In a grump with my fiance the weekend before PRW started, I decided to read The expendable man. It seemed an appropriate title, although I'm not quite sure that he noticed what I was reading. But this wonderful read fully engrossed me, and helped forget my grumpiness.
Thriller isn't quite the best description of the book actually, as although an extremely tense read it is not overdramatic in the way that many modern thrillers are. It starts off with a young American doctor, Hugh Densmore, setting off for his parents house to attend the wedding of his sister. As he drives, he spots a young girl trying to pick up a lift on a deserted stretch of highway. He hesitates about giving her a ride, but eventually decides to help her out, imagining how he'd feel about his own sister stuck in such a situation. She turns out to be somewhat feckless, a bit of a liar and with quite a dodgy past. However, once he eventually gets rid of her (and this takes two attempts after she gains another life from him the next day) he thinks that that is that. But his paranoia and hesitation turns out to be justified...
I won't say anymore because I do not want the power of this book to be spoilt, suffice to say that Dorothy Hughes has created a absorbing story centred around well-drawn characters in the almost stifling setting of Arizona. While it wasn't perhaps one of my favourite Persephone reads, I was gripped by the plot and revelled in reading a book, that being a thriller, had a different emphasis to many of the other titles on the Persephone list.
(My expendable man did the washing up and made a fuss of me later on, so I no longer consider him expendable - not until I can afford a dishwasher and someone to do the hoovering anyway!)
I gave my dad a Persephone token for Christmas last year and this is what he bought. (Probably because it sounded the most manly title!) He really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHee, the context of your reading amuses me!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds gripping and ... thrilling, of course.
Sounds a jolly good read. I am reading Marianna - and loving it - lookingforward to posting on it
ReplyDeleteHannah
I loved this book, it's definitaly one of my favourite persephone's, it took me ages to work out what was going on and I found it almost unbearably tense by the end.
ReplyDeleteI too absolutely loved this book. Not only for the wondeful plot but also for what it taught me about American history and place. I was sure on the early pages that I was missing a crucial clue and being incredibly dense, and of course I was! Just not in the typical "mystery story clue" sense. I've since pressed it on my Uncle (now in his mid 70s) just to see if my age was the reason why I'd missed it so completely, but he did too. Could it be because being British I'm missing that cultural reference or is Dorothy Hughes being deliberately suspenseful do you think? A film version would give quite a different effect for me that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I thought I had my next trio of Persephones sorted out but now this one is calling. What to do?!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one too and I was very much shocked with the revelation that happens early on in the book. I just didn't see it coming.
ReplyDeleteGosh, this does sound unusual for a Persephone. And it's one of the few Persephone novels I haven't got on my shelves...
ReplyDeleteI read this recently and enjoyed it! It's very unusual, not at all like what Persephone usually publishes, but it's excellent nonetheless.
ReplyDelete