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The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder
"This is a wonderful book!" ~Joe R. Lansdale
"Fare thee well, Matt Scudder. You picked a hell of a novelist to chronicle your most sensational cases, and you’ve done him proud in telling the story of the rest of your life. And happy birthday, LB. Thanks for sharing your present with us." ~Frank Sennett, Chicago Culture Authority
"I finished the autobiography and loved it! At one point I had to stop and ask myself, "Wait, Scudder is Larry's invention, right?" I was so into his narrative and life. Makes me want to go back and reread all the Scudder books." ~Jonathan Santlofer
" It’s evident from his handling of this meta approach that Block hasn’t lost much speed off his fastball. But for devoted readers (like me), there’s an element of pure wish fulfillment at play. The book is essentially a chance to tug the sleeve of a character we’ve gotten to know quite well and offer to buy him another cup of coffee before he heads out, to hear an additional story or two and ask questions long wondered about. It’s an impressive trick that requires decades of work on the part of both writer and reader to carry off. You need to know Matt Scudder in order to appreciate this book, and if you know Matt Scudder you’ve already ordered it." ~Vince Keenan
"O ne of the all-time great fictional detectives from one of my very favourite writers." ~Ian Rankin
Since the 1970s, Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning novels and short fiction featuring Matthew Scudder. Now, with both himself and his detective half a century older, the author found himself charged with writing a book about his protagonist.
And he decided he wasn’t the right person for the job.
“What was Matt’s family like? How did he spend his childhood? What steered him toward the NYPD, and how did he get all the way from the Police Academy to a detective’s gold shield? Who were the influences and what were the experiences that made him the man we’ve come to know? These were important questions. There were certainly stories to be told, but that didn’t mean I was the person to tell them. If Matt Scudder was to have a memoir, he ought to write it himself.”
So Block passed on the assignment to his most enduring fictional character, and the result— The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder— is a remarkable document, at once a convincing Bildungsroman and the indispensable capstone of an outstanding series.
Since his 1976 debut in The Sins of the Fathers, Matthew Scudder has aged in real time; so too, remarkably enough, has his creator. Lawrence Block turned 84 on June 24, 2022, while Mr. Scudder reached that same milestone on September 7. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder demonstrates clearly—and irresistibly—that neither one of them has lost a step.
Lawrence Block, named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America, is a multiple winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus awards; recognition for his lifetime achievement includes the UK Crime Writers Association’s Diamond Dagger. "This is Scudder's back story; where he was born, what his family was like, how he became a cop, a detective, and an alcoholic. To this reviewer the most fascinating bits revolved around how Scudder became a police officer. We meet his partner, an older cop who demonstrates how he thinks policing should work, the occasional bribe notwithstanding. And we get to see how Scudder washed out of the force to become the private investigator Block has been writing about for half a century. Devotees of the Scudder books will not want to miss this one. If you have never experienced any of the stories in this series I think after you read this autobiography you'll be intrigued to comprehend there are another 19 Scudder books already out there just waiting for you to devour them." ~Vick Mickunas, Dayton Daily News
"Fare thee well, Matt Scudder. You picked a hell of a novelist to chronicle your most sensational cases, and you’ve done him proud in telling the story of the rest of your life. And happy birthday, LB. Thanks for sharing your present with us." ~Frank Sennett, Chicago Culture Authority
"I finished the autobiography and loved it! At one point I had to stop and ask myself, "Wait, Scudder is Larry's invention, right?" I was so into his narrative and life. Makes me want to go back and reread all the Scudder books." ~Jonathan Santlofer
" It’s evident from his handling of this meta approach that Block hasn’t lost much speed off his fastball. But for devoted readers (like me), there’s an element of pure wish fulfillment at play. The book is essentially a chance to tug the sleeve of a character we’ve gotten to know quite well and offer to buy him another cup of coffee before he heads out, to hear an additional story or two and ask questions long wondered about. It’s an impressive trick that requires decades of work on the part of both writer and reader to carry off. You need to know Matt Scudder in order to appreciate this book, and if you know Matt Scudder you’ve already ordered it." ~Vince Keenan
"O ne of the all-time great fictional detectives from one of my very favourite writers." ~Ian Rankin
Since the 1970s, Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning novels and short fiction featuring Matthew Scudder. Now, with both himself and his detective half a century older, the author found himself charged with writing a book about his protagonist.
And he decided he wasn’t the right person for the job.
“What was Matt’s family like? How did he spend his childhood? What steered him toward the NYPD, and how did he get all the way from the Police Academy to a detective’s gold shield? Who were the influences and what were the experiences that made him the man we’ve come to know? These were important questions. There were certainly stories to be told, but that didn’t mean I was the person to tell them. If Matt Scudder was to have a memoir, he ought to write it himself.”
So Block passed on the assignment to his most enduring fictional character, and the result— The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder— is a remarkable document, at once a convincing Bildungsroman and the indispensable capstone of an outstanding series.
Since his 1976 debut in The Sins of the Fathers, Matthew Scudder has aged in real time; so too, remarkably enough, has his creator. Lawrence Block turned 84 on June 24, 2022, while Mr. Scudder reached that same milestone on September 7. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder demonstrates clearly—and irresistibly—that neither one of them has lost a step.
Lawrence Block, named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America, is a multiple winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus awards; recognition for his lifetime achievement includes the UK Crime Writers Association’s Diamond Dagger. "This is Scudder's back story; where he was born, what his family was like, how he became a cop, a detective, and an alcoholic. To this reviewer the most fascinating bits revolved around how Scudder became a police officer. We meet his partner, an older cop who demonstrates how he thinks policing should work, the occasional bribe notwithstanding. And we get to see how Scudder washed out of the force to become the private investigator Block has been writing about for half a century. Devotees of the Scudder books will not want to miss this one. If you have never experienced any of the stories in this series I think after you read this autobiography you'll be intrigued to comprehend there are another 19 Scudder books already out there just waiting for you to devour them." ~Vick Mickunas, Dayton Daily News
242 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
72 people are currently reading
1133 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
767 books2,979 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
July 25, 2023
I listened to this book in one sitting (in a car) today, fan as I am of Lawerence Block's Matt Scudder detective series. Block is one of the most prolific and honored mystery writers of all time, and as he is still writing at 84, he decided to complete an abandoned project he began many years ago: To have Matt Scudder tell his own story. Okay, you won't read this unless you are a fan of the series. Block has stopped writing Scudder "for good" at various times but succumbs to fan pleas once again to write yet another book. I've read them all. I want to check in with how he and Elaine and Mick and TJ are doing from time to time. They're aging, sure, but still alive! Don't you ever want to do that with a novel? See how they all are twenty years later?
And of course it is not up to the standards of the greatest entries of the series, probably 3 stars at best, but to a fan, it is satisfying, as that Scudder voice comes through, with some characteristic great writing and insights. Scudder is advised on the writing by a writing mentor, none other than LB himself, which is a little funny. He also gives us some background on his failed marriage, and the one serial killer who most shaped his life and career.
He doesn't have much to say about fan favorites TJ or Mick, maybe because we learn enough about them in the series itself, but he does talk in depth about his first partner, Mahaffey, who influenced him to make some of the ethical compromises (and even lawbreaking) that he made, usually to jail deserving criminals, but not always. His senior partner urged him to take a little money on the side. But he did take that money, again and again. And then we see his anguish about the incident--the accidental killing--that wrecked him, made him tithe each week in a church he didn't belong to, to a god he didn't he even know he believed in. He's not a saint, this Scudder, with his struggles with women and booze and guillt, but I like him. I don't recommend it to anyone but real Scudder fans, but I am one, and liked it.
And of course it is not up to the standards of the greatest entries of the series, probably 3 stars at best, but to a fan, it is satisfying, as that Scudder voice comes through, with some characteristic great writing and insights. Scudder is advised on the writing by a writing mentor, none other than LB himself, which is a little funny. He also gives us some background on his failed marriage, and the one serial killer who most shaped his life and career.
