David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "loneliness"
The Transcriptionist
THE TRANSCRIPTIONIST is one weird novel. I’m still not sure what it was about.
Lena, the main character, works at the RECORD, the biggest and most respected newspaper in New York. I guess THE TIMES wouldn’t give Amy Roland permission to use their name, but “the Grey Lady” is mentioned and that’s THE TIMES. Anyway, Lena is the last of the transcriptionists; she takes calls from reporters who need her to type their interviews for them, and e-mail her finished copy back to them and also return the tape of the transcription. The problem is she’s becoming claustrophobic, working on the 17th floor all by herself, just her and a pigeon on the window outside the room, that she talks to occasionally. She has an admirer of sorts, Russell, one of the reporters who calls her Carol. She doesn’t immediately correct him.
Then she meets Arlene Lebow, a blind woman, on the subway; they make a connection, but the next day she reads about the blind woman being eaten by a lion at the zoo. Apparently she swam the moat to commit suicide. This event really depresses Lena. Then the blind woman’s body disappears and Lena sets out to find her.
Lena also has a buddy named Kov who spends all day piecing together tattered versions of a ancient obituaries. He’s not who he seems to be.
Lena is looking for a way to escape her prison on the 17th floor, and she finds it when she clashes with the paper’s star reporter, a foreign correspondent, who sends her an interview about Iraq, then tries to kill it minutes later. Let it suffice to say that Lena doesn’t kill it. It appears in the paper the next day.
Not everybody can get an obituary printed in THE RECORD, at least one written by a reporter, not the normal obituary writer. And that’s Lena’s final gesture at THE RECORD. Guess who it’s for.
Lena, the main character, works at the RECORD, the biggest and most respected newspaper in New York. I guess THE TIMES wouldn’t give Amy Roland permission to use their name, but “the Grey Lady” is mentioned and that’s THE TIMES. Anyway, Lena is the last of the transcriptionists; she takes calls from reporters who need her to type their interviews for them, and e-mail her finished copy back to them and also return the tape of the transcription. The problem is she’s becoming claustrophobic, working on the 17th floor all by herself, just her and a pigeon on the window outside the room, that she talks to occasionally. She has an admirer of sorts, Russell, one of the reporters who calls her Carol. She doesn’t immediately correct him.
Then she meets Arlene Lebow, a blind woman, on the subway; they make a connection, but the next day she reads about the blind woman being eaten by a lion at the zoo. Apparently she swam the moat to commit suicide. This event really depresses Lena. Then the blind woman’s body disappears and Lena sets out to find her.
Lena also has a buddy named Kov who spends all day piecing together tattered versions of a ancient obituaries. He’s not who he seems to be.
Lena is looking for a way to escape her prison on the 17th floor, and she finds it when she clashes with the paper’s star reporter, a foreign correspondent, who sends her an interview about Iraq, then tries to kill it minutes later. Let it suffice to say that Lena doesn’t kill it. It appears in the paper the next day.
Not everybody can get an obituary printed in THE RECORD, at least one written by a reporter, not the normal obituary writer. And that’s Lena’s final gesture at THE RECORD. Guess who it’s for.
The Drop
Bob Saginowski is an intriguing character. He’s a bartender who works in a “drop” bar where Chechen mobsters deposit their drug, gambling, and prostitution money as a way to avoid the DEA catching them with thousands if not millions in cash.
Bob is a lonely guy who doesn’t do well with women; he’s tried church picnics and such, but nothing seems to work. His titular boss, Uncle Marv, orders him to collect the bar tab from a regular from a nearby senior citizens home who nurses a Tom Collins for hours to avoid going back to the home. Bob has saved his money and has no problem paying the tab for the old woman. He also finds a puppy in a garbage can that has been abused and left for dead. The can belongs to a woman named Nadia who teaches Bob how to care for the dog. Bob doesn’t even get mad when the dog craps on his mother’s rug. Nadia has a dirt bag ex-boyfriend who claims the dog is his and he wants it back.
Then there’s a hold up, and Bob blabs to the cops about what one of the guys looked like. Uncle Marv, Bob’s cousin, once ran his own “crew”; Bob was one of the hard guys who worked for Marv. That’s the first indication we get that Bob may not be who we think he is.
Bob goes to church every day; coincidentally the detective investigating the hold-up also attends the same church. There’s an unsolved case. Richie Whelan, a regular at the bar, disappeared, and is presumed dead. Detective Torres, suspects that Bob had something to do with, because he never takes communion. Torres has been demoted from the homicide unit and he has an extra incentive to solve the case.
Lehane is one of our better writers because he presents an ethical dilemma. Can someone who has committed a horrible crime still be a good person? Can he redeem himself? Robert Browning covered the same territory when he used the term “Tender Murderer” in one of his poems.
Bob is a lonely guy who doesn’t do well with women; he’s tried church picnics and such, but nothing seems to work. His titular boss, Uncle Marv, orders him to collect the bar tab from a regular from a nearby senior citizens home who nurses a Tom Collins for hours to avoid going back to the home. Bob has saved his money and has no problem paying the tab for the old woman. He also finds a puppy in a garbage can that has been abused and left for dead. The can belongs to a woman named Nadia who teaches Bob how to care for the dog. Bob doesn’t even get mad when the dog craps on his mother’s rug. Nadia has a dirt bag ex-boyfriend who claims the dog is his and he wants it back.
Then there’s a hold up, and Bob blabs to the cops about what one of the guys looked like. Uncle Marv, Bob’s cousin, once ran his own “crew”; Bob was one of the hard guys who worked for Marv. That’s the first indication we get that Bob may not be who we think he is.
Bob goes to church every day; coincidentally the detective investigating the hold-up also attends the same church. There’s an unsolved case. Richie Whelan, a regular at the bar, disappeared, and is presumed dead. Detective Torres, suspects that Bob had something to do with, because he never takes communion. Torres has been demoted from the homicide unit and he has an extra incentive to solve the case.
Lehane is one of our better writers because he presents an ethical dilemma. Can someone who has committed a horrible crime still be a good person? Can he redeem himself? Robert Browning covered the same territory when he used the term “Tender Murderer” in one of his poems.
