From: William Ansley <wansley@warwick.net>
Subject: RE: (whorl) My reaction to IN GREEN'S JUNGLES
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 23:51:58 

At 8:50 AM -0800 12/5/00, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>3. If you haven't done so already, catch up with Gene Wolfe's favorite
>detective (and mine): Nero Wolfe, as chronicled by his assistant, 
>Archie Goodwin, and his literary agent, the late Rex Stout (do not 
>bother with the pathetic imitations by Robert Goldsborough). The 
>ideal would be to read them in chronological order, but if you lack 
>the will, the money, or the ability (that is, motive, means, and 
>opportunity) to dig up all the books, some of the best are: TOO MANY 
>COOKS; BLACK ORCHIDS; GAMBIT; OVER MY DEAD BODY; and THE DOORBELL 
>RANG. Three books deserver special mention, and should be read in 
>the correct order, as they involve Wolfe's equivalent to Holmes's 
>Moriarty, one Arnold Zeck: AND BE A VILLAIN, THE SECOND CONFESSION, 
>and IN THE BEST
>FAMILIES. These build to a definite climax; they are collected in 
>the omnibus TRIPLE ZECK (groan), which may be available in your 
>local public library. (At any rate, most of them are fairly easy to 
>find in cheap used paperback editions.)

Since recommending books seems to be in fashion at the moment, I'm 
going to chime in. First, I would like to very strongly second the 
recommendation for the Nero Wolfe books above. I think that there are 
about 30 of them and they are all well worth reading; I have read all 
of them more than once.

Second, I have been meaning to recommend Iain Pears' book _An 
Instance of the Fingerpost_ to this list for some time. It is a 
historical mystery/thriller that most reviews compare to Umberto 
Eco's _The Name of the Rose_. This comparison is apt, although I 
liked _Fingerpost_ better, but any reader of Wolfe will not be able 
to stop making comparisons between his books and Pears' novel.

Although Pear's writing style isn't much like Wolfe's, he is as good 
a writer (if such a statement has any meaning) and he uses trick 
after trick that we have seen in Wolfe's writing, each in his own way.

There is a (nearly) unnamed narrator, multiple narrators who may or 
may not be reliable, very important religious issues and a good deal 
of complicated politics. One big difference is that you do feel you 
have a pretty complete grasp of what really happened in the book when 
you are done. But, despite this, I don't think even the most fervent 
admirers of ambiguity here will be disappointed.

This book is in print and available at Amazon.com and elsewhere I am sure.

-- 
William Ansley

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