He doesn't have much to say about fan favorites TJ or Mick, maybe because we learn enough about them in the series itself, but he does talk in depth about his first partner, Mahaffey, who influenced him to make some of the ethical compromises (and even lawbreaking) that he made, usually to jail deserving criminals, but not always. His senior partner urged him to take a little money on the side. But he did take that money, again and again. And then we see his anguish about the incident--the accidental killing--that wrecked him, made him tithe each week in a church he didn't belong to, to a god he didn't he even know he believed in. He's not a saint, this Scudder, with his struggles with women and booze and guillt, but I like him. I don't recommend it to anyone but real Scudder fans, but I am one, and liked it.
April 19, 2023
Lawrence Block's recovering alcoholic detective Matthew Scudder sits down to pen his autobiography...
I unexpectedly got this ARC in the mail from Lawrence Block's camp. When you get an ARC from your favorite living crime writer (or one of his guys), you drop what you're doing and get down to business.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder really feels like Scudder writing a series of journal entries about his life, from his birth to a brother who died in infancy that may or may not have impacted him, to eventually becoming a cop and later the whiskey drinking detective we first met in The Sins of the Fathers.
Essentially, it's more background to a well loved character that doesn't cut the legs out from anything we already know about him in any substantial way. There are no "Everything you know is wrong!" revelations. Block's style is as it ever was, as smooth as good whiskey. The account of his past fleshes out his past a bit, more details about Estrella Rivera, Elaine, and Danny Boy Bell, for instance. We learn more about his time as a cop and even some of his pre-police activities like taking up boxing and thinking of becoming a plumber before he decided to become a cop.
There's a line Matt uses about meeting friends and wondering if he'll ever see them again. That's what this book feels like, probably the last Matthew Scudder book and maybe even Lawrence Block's last one. Is the Autobiography of Matthew Scudder essential? Probably not. Will Matthew Scudder fans want to read it? Absolutely. My only gripe is that like a bottle of good whiskey, I wish it had lasted a bit longer. 4.5 out of 5.
I unexpectedly got this ARC in the mail from Lawrence Block's camp. When you get an ARC from your favorite living crime writer (or one of his guys), you drop what you're doing and get down to business.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder really feels like Scudder writing a series of journal entries about his life, from his birth to a brother who died in infancy that may or may not have impacted him, to eventually becoming a cop and later the whiskey drinking detective we first met in The Sins of the Fathers.
Essentially, it's more background to a well loved character that doesn't cut the legs out from anything we already know about him in any substantial way. There are no "Everything you know is wrong!" revelations. Block's style is as it ever was, as smooth as good whiskey. The account of his past fleshes out his past a bit, more details about Estrella Rivera, Elaine, and Danny Boy Bell, for instance. We learn more about his time as a cop and even some of his pre-police activities like taking up boxing and thinking of becoming a plumber before he decided to become a cop.
There's a line Matt uses about meeting friends and wondering if he'll ever see them again. That's what this book feels like, probably the last Matthew Scudder book and maybe even Lawrence Block's last one. Is the Autobiography of Matthew Scudder essential? Probably not. Will Matthew Scudder fans want to read it? Absolutely. My only gripe is that like a bottle of good whiskey, I wish it had lasted a bit longer. 4.5 out of 5.
May 2, 2023
I fell into the world of Lawrence Block as I fall into most new authors: through Stephen King. While doing research on a book about King special editions, I discovered that the novelist from Maine had written an introduction to a limited edition of one of Lawrence Block's crime novels. Now: I love crime fiction, and I'd somehow never heard of this guy. All at once, I was presented with a new-to-me writer with scads of unread novels, and I was the happiest reader on the planet.
It took me two years to get through the majority of Lawrence Block. He's written plenty of worthy fiction and nonfiction, but his two major series are probably the biggest draw. One, focusing on gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, is comic and almost cozy in its episodic, rarely-changing way. They're delightful.
The Matt Scudder novels are different. Dark and dramatic, they follow an unlicensed private detective named Matthew Scudder, solving murders and wrestling with his private demons in New York. The first few books are very good, but they're living inside the mind of an alcoholic who is doing his best to bear up under the weight of his own failures and unbelievable trauma. It's when Scudder hits rock bottom and starts going to AA that the books gain a deeper resonance - as he moves past his dependence on alcohol and pain and starts putting his life on a better, happier path.
I was slightly apprehensive, then, when I realized that the Autobiography of Matthew Scudder was going to focus exclusively on the early years; in a way, this would be a prequel to the first Scudder novel, 1976's Sins of the Fathers. My apprehension was unwarranted. It's not just that we're reading a book written by Lawrence Block, who continues to command language, tone, and character at an immensely high level this late in his career. It's that we're reading a book "written" by Matt Scudder, whose life experiences and way of thinking make those early recollections thrilling, in a low-key and weary sort of way. Most of the Scudder books are about the how, about the what. This one's about the why. Matthew Scudder is such a well-crafted, well-developed character that even without shootouts and explosions and chases and struggles, the why is immensely compelling.
One conceit I loved (because I love writerly peccadillos) is that the Matt Scudder novels really are written by Lawrence Block, based on stories told to him by Scudder. Block intrudes a few times in this manuscript, but never in a distracting way (although one winking aside late in the book blames Block for getting a detail wrong in one of the earlier novels; the "real" Scudder doesn't remember what actually happened).
As badly as I would love more Scudder novels, both the character and his author are in their 80s. I don't think we'll be seeing Scudder again, and if not, that's okay. We've got a long line of fine books, none of them duds, and this is a fantastic capstone to one of the best crime fiction series of all time. That's good enough for me.
It took me two years to get through the majority of Lawrence Block. He's written plenty of worthy fiction and nonfiction, but his two major series are probably the biggest draw. One, focusing on gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, is comic and almost cozy in its episodic, rarely-changing way. They're delightful.
The Matt Scudder novels are different. Dark and dramatic, they follow an unlicensed private detective named Matthew Scudder, solving murders and wrestling with his private demons in New York. The first few books are very good, but they're living inside the mind of an alcoholic who is doing his best to bear up under the weight of his own failures and unbelievable trauma. It's when Scudder hits rock bottom and starts going to AA that the books gain a deeper resonance - as he moves past his dependence on alcohol and pain and starts putting his life on a better, happier path.
I was slightly apprehensive, then, when I realized that the Autobiography of Matthew Scudder was going to focus exclusively on the early years; in a way, this would be a prequel to the first Scudder novel, 1976's Sins of the Fathers. My apprehension was unwarranted. It's not just that we're reading a book written by Lawrence Block, who continues to command language, tone, and character at an immensely high level this late in his career. It's that we're reading a book "written" by Matt Scudder, whose life experiences and way of thinking make those early recollections thrilling, in a low-key and weary sort of way. Most of the Scudder books are about the how, about the what. This one's about the why. Matthew Scudder is such a well-crafted, well-developed character that even without shootouts and explosions and chases and struggles, the why is immensely compelling.
One conceit I loved (because I love writerly peccadillos) is that the Matt Scudder novels really are written by Lawrence Block, based on stories told to him by Scudder. Block intrudes a few times in this manuscript, but never in a distracting way (although one winking aside late in the book blames Block for getting a detail wrong in one of the earlier novels; the "real" Scudder doesn't remember what actually happened).
As badly as I would love more Scudder novels, both the character and his author are in their 80s. I don't think we'll be seeing Scudder again, and if not, that's okay. We've got a long line of fine books, none of them duds, and this is a fantastic capstone to one of the best crime fiction series of all time. That's good enough for me.
