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Thin Blue Smoke (2009)

by Doug Worgul(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0230737080 (ISBN13: 9780230737082)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Pan Macmillan

review 1: Just finished this book. I'm not putting Worgul on the same plane as Steinbeck, but I have to say that he evoked many of the same emotions I felt when I read East of Eden. Worgul's portrait of the Kansas City Barbecue joint "Smoke Meat" was masterful. The 41 seat dive is just as much a character as LaVerne and Ferguson. Worgul does a difficult thing in his novel: He explores the spirituality of two central characters without flattening them into flimsy flannel-graph caricatures.Both characters are deeply flawed, layered, and likable characters. God intersects these men without destroying their flaws, layers, or likability. These men are cut from the same cloth as the patriarchs in Genesis, just with a dotof rib sauce on their cheeks.If this is the quality of work that the ... morenewly launched Burnside Books intends to maintain, then I'm an instant fan.
review 2: Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am also from Kansas City and Worgul did a great job of conveying Kansas City and the atmosphere here. I also appreciated his characters and their development. I wish there are had been less religious overtones and preaching, though. That sort of thing doesn't appeal to me and it grew tiresome by the end of the book. Still, Worgul is an author I would like to read again -- he is in the process of writing his 2nd novel and I will certainly keep an eye out for it! less

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