Wednesday, April 20, 2016

THE KIND OF FRIENDS WHO MURDER EACH OTHER by Chris Rhatigan

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Really though, how the three characters are friends is beyond me. They don't even seem like they like each other that much. But alas, the book's three losers all worked together at the local Pump 'n Munch and have continued to go bowling together every Wednesday. One of these Wednesdays they get drunk and decide to one up each other by confessing the worst things they've ever done. Obviously this will cause a tragic snowball effect and the guys seem to recognize this almost immediately. So were the events in the book some form of self-fulfilling prophecy, or maybe even a kind of twisted form of penitent wish-fulfillment? Seems like it to me.

The main character's nihilism and self-loathing along with the stream-of-consciousness style that Rhatigan uses in the narrator's voice might be a hard pill for some to swallow. But it worked for me, making the narration feel both manic and apathetic at the same time. Plus, at it's core that's what noir fiction is, right? A bottle of hard ass pills.
"I don't trust him," he said.
"Why?"
"Because he can't trust us anymore."
GRADE: B

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