Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The punks can barely be told apart, except for the one who's enormously fat that kids tease him and call him a can of Crisco, and then there's the obligatory punk hero who's so smart he could debate Nietzsche to a draw. The others are pretty nondescript, one of them is allegedly Hispanic but you couldn't prove it by me. These punks go gay bashing and blind a man right in front of Paula Halstead, the beautiful wife of our professor hero. Paula is spotted by the brilliant punk and then becomes a target.
Editor Otto Penzler says that Gores' novel is fascinating in that the street language used by the punks is pretty clean, that today's widespread obscenity hadn't yet infiltrated to street gangs. The characters use a lot of vulgar euphemisms, but the worst they actually say is "so and so has a hard on against you," which if you believe Penzler would have been shocking in the 1960s. The novel is really all about sexual politics and the way in which punks commit rape to silence women.
The first victim, after being raped, kills herself for the shame and the stain leave her unable to face living. Another victim, a young girl of 18 or so, is treated by psychiatrists after being raped many times on a filthy mattress. However her best prognosis is that her life is basically over, and the next man who becomes her lover will receive a "hatpin in the chest." As though rape has made her into a psychopath.
This would make a good, strong movie if the right director took over the reins, and found a way to distinguish the young villains from one another.
Click Here to see more reviews about: A Time of Predators (Otto Penzler Presents...)
Otto Penzler and the Mystery Writers of America Present A Time of Predators by Joe Gores, winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel The gang was restless, just looking for idle fun. They roughed up a man they thought was a homosexual--but their game got out of hand and their victim was blinded.It was Paula Halstead's bad luck to witness the attack and catch a glimpse of one of the boys. After they got through with her, she killed herself.The police have no leads and can't find the culprits.Paula's husband hires a private investigator to do what the police haven't been able to-with no success. Curt Halstead refuses to give up; he will have his vengeance on the men who raped and tortured his wife, even if it means entering into their world of sex, violence, and murder.
Click here for more information about A Time of Predators (Otto Penzler Presents...)
0 comments:
Post a Comment