May 21, 2023
I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this book from a GoodReads giveaway. This is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a long time. For those who don't know, Matthew Scudder is one of the most compelling characters that Lawrence Block has created and written about over his career. Scudder is a private detective who left the NYPD after accidentally shooting a kid, and for years Scudder drowned his sorrows in drink, until he found AA. If you are already a fan of the Scudder books, you must read this novel (if it is a novel) as it fills in a lot of Scudder's backstory and lets us fans see him again for the incredible rounded character he is. If you haven't read the Scudder novels before, I would recommend you pick up Eight Million Ways to Die and then start reading the other novels in the series. Eventually, you will absolutely want to get to this book.
I am delighted that Lawrence Block keeps writing. May he never stop.
I am delighted that Lawrence Block keeps writing. May he never stop.
July 3, 2023
The name Lawrence Block rang a loud bell in my head so I requested this from Netgalley. I wasn't until after that I realised I've not read any of the Matthew Scudder books. Not a disaster though because this book is interesting, fun and clever.
Block gives us Matthew Scudder's autobiography so we hear the voice of the character commenting occasionally on Block's treatment of his working/personal life. He's not totally complimentary and you get the sense that Mr Block had a lot of fun with this novel.
We get a no holds barred look at the life of a New York policeman, his often unconventional way of policing and his honesty regarding friends, family, job and his failings as a human being, police officer, husband and father. Scudder is not beyond bending or breaking the law or having a wonky moral compass but he comes across essentially as a good man.
I really enjoyed this book. The narrators, (including Block as himself), Peter Berkrot as Scudder and Romy Nordlinger as Elaine were perfect - a little rough around the edges but clear as day (I loathe mumbling). So I've now downloaded a few Scudder books to see if I can spot the differences that Scudder points out.
Recommended for fans of Block, Scudder or anyone who enjoys a well told tale of New York policemen before the rules got tougher to bend.
Block gives us Matthew Scudder's autobiography so we hear the voice of the character commenting occasionally on Block's treatment of his working/personal life. He's not totally complimentary and you get the sense that Mr Block had a lot of fun with this novel.
We get a no holds barred look at the life of a New York policeman, his often unconventional way of policing and his honesty regarding friends, family, job and his failings as a human being, police officer, husband and father. Scudder is not beyond bending or breaking the law or having a wonky moral compass but he comes across essentially as a good man.
I really enjoyed this book. The narrators, (including Block as himself), Peter Berkrot as Scudder and Romy Nordlinger as Elaine were perfect - a little rough around the edges but clear as day (I loathe mumbling). So I've now downloaded a few Scudder books to see if I can spot the differences that Scudder points out.
Recommended for fans of Block, Scudder or anyone who enjoys a well told tale of New York policemen before the rules got tougher to bend.
November 15, 2023
I've read just about everything Lawrence Block has written about private detective Matt Scudder. I love the guy. He feels real to me. So of course I'd want to read a mock-autobiography on him. Glad I did! It answers some questions and fills in some gaps in just the way a rabid fan desires. Highly recommended to those of you who've already been sucked into the fantastic Scudder series!
June 17, 2023
Love the Matthew Scudder series and this book is a pleasure to read. I was laughing out loud in some parts.
October 17, 2023
It was a fun, meta look at Lawrence Block’s long time series character. Scudder himself narrates his story from his birth to the events that precede the first novel and shaped him into the character we first meet. And of course, Matt references Block as writing a fictionalized version of the truth. Fun stuff and well done from one of the greatest living writers.
Special Thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.
Special Thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.
July 1, 2023
As a huge Lawrence Block and Matt Scudder fan this was always going to get a 5 star review regardless. It’s Matt’s autobiography up to the age of 35, to when the series of novels commences and tells of his early family life in Brooklyn, his high school days, his early work life through to his Police career and the tragic shooting which cut it short. He also sets the record straight regarding his first meeting with Elaine and their subsequent relationship. If your new to Matt Scudder or Block it’s not the place to start, as this feels more like an ending than a beginning. If anything Matt’s reminiscences has actually ignited a spark in me to go revisit the series again, some of which I’ve already read more than once. It may seem like the end of the line for Scudder but hopefully Block will continue to treat us to the occasional publication despite getting on in years himself.
July 2, 2023
amazing view of Scudder’s life
I love reading Lawrence Block’s novels, and the Scudder books have always been a favorite. Reading this latest novel from Matt’s perspective was very enjoyable I enjoyed the insight of learning more. About the early life of the character. The only downside is I now feel like I should go back and read all 17 novels again
I love reading Lawrence Block’s novels, and the Scudder books have always been a favorite. Reading this latest novel from Matt’s perspective was very enjoyable I enjoyed the insight of learning more. About the early life of the character. The only downside is I now feel like I should go back and read all 17 novels again
January 18, 2025
I can't believe how I was taken and enraptured by the autobiography of a fictional character who I've gotten to know so well through the novels, but this book got me at the get go. It features - even highlights - Block's great writing.
Actually, I don't know how it reads, but the audio is one of the best I have ever listened to.
Actually, I don't know how it reads, but the audio is one of the best I have ever listened to.
August 4, 2023
If you've been reading the Matthew Scudder books over the years, this one will be like settling in with an old friend to reminisce. Not as focused as when he is solving a mystery so some tension is gone which means it does not move along as most of the novels do. Still, well written, interesting insights into the character. Suggest those new to the series get a few of the novels under their belt to make this one more meaningful.
July 9, 2023
I've been reading these books for 30 odd years, and this was a perfect send off (unless...)
It's the story of his life, mostly outwith the cases documented in the series. I'm not sure you'd get much from this if you haven't read at least some of the books, but for a long time reader, it's just a joy. And I read most of it in a pub called Armstrongs (my local).
It's the story of his life, mostly outwith the cases documented in the series. I'm not sure you'd get much from this if you haven't read at least some of the books, but for a long time reader, it's just a joy. And I read most of it in a pub called Armstrongs (my local).
June 29, 2023
I don't know that this added all that much to the Scudder story, but it was enjoyable spending time with this character again. Makes me want to go back and re-read the old novels.
April 21, 2024
"I've lived a long life, and in its course I've killed some people. One was an innocent child, and I could hardly fail to regret that, but it was never anything but accidental, and the scars it left me with have faded over the years. I can't say the others bother me… I've apparently reserved my deepest regret for a sin of omission, an instance where I might have killed but didn't."
Here is Matthew Scudder telling his own life story--the first thirty-five years of it, anyway--in his own words. Along the way, he periodically stops to set the official record straight, to correct those facts which his chronicler Lawrence Block may have exaggerated or mixed up in the fictionalized accounts of his cases.
"The bourbon did its job. It dialed down the volume of my thoughts to where I couldn't hear them."
Everything you ever wanted to know about Matt, it's all here. First lover, first drink, first bribe, first murder. Police academy. His father falling drunk from a subway car. Marriage to, divorce from, and death of his first wife Anita. How he met Elaine through Danny Boy Bell. How he framed James Leo Motley and sent him to prison (setting up the events of A Ticket to the Boneyard a decade later). The blackouts, the drunk driving, the accidental shooting of Estrellita Rivera.
Scudder's moral code is full of ambiguity and vaguely defined expanses of gray. "I don't know that cops all grow into moral relativists… Many of us watch the moral world go in and out of focus, and learn that not all crime cries out for punishment, and not all rules need to be enforced, and that what's right and what's wrong depend on who you are and where you've planted your feet. Except for murder."
I admit I struggled to get into this book at first. It felt like it had no good reason to exist. After all, the Scudder series already ended on a high note with A Drop of the Hard Stuff, and then the collected volume of stories contains A Time to Scatter Stones, which serves as a memorable coda.
What to do then with this rambling, wistful faux-autobiography?
Keep reading. Eventually it starts to strike the expected noir notes. It is peppered with anecdotes of killings and thefts and domestic abuses and rapes and their assorted investigations. There is violence, addiction, emotional repression, and sometimes hope.
