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21st out of 66 books
—
16 voters
Pike
by
Benjamin Whitmer (Goodreads Author)
Douglas Pike is no longer the murderous hustler he was in his youth, but reforming hasn't made him much kinder. He's just living out his life in his Appalachian hometown, working odd jobs with his partner, Rory, hemming in his demons the best he can. And his best seems just good enough until his estranged daughter overdoses, and he takes in his 12-year-old granddaughter, W...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
August 25th 2010
by PM Press
(first published July 1st 2010)
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Reformed criminal Pike's life is turned upside down when his estranged daughter dies and a twelve year old granddaughter he never knew existed is tossed in his lap. Pike and partner Rory head to Cincinnati to find out what happened to his daughter. Meanwhile, a dirty Cincinatti cop named Kreiger has interests in Pike's daughter and granddaughter...
Benjamin Whitmer's debut novel is a bleak noir tale that explores the Kentucky backwoods and seedy underbelly of Cincinatti in the old days of 1985....more
Benjamin Whitmer's debut novel is a bleak noir tale that explores the Kentucky backwoods and seedy underbelly of Cincinatti in the old days of 1985....more
From ISawLightningFall.com
I think the way a person takes his coffee reveals interesting things about him. I know a high-powered derivatives trader who can only stomach Frappuccinos and a retiring artist who daily downs multiple cups black as midnight. Forget the pedigree of the beans or the brewing method: You can gauge an individual's bitterness tolerance by how fast he reaches for sugar and cream. Dark novels seem to function the same way. Place a title that's concerned with grimmer stuff than...more
I think the way a person takes his coffee reveals interesting things about him. I know a high-powered derivatives trader who can only stomach Frappuccinos and a retiring artist who daily downs multiple cups black as midnight. Forget the pedigree of the beans or the brewing method: You can gauge an individual's bitterness tolerance by how fast he reaches for sugar and cream. Dark novels seem to function the same way. Place a title that's concerned with grimmer stuff than...more
I'll start with full disclosure: the publisher of this novel is also the publisher of my novel The Wrong Thing, and the author chose my book as the one he's most looking forward to this year. So you might think there's a conflict of interest in my reviewing his book. If so, that's your problem.
Pike is one of the best American novels in a while. It's so vivid that to read it is also to see, hear and feel it. It's short - 213 pages - and the chapters are also short - some of them only half a page...more
Pike is one of the best American novels in a while. It's so vivid that to read it is also to see, hear and feel it. It's short - 213 pages - and the chapters are also short - some of them only half a page...more
PIKE is the kind of book that when you've set it down after reading "The End", you want to grab the next person you see and force them read it. It's dark, but vulnerable. Violent, but human. Entertaining, but personal. This is a book that hopefully people will continue to discover for years to come.
Think of it as a backwoods GET CARTER. Not a revenge story per se, but a story of the driven badass looking for answers. Morals and personal codes are run through the ringer. Violence is doled out in...more
Think of it as a backwoods GET CARTER. Not a revenge story per se, but a story of the driven badass looking for answers. Morals and personal codes are run through the ringer. Violence is doled out in...more
This book comes at you like a redneck with a broken bottle in a roadhouse on a Saturday night after you insulted his favorite NASCAR driver.
As a young man, Pike had left his Kentucky home town and embarked on a trail of criminal shenanigans that culminated in some Mexican misadventures. Now back in Kentucky in the mid-1980s, he’s trying to live a quiet life working home renovations with a young man named Rory. Rory dreams of being a boxer and is engaging in weekly fights staged at a bar while t...more
As a young man, Pike had left his Kentucky home town and embarked on a trail of criminal shenanigans that culminated in some Mexican misadventures. Now back in Kentucky in the mid-1980s, he’s trying to live a quiet life working home renovations with a young man named Rory. Rory dreams of being a boxer and is engaging in weekly fights staged at a bar while t...more
I’m not a drink the Kool-Aid type of guy, but sometimes you can’t ignore the buzz that falls off the lips of friends and colleagues. This past holiday season one book made a very loud buzz and so I imbibed.
And it was good.
Benjamin Whitmer‘s PIKE is a barn burner. Once you crack open the book you won’t stop until the bitter end. PIKE is a hard book, wrapped in shards of reality the casual reader may object. This book won’t find itself on any Cozy List anytime soon.
The book’s protagonist, if he ca...more
And it was good.
Benjamin Whitmer‘s PIKE is a barn burner. Once you crack open the book you won’t stop until the bitter end. PIKE is a hard book, wrapped in shards of reality the casual reader may object. This book won’t find itself on any Cozy List anytime soon.
The book’s protagonist, if he ca...more
Well, this one really blew me away. It's like being run over by a steamroller & then having it reversed back over you just to make sure you got the message.
