The Jugger

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow. After the somewhat disappointing The Score, Richard Stark destroys me with The Jugger. I started reading it off-and-on in-between chapters of Nat Philbrick’s Mayflower but last night I got into, “can’t put down mode,” and finished it at around 2:30AM. It was remarkable, probably my favorite Parker book so far. I’m honestly not sure how it can get any better than this but, given the ending, I have to imagine we’re in for some new looks in future books.

Light on the some of the poetic prose that floored me in previous volumes but so heavy on character development that it was just completely captivating. Parker was a vicious thunderstorm and the supporting cast was so tragic. It felt a lot like a Coen Brothers movie, or Raimi’s A Simple Plan, with a bad guy coming to town and nobody understanding how bad a bad guy really is. There was no score in this book - no money and no job - just a bunch of hicks who think they can beat Parker. It was amazing. AMAZING.

Beyond recommended. If you don’t read this book at some point in your life you are hollow. You should sit in a dark room and think about all of the dumb mistakes you’ve made in life, starting with the moment when you read this post and said, “Pass.”

Books read in 2013:

Swallowing the Earth
The Signal and the Noise
The Mourner
The Book of Human Insects
Moonraker
Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia
The Score
The Jugger