Scudder winds up his musings in the weeks immediately preceding the events of the first book, bringing the reader full circle. When you turn the last page, you want nothing so much as to pick up Sins of the Fathers and start reading the series all over again.
4 stars
Here is Matthew Scudder telling his own life story--the first thirty-five years of it, anyway--in his own words. Along the way, he periodically stops to set the official record straight, to correct those facts which his chronicler Lawrence Block may have exaggerated or mixed up in the fictionalized accounts of his cases.
"The bourbon did its job. It dialed down the volume of my thoughts to where I couldn't hear them."
Everything you ever wanted to know about Matt, it's all here. First lover, first drink, first bribe, first murder. Police academy. His father falling drunk from a subway car. Marriage to, divorce from, and death of his first wife Anita. How he met Elaine through Danny Boy Bell. How he framed James Leo Motley and sent him to prison (setting up the events of A Ticket to the Boneyard a decade later). The blackouts, the drunk driving, the accidental shooting of Estrellita Rivera.
Scudder's moral code is full of ambiguity and vaguely defined expanses of gray. "I don't know that cops all grow into moral relativists… Many of us watch the moral world go in and out of focus, and learn that not all crime cries out for punishment, and not all rules need to be enforced, and that what's right and what's wrong depend on who you are and where you've planted your feet. Except for murder."
I admit I struggled to get into this book at first. It felt like it had no good reason to exist. After all, the Scudder series already ended on a high note with A Drop of the Hard Stuff, and then the collected volume of stories contains A Time to Scatter Stones, which serves as a memorable coda.
What to do then with this rambling, wistful faux-autobiography?
Keep reading. Eventually it starts to strike the expected noir notes. It is peppered with anecdotes of killings and thefts and domestic abuses and rapes and their assorted investigations. There is violence, addiction, emotional repression, and sometimes hope.
Scudder winds up his musings in the weeks immediately preceding the events of the first book, bringing the reader full circle. When you turn the last page, you want nothing so much as to pick up Sins of the Fathers and start reading the series all over again.
4 stars
July 16, 2023
There have been biographies written about fictional characters. In some instances, the biography is a novel that purports to recount the life of the subject, but in other cases, writers assemble the “known” facts about a fictional character and recast them into a pseduo-biography. Much rarer are autobiographies purportedly written by long-running series characters themselves.
Lawrence Block has been writing about Matthew “Matt” Scudder for nearly half a century, starting with The Sins of the Fathers in 1976, through seventeen novels and a number of shorter works. His fictional story in the novels begins shortly after he quit his job as a NYPD detective. His marriage has failed, he’s a more-or-less functional alcoholic, he lives in a hotel and makes money as an unlicensed investigator. Over the course of the series, he evolves and ages. He gets sober, and his attendance at AA meetings while he continues to “help out friends” becomes a running subplot. He also occasionally reflects on incidents from his past life as a cop, but much about his early days remained unknown, until now.
Scudder knows about the novels that have been written about his cases, but he also knows they’re fictionalized. Fiction requires a certain structure and symmetry that real life rarely possesses. He’s also aware of some inconsistencies in his story from book to book—his birthday, for example, or whether a certain life-altering bullet was fired uphill or downhill. This book isn’t really meant to set the record straight. Although he establishes his real date of birth once and for all, he admits there are many things he doesn’t remember clearly. Time, alcohol and age have a way of blurring memories. The existing novels, though, speak for themselves for the most part, and he wastes little time revisiting those cases, except for a few momentous incidents.
Scudder is a self-aware writer. He knows he can write (he attributes his advancement with the NYPD in large part to his ability to write incident reports that record what happened in a way that makes readers feel present), but he’s not entirely sure why he’s writing this account and he questions whether anyone is going to want to read it. It feels like he has begrudgingly agreed to a classroom assignment; however, once he begins, he finds himself remembering or rediscovering things about his early days. He had an older brother, for example, who only lived briefly. Scudder never met him, but he knows that the loss of a child profoundly affected his parents. What comes as a revelation is how that loss also affected him, in ways he’s never before considered. His wife Elaine, who is reading what he writes, is astonished to find out about his brother. The fact he’s never mentioned him is revealing, she believes.
Authors sometimes create brief or detailed biographies of their characters before they begin to write about them, but this is no five-page summary of a life. Over the course of this 200+ page book, Block—via Scudder—dives deep into a character he probably knows better than any of his other fictional creations. It reveals much about Scudder’s relationship with his parents, how he ended up on the police force, how his career advanced and why he ultimately decided to give up his gold badge. He is open about how he fell in love with his first wife and how that marriage ultimately fell apart.
According to Block, the autobiography began after he received a request to write 4000 words about Scudder’s life. Once he started writing, the assignment grew and grew into this 65,000-word book, longer than any of the first three books in the series.
As to Scudder’s question about whether anyone will be interested in reading his account of the first 35 years of his life, the answer from this reader is a resounding yes!
Lawrence Block has been writing about Matthew “Matt” Scudder for nearly half a century, starting with The Sins of the Fathers in 1976, through seventeen novels and a number of shorter works. His fictional story in the novels begins shortly after he quit his job as a NYPD detective. His marriage has failed, he’s a more-or-less functional alcoholic, he lives in a hotel and makes money as an unlicensed investigator. Over the course of the series, he evolves and ages. He gets sober, and his attendance at AA meetings while he continues to “help out friends” becomes a running subplot. He also occasionally reflects on incidents from his past life as a cop, but much about his early days remained unknown, until now.
Scudder knows about the novels that have been written about his cases, but he also knows they’re fictionalized. Fiction requires a certain structure and symmetry that real life rarely possesses. He’s also aware of some inconsistencies in his story from book to book—his birthday, for example, or whether a certain life-altering bullet was fired uphill or downhill. This book isn’t really meant to set the record straight. Although he establishes his real date of birth once and for all, he admits there are many things he doesn’t remember clearly. Time, alcohol and age have a way of blurring memories. The existing novels, though, speak for themselves for the most part, and he wastes little time revisiting those cases, except for a few momentous incidents.
Scudder is a self-aware writer. He knows he can write (he attributes his advancement with the NYPD in large part to his ability to write incident reports that record what happened in a way that makes readers feel present), but he’s not entirely sure why he’s writing this account and he questions whether anyone is going to want to read it. It feels like he has begrudgingly agreed to a classroom assignment; however, once he begins, he finds himself remembering or rediscovering things about his early days. He had an older brother, for example, who only lived briefly. Scudder never met him, but he knows that the loss of a child profoundly affected his parents. What comes as a revelation is how that loss also affected him, in ways he’s never before considered. His wife Elaine, who is reading what he writes, is astonished to find out about his brother. The fact he’s never mentioned him is revealing, she believes.
Authors sometimes create brief or detailed biographies of their characters before they begin to write about them, but this is no five-page summary of a life. Over the course of this 200+ page book, Block—via Scudder—dives deep into a character he probably knows better than any of his other fictional creations. It reveals much about Scudder’s relationship with his parents, how he ended up on the police force, how his career advanced and why he ultimately decided to give up his gold badge. He is open about how he fell in love with his first wife and how that marriage ultimately fell apart.
According to Block, the autobiography began after he received a request to write 4000 words about Scudder’s life. Once he started writing, the assignment grew and grew into this 65,000-word book, longer than any of the first three books in the series.
As to Scudder’s question about whether anyone will be interested in reading his account of the first 35 years of his life, the answer from this reader is a resounding yes!
September 12, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Subterranean Press for an advance copy of this new look at an old character where he writes about the ultimate mystery, where we came from and was it all worth it as the end gets closer.
