Bev's Updates en-US Tue, 06 May 2025 09:28:37 -0700 60 Bev's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg GiveawayRequest709857971 Tue, 06 May 2025 09:28:37 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/11706260-bev-vincent">Bev Vincent</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/408979-king-sorrow King Sorrow by Joe Hill
25 copies available, ends on May 19, 2025
Enter to win ]]> GiveawayRequest707452535 Thu, 01 May 2025 06:48:19 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/11706260-bev-vincent">Bev Vincent</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/407502-long-island Long Island by Colm T贸ib铆n
100 copies available, ends on May 31, 2025
Enter to win ]]> ReadStatus8267058002 Sat, 10 Aug 2024 08:11:28 -0700 <![CDATA[Bev has read 'Moonbound']]> /review/show/6746352978 Moonbound by Robin Sloan Bev has read Moonbound by Robin Sloan
]]> Review6333615652 Sun, 10 Mar 2024 17:29:58 -0700 <![CDATA[Bev added 'The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store']]> /review/show/6333615652 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride Bev gave 5 stars to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (Kindle Edition) by James McBride
]]> Review5696592432 Sun, 16 Jul 2023 07:59:49 -0700 <![CDATA[Bev added 'The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder']]> /review/show/5696592432 The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder by Lawrence Block Bev gave 5 stars to The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder (Kindle Edition) by Lawrence Block
There have been biographies written about fictional characters. In some instances, the biography is a novel that purports to recount the life of the subject, but in other cases, writers assemble the 鈥渒nown鈥 facts about a fictional character and recast them into a pseduo-biography. Much rarer are autobiographies purportedly written by long-running series characters themselves.

Lawrence Block has been writing about Matthew 鈥淢att鈥 Scudder for nearly half a century, starting with The Sins of the Fathers in 1976, through seventeen novels and a number of shorter works. His fictional story in the novels begins shortly after he quit his job as a NYPD detective. His marriage has failed, he鈥檚 a more-or-less functional alcoholic, he lives in a hotel and makes money as an unlicensed investigator. Over the course of the series, he evolves and ages. He gets sober, and his attendance at AA meetings while he continues to 鈥渉elp out friends鈥 becomes a running subplot. He also occasionally reflects on incidents from his past life as a cop, but much about his early days remained unknown, until now.

Scudder knows about the novels that have been written about his cases, but he also knows they鈥檙e fictionalized. Fiction requires a certain structure and symmetry that real life rarely possesses. He鈥檚 also aware of some inconsistencies in his story from book to book鈥攈is birthday, for example, or whether a certain life-altering bullet was fired uphill or downhill. This book isn鈥檛 really meant to set the record straight. Although he establishes his real date of birth once and for all, he admits there are many things he doesn鈥檛 remember clearly. Time, alcohol and age have a way of blurring memories. The existing novels, though, speak for themselves for the most part, and he wastes little time revisiting those cases, except for a few momentous incidents.

Scudder is a self-aware writer. He knows he can write (he attributes his advancement with the NYPD in large part to his ability to write incident reports that record what happened in a way that makes readers feel present), but he鈥檚 not entirely sure why he鈥檚 writing this account and he questions whether anyone is going to want to read it. It feels like he has begrudgingly agreed to a classroom assignment; however, once he begins, he finds himself remembering or rediscovering things about his early days. He had an older brother, for example, who only lived briefly. Scudder never met him, but he knows that the loss of a child profoundly affected his parents. What comes as a revelation is how that loss also affected him, in ways he鈥檚 never before considered. His wife Elaine, who is reading what he writes, is astonished to find out about his brother. The fact he鈥檚 never mentioned him is revealing, she believes.

Authors sometimes create brief or detailed biographies of their characters before they begin to write about them, but this is no five-page summary of a life. Over the course of this 200+ page book, Block鈥攙ia Scudder鈥攄ives deep into a character he probably knows better than any of his other fictional creations. It reveals much about Scudder鈥檚 relationship with his parents, how he ended up on the police force, how his career advanced and why he ultimately decided to give up his gold badge. He is open about how he fell in love with his first wife and how that marriage ultimately fell apart.

According to Block, the autobiography began after he received a request to write 4000 words about Scudder鈥檚 life. Once he started writing, the assignment grew and grew into this 65,000-word book, longer than any of the first three books in the series.

As to Scudder鈥檚 question about whether anyone will be interested in reading his account of the first 35 years of his life, the answer from this reader is a resounding yes! ]]> ReadStatus6677540343 Wed, 07 Jun 2023 06:58:38 -0700 <![CDATA[Bev finished reading 'Becoming the Boogeyman']]> /review/show/5602499186 Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar Bev finished reading Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
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