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Le Signal (2000)

by Ron Carlson(Favorite Author)

3.4 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

2351780396 (ISBN13: 9782351780398)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

review 1: A beautifully done cliche. An action/adventure morality tale. Mack's father taught Mack about life, but could the son ever be as good and as wise as his father? The good guys and the bad guys are never really in doubt, but we can't always be as good as we want to be, can we? Indeed, Mack's fall begins when his father dies. In part, out of grief (an excuse we'll always forgive) and in part because Mack wants to save his ranch (also forgivable) which leads him to make deals with the bad guys. We know Mack has officially fallen when Vonny, his true love, leaves him. Her unerring moral sense tells her it's time to go. Mack's unerring moral sense makes him hate himself, drinking and drugging, working for criminals. This all takes place in the beautiful wilds--the pre-m... moreoral state of nature. If the plot, Mack's struggle for redemption, is a total cliche, the writing mostly isn't, transcending the genre.So, what is the metaphor of the signal? The literal signal is just a macguffin. I'm going to say that it represents that sign from wherever leading Mack out of the darkness back to The Good. It seems pretty clear [spoiler alert] that at the end, Vonny will somehow find her way back to Mack. We've been given all the signals to know this, from Kent's acting out (Vonny's moral sense can't ignore this!) to her allowing the term "our" in the couple's ritual dialog.
review 2: I'll say first that I'm a huge fan of Ron Carlson. He's one of my favorite writers, if not my very favorite. I'll read anything the man writes. This is a good book, heavily influenced by Hemingway and McCarthy (I'm guessing), stark and cryptic and full of beauty, both in the landscape and in his depiction of a man who has lost everything but a sliver of hope. I liked Five Skies better--it's a fuller story--but this one is good. less

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