As I get older I have become sort of numb to the fact that people I know and love might not be here, and that I will have a hole in my life where they were. One expects this with family and friends, it is to quote somebody a fact of life. However it is the loss of those who filled my mind with stories, pictures, art, movies, sound that really have been painful, far more than I would have expected. To think I won't have a Donald Westlake, or an Andrew Vachss or an Adam Hall story really makes me sad. A selfish feeling, I am sure their families would like them around for more than telling stories, but humans are selfish. And than I see that Lawrence Block has not one but two books out, both books different from each other as mysteries can be, featuring two characters I have known fo years, in different lights. And I feel a whole lot better. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is what it says, a look back at the life of a man who we met almost 45 years ago at the bottom, and now writing about his life, his past and the things that made him what he is.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is a series of journal entries that fill out the life of the character created by Lawrence Block in the early 70's. Meeting Scudder for the first time we see a man in his cups drinking bourbon and coffee and not wanting to go on, and yet still doing so. Scudder would do favors for people, and as he helped others he helped himself. Over the years the drinking slowed, stopped, he found love, a club that will keep his name alive and friends that looked to him for guidance. This is his story, told by him about his birth, 1938 same year as the author, but in September. The loss of his brother. Why he joined the police and what being a cop who took easily to the corruption, the buying a hat as he called it, was like and why. The shooting that changed him, and the cases that saved and truly made him.
Lawrence Block is a Grand Master bestowed this honor by the Mystery Writers of America. Also he has always been one of my favorite writers. The many series characters he created with each book being so different from others amazed me. A spy who can't sleep, a burglar who solves mysteries, and a lawyer who does worse crimes to get his clients off. Matthew Scudder has always been a favorite, and reading them has always been a thrill. This is no different. There are no magic transformations, no Sherlock Holmes is your father moments, this a man who made mistakes looking back and not making amends, more hmm well that explains that. Not many authors like to buck a successful plot, but Block is no normal writer, as one who has read many of his books on writing can say. Books that are also worth reading. This is different in that the mystery is more about Scudder, and is one that might jus get away. Some might get the feeling that the character is looking back, but I think that Scudder is looking forward. There is a lot left to see in this beautiful world, and every day their are favors that could help a lot of people. I like to think that Scudder, no matter his loss, no matter his mobility, will be out there. And that Lawrence Block has a lot more books in him.
Recommended for fans, and for those new to the series. There is a long line of novels, to paraphrase a Scudder title, that one can read just in this series alone. Enough books for a lifetime.
As I get older I have become sort of numb to the fact that people I know and love might not be here, and that I will have a hole in my life where they were. One expects this with family and friends, it is to quote somebody a fact of life. However it is the loss of those who filled my mind with stories, pictures, art, movies, sound that really have been painful, far more than I would have expected. To think I won't have a Donald Westlake, or an Andrew Vachss or an Adam Hall story really makes me sad. A selfish feeling, I am sure their families would like them around for more than telling stories, but humans are selfish. And than I see that Lawrence Block has not one but two books out, both books different from each other as mysteries can be, featuring two characters I have known fo years, in different lights. And I feel a whole lot better. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is what it says, a look back at the life of a man who we met almost 45 years ago at the bottom, and now writing about his life, his past and the things that made him what he is.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is a series of journal entries that fill out the life of the character created by Lawrence Block in the early 70's. Meeting Scudder for the first time we see a man in his cups drinking bourbon and coffee and not wanting to go on, and yet still doing so. Scudder would do favors for people, and as he helped others he helped himself. Over the years the drinking slowed, stopped, he found love, a club that will keep his name alive and friends that looked to him for guidance. This is his story, told by him about his birth, 1938 same year as the author, but in September. The loss of his brother. Why he joined the police and what being a cop who took easily to the corruption, the buying a hat as he called it, was like and why. The shooting that changed him, and the cases that saved and truly made him.
Lawrence Block is a Grand Master bestowed this honor by the Mystery Writers of America. Also he has always been one of my favorite writers. The many series characters he created with each book being so different from others amazed me. A spy who can't sleep, a burglar who solves mysteries, and a lawyer who does worse crimes to get his clients off. Matthew Scudder has always been a favorite, and reading them has always been a thrill. This is no different. There are no magic transformations, no Sherlock Holmes is your father moments, this a man who made mistakes looking back and not making amends, more hmm well that explains that. Not many authors like to buck a successful plot, but Block is no normal writer, as one who has read many of his books on writing can say. Books that are also worth reading. This is different in that the mystery is more about Scudder, and is one that might jus get away. Some might get the feeling that the character is looking back, but I think that Scudder is looking forward. There is a lot left to see in this beautiful world, and every day their are favors that could help a lot of people. I like to think that Scudder, no matter his loss, no matter his mobility, will be out there. And that Lawrence Block has a lot more books in him.
Recommended for fans, and for those new to the series. There is a long line of novels, to paraphrase a Scudder title, that one can read just in this series alone. Enough books for a lifetime.
September 27, 2023
At the end of a long and stellar career, author Lawrence Block sets his most famous character down to the task of writing the character's autobiography. And at the end of a long and stellar career of his own, Matthew Scudder rises to the occasion.
There are seventeen novels, a collection of stories, a novella and several assorted short stories that feature Scudder, a former NYPD detective who became an unlicensed private investigator, doing favors for "friends" who then compensated him accordingly. As I've said repeatedly, for my money this is the best series in the crime fiction genre, and Scudder is the most compelling and deeply-drawn protagonist ever to appear in any long-running series.
When Scudder first appeared in 1976 in The Sins of the Fathers, he was thirty-eight years old and only recently removed from his career as a police detective. Through the series, he aged in real time so that when the last entry in the series, A Time to Scatter Stones, appeared in 2019, Scudder, like his creator, was pushing hard into his early eighties.
With one regrettable lapse, all of the Scudder stories were narrated by the detective himself, and so reading the novels through the years, one got a fairly complete story of the character's life from the time he was thirty-eight on. And, inevitably of course, a little of his back story seeped into the novels.
This book is designed to flesh out the background and basically brings Scudder's story up to the point where the readers first meet him. We learn about his family, his education, his early career choices, and his marriage to his first wife. We learn how he joined the police department as a patrolman and rose to become a homicide detective, tutored along the way by his first partner who taught him what being an NYPD cop was really all about. And, of course, we learn a bit more about the tragic incident that would ultimately compel Scudder to leave the department.
It's all great fun, even though the book naturally misses the tension that is so gripping through most of the stories themselves. This book will mean little or nothing to those who have not immersed themselves deeply in the Scudder novels, but for those of us who have, it's a treasure.
It's sad to think that there will be no more Matthew Scudder novels, but every fan of crime fiction owes a huge debt of gratitude to Lawrence Block for these excellent stories and for this unforgettable character.
There are seventeen novels, a collection of stories, a novella and several assorted short stories that feature Scudder, a former NYPD detective who became an unlicensed private investigator, doing favors for "friends" who then compensated him accordingly. As I've said repeatedly, for my money this is the best series in the crime fiction genre, and Scudder is the most compelling and deeply-drawn protagonist ever to appear in any long-running series.
When Scudder first appeared in 1976 in The Sins of the Fathers, he was thirty-eight years old and only recently removed from his career as a police detective. Through the series, he aged in real time so that when the last entry in the series, A Time to Scatter Stones, appeared in 2019, Scudder, like his creator, was pushing hard into his early eighties.
With one regrettable lapse, all of the Scudder stories were narrated by the detective himself, and so reading the novels through the years, one got a fairly complete story of the character's life from the time he was thirty-eight on. And, inevitably of course, a little of his back story seeped into the novels.
This book is designed to flesh out the background and basically brings Scudder's story up to the point where the readers first meet him. We learn about his family, his education, his early career choices, and his marriage to his first wife. We learn how he joined the police department as a patrolman and rose to become a homicide detective, tutored along the way by his first partner who taught him what being an NYPD cop was really all about. And, of course, we learn a bit more about the tragic incident that would ultimately compel Scudder to leave the department.
