --- establishments with
which he has a vague, uneasy connection. As we follow Charlie around,
we learn that he drinks too much, keeps bad company, and is poster
boy for Bad Father of the Year. We also learn that his life over
the previous several years --- probably commencing at the point
at which he left his private practice --- is slowly but inexorably
coming unhinged. And on Christmas Eve, 1979, Charlie, once he has
his meeting with Vic, will have reached the point of no return.
Phillips strikes an incredible balance in THE ICE HARVEST: the reader
knows what is happening but never knows from one page to the next
what is going on. And it isn't a cheat; Charlie doesn't really know,
either. Not really. The characters in THE ICE HARVEST don't behave
predictably. They behave the way real people do, which is erratically
and inconsistently. It is simply incredible the way Phillips nails
every single person that he brings into his novel, from Charlie,
who is with us from first page to last, to sullen gas station attendants
who disappear after a paragraph or two. As if all of the foregoing
was not enough for one book, Phillips waits until the last 10 pages
of the book to introduce two major characters. You'll never guess
the ending.
THE ICE HARVEST succeeds on so many levels --- as a mystery, as
a suspense novel, and perhaps most significantly, as a subtle character
study --- that I would not be surprised to find it one day included
in an American Literature curriculum. It deserves a place on everyone's
bookshelf, right next to THE LAST GOOD KISS by James Crumley. Highest
possible recommendation.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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