We meet Pike as he gets the news his estranged daughter has OD'd. Left with a young granddaughter he didn't know he had he sets out, with the help of workmate Rory, to find out what really happened. So far so good - the plot is fairly familiar but it's what Benjamin Whitmer does with it that stands out. What set the book apart for me was...more
We meet Pike as he gets the news his estranged daughter has OD'd. Left with a young granddaughter he didn't know he had he sets out, with the help of workmate Rory, to find out what really happened. So far so good - the plot is fairly familiar but it's what Benjamin Whitmer does with it that stands out. What set the book apart for me was...more
Easily one of my favorites of the year. Probably some years to come, too.
Full review here: http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/0...
Full review here: http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/0...
Reading this excellent debut novel filled my veins with ice and slapped me with tunnel vision like I was in the cage throwing fists with a scarred beast who wanted my liver fried with onions for supper. Unflinching human brutality and how the survivors of that war defend their own. Set in the small towns of Ohio, Whitmer brings the ramshackle landscape littered with human wreckage to life with a raw knuckled poetry that left me awed at times, and gut punched in others. That's not to say this is...more
Pike, the novel’s eponymous main character, is not a good person. Never was. Be it running drugs and people across the border, beating his wife, going down the rabbit hole of drug and alcohol addiction, or committing murder, Pike’s past is a bleak portrait of a squandered, meaningless life. And he knows it.
While he’s nowhere near at peace with the brutalities he committed as a younger man, with age he’s removed himself from that destructive and criminal lifestyle, finally reaching a point where...more
While he’s nowhere near at peace with the brutalities he committed as a younger man, with age he’s removed himself from that destructive and criminal lifestyle, finally reaching a point where...more
I didn't even have to edit this, it landed in my inbox like some beautifully perfect kind of miracle. Well, like a deep, nasty, brutal kind of miracle, one that forces you to keep turning pages, shoulders tense from the rocketing hurt and heart beating faster with the spare beauty of the prose. The best thing I've read in a very long time, and I read like a demon. Ben writes like a demon, it's a great book and something I am damn proud to have as part of Switchblade.
Pike is a very solid debut novel. No matter what the author claims were his inspirations, I could taste Jim Thompson, Daniel Woodrell, and maybe a touch of Ellroy in this recipe. Hopefully he will continue in this kind of ragged-edged tradition for some time.
This one blew me away from the opening.
I know it seems like a lot of 5 star books here, but this deserves no less and I'm avoiding posting books I wasn't sure of.
I know it seems like a lot of 5 star books here, but this deserves no less and I'm avoiding posting books I wasn't sure of.
I'm really not a fan of gruesome fiction but decided to give this one a shot. Not only are the characters all terrible people I didn't have any attachment to, but I found Pike's motivations a little odd. He doesn't care about his daughter for her whole life until she dies? I spent this entire book waiting for it to end.
Is it okay that I pictured Sam Elliot in the lead role?
Redemption's an impossibility by this stage of Pike's life, but he's a likeable antihero despite his stoicism and minimal speech. When charged with the care of his granddaughter following the death of the daughter he never knew, Pike (and his naive bare-knuckled sidekick) trudges through the snow-covered Midwestern backstreets of whores and junkies and police corruption to get to the bottom of things. Violently. So, so many excellent lines,...more
Redemption's an impossibility by this stage of Pike's life, but he's a likeable antihero despite his stoicism and minimal speech. When charged with the care of his granddaughter following the death of the daughter he never knew, Pike (and his naive bare-knuckled sidekick) trudges through the snow-covered Midwestern backstreets of whores and junkies and police corruption to get to the bottom of things. Violently. So, so many excellent lines,...more
deserves all its top 10 books of the years ratings
Excellent read!
Nice, tight prose. I loved the characters, but the plot would have needed a thing or two, a twist or two. And maybe the Derrick-guy's motives should have been explained better. More background info about the guy, or something like that. (view spoiler)
The closure wasn't noirish enough for my taste.
The closure wasn't noirish enough for my taste.
So close to 5 stars for me. One of the best books I've read in a while. Like noir? Like country noir? Like books that make you want to take a shower after reading them? Then 'Pike' is for you. I've got a real hankerin' to read it again and that never happens.
Can't wait for the next book by Whitmer.
Can't wait for the next book by Whitmer.
Gritty. The author doesn't waste a word. Looking forward to whatever is in the future for Mr. Whitmer. If you are into noir, this is a book for you.
Dark, pulpy noir. Morally twisted, and angry like Willeford in his bleakest of days.
May 14, 2013
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marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
Kellen
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
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marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
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marked it as to-read
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Benjamin Whitmer was born in 1972 and raised on back-to-the-land communes and counterculture enclaves ranging from Southern Ohio to Upstate New York. One of his earliest and happiest memories is of standing by the side of a country road with his mother, hitchhiking to parts unknown. Since then, he has been a factory grunt, a vacuum salesman, a convalescent, a high-school dropout, a semi-truck load...more
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Mar 07, 2012 04:17pm
Especially toward the end.
Mar 07, 2012 04:25pm