It's all great fun, even though the book naturally misses the tension that is so gripping through most of the stories themselves. This book will mean little or nothing to those who have not immersed themselves deeply in the Scudder novels, but for those of us who have, it's a treasure.
It's sad to think that there will be no more Matthew Scudder novels, but every fan of crime fiction owes a huge debt of gratitude to Lawrence Block for these excellent stories and for this unforgettable character.
June 28, 2023
Not a place to start Scudder! You want to digest several of the novels(*) before you start this reminiscence.
This is Block at another level. It's meaty, but I am still grappling with how to feel about it.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is very much 1950s-1960s. Hardly much from the last 50 years. You say "Block covered that!" but now I wonder how reliable a biographer Larry is about his own creation.
"Going all the way. Jesus, the world was different then."
So, Block wrote about the thrilling bits of Scudder's life. Now Block asks Scudder to write-up the parts Block left out (Scudder includes some of Block's manglings: uphill? downhill?). We get a childhood and young adulthood which is more fleshed-out than Block's thrillers, but not much of a surprise and mostly (I can't believe I am saying this) a bit dull. The Block-authored books are full of smart and clever dialog. Scudder is a cop: his reportage summarizes conversations in as few words as possible.
There are treasures. George Washington Plunkitt's distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em." Good policy for beat cops a century later.
But of course the way Scudder's marriage fell apart (faded away) is even less interesting than when Block told it in the novels. (Interesting bit about Scudder's sons, if we ever cared about them.)
Comments on aging, even hearing aids: "I speculated that I probably could have used them a couple of years earlier. “Ten,” she said, ...that was how long it took..for age-related deafness to prompt a person to do something.." What?
The Scudder-by-Block novels are strongly noir. Scudder's writing is more noir.
After publishing about 13 million well-stacked words, nobody can criticize Larry. We critique anyway, to help others find books they may like.
(*)Matthew Scudder The Novels
#1 The Sins of the Fathers
#2 Time to Murder and Create
#3 In the Midst of Death
#4 A Stab in the Dark
#5 Eight Million Ways to Die
#6 When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
#7 Out on the Cutting Edge
#8 A Ticket to the Boneyard
#9 A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
#10 A Walk Among the Tombstones
#11 The Devil Knows You’re Dead
#12 A Long Line of Dead Men
#13 Even the Wicked
#14 Everybody Dies
#15 Hope to Die
#16 All the Flowers are Dying
#17 A Drop of the Hard Stuff
#18 The Night and the Music (Collected Short Stories)
#19 A Time to Scatter Stones (A Novella)
This is Block at another level. It's meaty, but I am still grappling with how to feel about it.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is very much 1950s-1960s. Hardly much from the last 50 years. You say "Block covered that!" but now I wonder how reliable a biographer Larry is about his own creation.
"Going all the way. Jesus, the world was different then."
So, Block wrote about the thrilling bits of Scudder's life. Now Block asks Scudder to write-up the parts Block left out (Scudder includes some of Block's manglings: uphill? downhill?). We get a childhood and young adulthood which is more fleshed-out than Block's thrillers, but not much of a surprise and mostly (I can't believe I am saying this) a bit dull. The Block-authored books are full of smart and clever dialog. Scudder is a cop: his reportage summarizes conversations in as few words as possible.
There are treasures. George Washington Plunkitt's distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em." Good policy for beat cops a century later.
But of course the way Scudder's marriage fell apart (faded away) is even less interesting than when Block told it in the novels. (Interesting bit about Scudder's sons, if we ever cared about them.)
Comments on aging, even hearing aids: "I speculated that I probably could have used them a couple of years earlier. “Ten,” she said, ...that was how long it took..for age-related deafness to prompt a person to do something.." What?
The Scudder-by-Block novels are strongly noir. Scudder's writing is more noir.
After publishing about 13 million well-stacked words, nobody can criticize Larry. We critique anyway, to help others find books they may like.
(*)Matthew Scudder The Novels
#1 The Sins of the Fathers
#2 Time to Murder and Create
#3 In the Midst of Death
#4 A Stab in the Dark
#5 Eight Million Ways to Die
#6 When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
#7 Out on the Cutting Edge
#8 A Ticket to the Boneyard
#9 A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
#10 A Walk Among the Tombstones
#11 The Devil Knows You’re Dead
#12 A Long Line of Dead Men
#13 Even the Wicked
#14 Everybody Dies
#15 Hope to Die
#16 All the Flowers are Dying
#17 A Drop of the Hard Stuff
#18 The Night and the Music (Collected Short Stories)
#19 A Time to Scatter Stones (A Novella)
August 27, 2023
I wasn't sure what I expected from The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder. I cut my teeth with Matthew Scudder and Lawrence Block in 1996 and never looked back, except that they led me to John Paul Keller, Bernie Rhondenbarr, Chip Harrison, and Evan Tanner, all from the brilliance of Lawrence Block.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is ostensibly by Matthew Scudder with many references and internal conversations with his creator and his many stories.
The autobiography covers the early part of Matthews’ life. It saddened me a bit because it often sounded a bit like a confession mixed with the ruminations of a sometimes cynically honest older man reviewing his life.
I laughed with the tale Scudders answering machine and the frustrated woman calling it.
For those who have never read a Matthew Scudder book, The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder should provide the impetus to start ordering them. For those of us who have, it's a melancholy, and sometimes a startling, walk through our memories as well.
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder is ostensibly by Matthew Scudder with many references and internal conversations with his creator and his many stories.
The autobiography covers the early part of Matthews’ life. It saddened me a bit because it often sounded a bit like a confession mixed with the ruminations of a sometimes cynically honest older man reviewing his life.
I laughed with the tale Scudders answering machine and the frustrated woman calling it.
"It was the desperate work of one woman, and she was trying to reach her sister in Maspeth, but she kept getting my number, probably because she kept dialing it, and her patience waned even as her frustration mounted. "You keep saying you’re not there to take my call. If you're really not there then why do you keep picking up the phone?" and "I know this is the right number, you stupid son of a bitch! I've been dialing this number all my life. Why are you answering the wrong number? What's the matter with you?" And so on."Alas, it wasn't just answering machines Matt. I had the same problem last year without an answering machine or a land line.
For those who have never read a Matthew Scudder book, The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder should provide the impetus to start ordering them. For those of us who have, it's a melancholy, and sometimes a startling, walk through our memories as well.
"It is pointless, I sometimes tell myself, to wonder what might have happened - because it didn't, did it? What actually did happen, the great stream of yesterdays that resolved themselves into today, now bear an appearance if inevitability. Whether or not one's destiny was written in the stars, the present reality is indelibly written in the here and now."5 Stars for The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder with hope that he reviews the rest of his life in the sequel to his autobiographic conversation with Lawrence Block and lets us enjoy it.
March 2, 2024
It looks like I accidentally have back-to-back meta-fiction stories, the second being “The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder” by the master Lawrence Block, featuring one of his most enduring characters.
This is one story where the title is definitely an accurate description: what we have is purported free-form stream of memory blurbs from Matthew Scudder, writing about his life before we are introduced to him in the first Lawrence Block book. As with most biographies, we start with his childhood, his dad being distant and missing as he finds solace in alcohol, a common theme that his son will repeat throughout his life. His mother does her best, but it’s up to Matthew to find his own way into the world.
Eventually he drifts (or maybe makes a choice) to become a cop. His time with a badge composes the bulk of this story, starting in uniform with his partner, learning how NYC cops work in the real world, the $20 handshakes, the pimp informers, the racism and social injustice that was policework in the 1960s and 1970s. Scudder has a head on his shoulders, and is able to write a decent report, and eventually he makes it to plain clothes and detective before it all comes crashing down in an accidental shooting (described many times in the books by Mr. Block).
