Reading it for fun is the right approach. I've been rereading it the last couple of days. I had forgotten what a damaged man Precious is. Makes it less funny and more novel-like. I'm also rereading Hardy's Jude the Obscure and see parallels. Characters who are authors of their own catastrophes. Detectives with miserable personal lives.
Love the specifics about the printing and newspaper offices. I grew up around those.
Thanks, Mary. I didn't know you had that in your background. Not the same world anymore, alas.
I just happen to have a copy of this picked up on a sale table somewhere. I haven't read a detective novel in years—could be fun!
Reading it for fun is the right approach. I've been rereading it the last couple of days. I had forgotten what a damaged man Precious is. Makes it less funny and more novel-like. I'm also rereading Hardy's Jude the Obscure and see parallels. Characters who are authors of their own catastrophes. Detectives with miserable personal lives.