We also get to see Scudder’s personal life, how he falls in love with Anita and tries to support his family, how he drifts away from them and eventually into the arms of Elaine, and how his abusive relationship with alcohol puts everything at risk as he spirals out of control.
This is an interesting coda to those who have been fans throughout the entire series, but definitely not for those new to Scudder. The meta-aspects of Scudder telling us what Mr. Block had changed from his “real life” and how he is guiding him in the telling of this story are done with a light touch, but it’s still somewhat jarring. A nice fade into the sunset for a unique and interesting character.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Subterranean Press via NetGalley. Thank you!
This is one story where the title is definitely an accurate description: what we have is purported free-form stream of memory blurbs from Matthew Scudder, writing about his life before we are introduced to him in the first Lawrence Block book. As with most biographies, we start with his childhood, his dad being distant and missing as he finds solace in alcohol, a common theme that his son will repeat throughout his life. His mother does her best, but it’s up to Matthew to find his own way into the world.
Eventually he drifts (or maybe makes a choice) to become a cop. His time with a badge composes the bulk of this story, starting in uniform with his partner, learning how NYC cops work in the real world, the $20 handshakes, the pimp informers, the racism and social injustice that was policework in the 1960s and 1970s. Scudder has a head on his shoulders, and is able to write a decent report, and eventually he makes it to plain clothes and detective before it all comes crashing down in an accidental shooting (described many times in the books by Mr. Block).
We also get to see Scudder’s personal life, how he falls in love with Anita and tries to support his family, how he drifts away from them and eventually into the arms of Elaine, and how his abusive relationship with alcohol puts everything at risk as he spirals out of control.
This is an interesting coda to those who have been fans throughout the entire series, but definitely not for those new to Scudder. The meta-aspects of Scudder telling us what Mr. Block had changed from his “real life” and how he is guiding him in the telling of this story are done with a light touch, but it’s still somewhat jarring. A nice fade into the sunset for a unique and interesting character.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Subterranean Press via NetGalley. Thank you!
July 13, 2023
Fifteen years ago (fifteen!), I passed a rainy afternoon while on internship to read a Matthew Scudder book by Lawrence Block. I didn’t know it was the second in a long-running series; I had just grabbed it off a cart. It was fine. I liked it but it was nothing more than adult babysitting.
Eight years ago (eight), I grabbed the first book from a used bookstore by accident because the premise sounded interesting. Again, a passable mystery, no more no less.
Years later, I was looking for a good, gritty New York mystery series. All roads led back to the Scudder novels. And I finally downed them.
And during the pandemic devoured them.
And oh my, do I love these books.
Having avoided them for so long because I didn’t care for anti-social drunk male PIs, I was pleasantly surprised to find that as Block fleshed the character out, he is a fully formed human being who confronts his alcoholism and solves cases with deep empathy. His traipsing around the Big Apple is a bonus; few write New York City better than Block.
So when I heard that the man, now in his 80s, was writing a fictional autobiography of Scudder as a capstone to his career, I just about lost my mind. I was so grateful to have the chance to read this.
And while it was good…I have to confess to a bit of disappointment.
Oh the writing is fine. Block’s prose is smooth. And it felt great to be back in Scudder’s shoes again.
The problem is that the biography itself encompasses the time from Matthew’s birth to his beginning as a PI. It’s like an extended Act I. And while we have fourteen books plus many short stories of Matt stories, I would’ve loved Matt’s perspective on the things he did over his career. How does he feel about the people he saved? The people he killed? The city that has changed so much?
So yeah, not all of what I wanted but enough of what I wanted and given Block’s age, anything was a bonus. Was a fun trip down memory lane, even if we got off too soon.
Eight years ago (eight), I grabbed the first book from a used bookstore by accident because the premise sounded interesting. Again, a passable mystery, no more no less.
Years later, I was looking for a good, gritty New York mystery series. All roads led back to the Scudder novels. And I finally downed them.
And during the pandemic devoured them.
And oh my, do I love these books.
Having avoided them for so long because I didn’t care for anti-social drunk male PIs, I was pleasantly surprised to find that as Block fleshed the character out, he is a fully formed human being who confronts his alcoholism and solves cases with deep empathy. His traipsing around the Big Apple is a bonus; few write New York City better than Block.
So when I heard that the man, now in his 80s, was writing a fictional autobiography of Scudder as a capstone to his career, I just about lost my mind. I was so grateful to have the chance to read this.
And while it was good…I have to confess to a bit of disappointment.
Oh the writing is fine. Block’s prose is smooth. And it felt great to be back in Scudder’s shoes again.
The problem is that the biography itself encompasses the time from Matthew’s birth to his beginning as a PI. It’s like an extended Act I. And while we have fourteen books plus many short stories of Matt stories, I would’ve loved Matt’s perspective on the things he did over his career. How does he feel about the people he saved? The people he killed? The city that has changed so much?
So yeah, not all of what I wanted but enough of what I wanted and given Block’s age, anything was a bonus. Was a fun trip down memory lane, even if we got off too soon.
September 12, 2023
Huh. Not bad.
I say this as a long-time Block fan, having read all the Scudders, Burglars, Tanners, etc. I took a seminar of his in the 90s just to soak up his presence. I love me some Block.
But time has a way with all of us and his last few outings (post several failed retirement attempts) have been hard to digest. Not the sentences -- the sentences are as fluid and frothy as ever. But everything else (plot, character, tone, theme, narrative momentum) has seen some neglect. A Time to Scatter Stones was a warning sign, and Dead Girl Blues was the disaster of which we were warned. Then there was The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown, wherein our familiar protagonists are thrust into a dimension parallel to the one in which they had sleuthed for eleven prior books. Literally -- I exaggerate you not.
So I was cautious picking up the "autobiography" of one of my favorite series characters. "Just take it one sentence at a time. You can stop anytime you want." And yet, it sort of works. It works because autobiography as a form is a reasonable fit for Block's current talents. He can tangent away to his heart's desire, and what of it? That's what happens in memoir.
It was lovely to spend some more time in the company of Matthew Scudder. Did it end with a satisfying thematic conclusion? No. But the sentences were great, one after the other.
I say this as a long-time Block fan, having read all the Scudders, Burglars, Tanners, etc. I took a seminar of his in the 90s just to soak up his presence. I love me some Block.
But time has a way with all of us and his last few outings (post several failed retirement attempts) have been hard to digest. Not the sentences -- the sentences are as fluid and frothy as ever. But everything else (plot, character, tone, theme, narrative momentum) has seen some neglect. A Time to Scatter Stones was a warning sign, and Dead Girl Blues was the disaster of which we were warned. Then there was The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown, wherein our familiar protagonists are thrust into a dimension parallel to the one in which they had sleuthed for eleven prior books. Literally -- I exaggerate you not.
So I was cautious picking up the "autobiography" of one of my favorite series characters. "Just take it one sentence at a time. You can stop anytime you want." And yet, it sort of works. It works because autobiography as a form is a reasonable fit for Block's current talents. He can tangent away to his heart's desire, and what of it? That's what happens in memoir.
It was lovely to spend some more time in the company of Matthew Scudder. Did it end with a satisfying thematic conclusion? No. But the sentences were great, one after the other.
October 23, 2023
Lawrence Block is an entertaining writer. My husband (a used book dealer) and I were introduced to his work through a customer and went on to buy everything he'd written to that point (sometime in the mid-1980s) and every book that came out after. So, I was excited to see Matthew Scudder rise from the ashes and I found this "autobiography" a completely engaging story. Block is a writer who keeps me reading and while it's been awhile since Scudder and I met, I remembered his back story more than I recollect the specific novels he starred in. It was a hoot to have him pull down one of Block's books and describe how the author got things wrong, including Scudder's birthday. It was sad and interesting to see him make his way through a rough childhood and not get to go to college when his mother's death orphaned him. It was fun to have him meet Anita, generally remembered in a sour way when he was in a Block story, but sharing their early love when things went right. It was also fun to have a comprehensive explanation of his falling for, then losing, then falling for Elaine, his partner to the end (well, at least in old age). He is old and that comes through in funny ways that are familiar to us who kind of got old along with him and will be amusing to those who laught at us oldies instead of with us. He breaks the fourth wall routinely,: He is both Block's creation and he is autonomous. At one point, Block chimes in, conversing with Scudder about the autobiography, a nice conceit. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it to Matthew Scudder/Lawrence Block fans.
October 7, 2023
Welcome back Matthew Scudder. You have turned 84 and ready to tell much of your life’s story in an autobiography that reveals some new insight into who you really are.
When I began reading Lawrence’s Block’s new and in depth look at Scudder’s life, I wondered if I’d feel the pull that all of the past tales provided. I did! Scudder is a likable character despite his debilitating alcoholism and his unorthodox police procedures. Ultimately, he bares himself to his readers as a man with his own ingrained moral standards as he navigates his way through a sometimes corrupt department and often vicious criminal element.
There is good reason that the author is a recipient of a myriad of awards for his straight talking narratives and realistic in your face dialog. This was a well thought out, perhaps final episode of what makes Scudder , and perhaps Block, tick. If you have never read other books in this series, this is not a good starting point. But if Matthew Scudder and his creator have had a special place in your heart, you will love reading this “ autobiography.” It will be published on October 31,2023.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
When I began reading Lawrence’s Block’s new and in depth look at Scudder’s life, I wondered if I’d feel the pull that all of the past tales provided. I did! Scudder is a likable character despite his debilitating alcoholism and his unorthodox police procedures. Ultimately, he bares himself to his readers as a man with his own ingrained moral standards as he navigates his way through a sometimes corrupt department and often vicious criminal element.
There is good reason that the author is a recipient of a myriad of awards for his straight talking narratives and realistic in your face dialog. This was a well thought out, perhaps final episode of what makes Scudder , and perhaps Block, tick. If you have never read other books in this series, this is not a good starting point. But if Matthew Scudder and his creator have had a special place in your heart, you will love reading this “ autobiography.” It will be published on October 31,2023.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 25, 2024
It pains me to leave this low review for a Lawrence Block book and especially a Scudder book, as I have enjoyed the series for a long time.
The other complaints about format and voice are not wrong, but they are also far from what detracted from the experience for me. It was a little weird and very different from the past books, but I did end up enjoying the concept of all the Scudder books being the retelling of this narrator's true stories packaged publication.
Where it lost me was the multiple times it used flashbacks or reminiscing about the past to serve as a form of 'things used to be better' or 'I don't understand this modern world' style complaints. Multiple times throughout the book, moments edge up to the 'grandpa made at the wokes' vibe. Nothing terrible is said, and there is nothing to indicate that today's world is bad or worse than the past. It is just a kind of misty-eyed hindsight for when things were just a little bit less enlightened...
It just made me feel a little cringe and took me out of the book by bringing up visions of the old man yells at clouds meme.
The other complaints about format and voice are not wrong, but they are also far from what detracted from the experience for me. It was a little weird and very different from the past books, but I did end up enjoying the concept of all the Scudder books being the retelling of this narrator's true stories packaged publication.
Where it lost me was the multiple times it used flashbacks or reminiscing about the past to serve as a form of 'things used to be better' or 'I don't understand this modern world' style complaints. Multiple times throughout the book, moments edge up to the 'grandpa made at the wokes' vibe. Nothing terrible is said, and there is nothing to indicate that today's world is bad or worse than the past. It is just a kind of misty-eyed hindsight for when things were just a little bit less enlightened...
It just made me feel a little cringe and took me out of the book by bringing up visions of the old man yells at clouds meme.
September 24, 2025
It pains me to leave this low review for a Lawrence Block book and especially a Scudder book, as I have enjoyed the series for a long time.
The other complaints about format and voice are not wrong, but they are also far from what detracted from the experience for me. It was a little weird and very different from the past books, but I did end up enjoying the concept of all the Scudder books being the retelling of this narrator's true stories packaged publication.
Where it lost me was the multiple times it used flashbacks or reminiscing about the past to serve as a form of 'things used to be better' or 'I don't understand this modern world' style complaints. Multiple times throughout the book, moments edge up to the 'grandpa made at the wokes' vibe. Nothing terrible is said, and there is nothing to indicate that today's world is bad or worse than the past. It is just a kind of misty-eyed hindsight for when things were just a little bit less enlightened...
It just made me feel a little cringe and took me out of the book by bringing up visions of the old man yells at clouds meme.
The other complaints about format and voice are not wrong, but they are also far from what detracted from the experience for me. It was a little weird and very different from the past books, but I did end up enjoying the concept of all the Scudder books being the retelling of this narrator's true stories packaged publication.
Where it lost me was the multiple times it used flashbacks or reminiscing about the past to serve as a form of 'things used to be better' or 'I don't understand this modern world' style complaints. Multiple times throughout the book, moments edge up to the 'grandpa made at the wokes' vibe. Nothing terrible is said, and there is nothing to indicate that today's world is bad or worse than the past. It is just a kind of misty-eyed hindsight for when things were just a little bit less enlightened...
It just made me feel a little cringe and took me out of the book by bringing up visions of the old man yells at clouds meme.
October 7, 2023
A Must Read For Fans of The Matthew Scudder Series!
I’ve been a big fan of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series for many years, and so I jumped at the chance to read Block’s latest book, The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder. To assure as much accuracy as possible about Matthew Scudder’s life, I was particularly impressed with Block’s willingness to step aside to allow the Man himself to tell as much or as little as he chooses about his life.
Simply put if you, like I, have been a fan of Block’s mysteries featuring this fictional main character, you won’t to want to miss out on reading this excellent autobiography. You’ll feel like you’re sitting down in a bar enjoying a drink (or several drinks) with Scudder as he shares with you the major events and people that shaped him into the Man he became. Block deserves a lot of credit for his excellent ability to take Scudder’s words and shape them into a highly readable, entertaining book.
Highly Recommended!
#The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder #NetGalley
I’ve been a big fan of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series for many years, and so I jumped at the chance to read Block’s latest book, The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder. To assure as much accuracy as possible about Matthew Scudder’s life, I was particularly impressed with Block’s willingness to step aside to allow the Man himself to tell as much or as little as he chooses about his life.
Simply put if you, like I, have been a fan of Block’s mysteries featuring this fictional main character, you won’t to want to miss out on reading this excellent autobiography. You’ll feel like you’re sitting down in a bar enjoying a drink (or several drinks) with Scudder as he shares with you the major events and people that shaped him into the Man he became. Block deserves a lot of credit for his excellent ability to take Scudder’s words and shape them into a highly readable, entertaining book.
Highly Recommended!
#The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder #NetGalley
October 30, 2023
Lawrence Block is a very prolific author who is well known for his mystery series, including one that centers on a fan favorite character, Matthew Scudder. Readers first met Scudder in 1976 and he has visited us often since, but we never knew Scudder's life before he became that unlicensed private investigator looking into the death of a young prostitute at the hands of a preacher's son. What made Scudder, Scudder? Now Lawrence Block has returned to the pen and paper to introduce us to Scudder's life before........
Written by Block as if Scudder were dictating, we follow the man from youth through the trials, tribulations, joys and celebrations that contributed to his life in the here and now. He will wander through his memories to share with us those that meant the most to him. The book really reads as if it's a true memoir. After all, Lawrence Block is still one of the most skillful writers alive. It's no surprise to this reader that after I finished I still wanted more. That's what Block's books are noted for.....leaving you wanting more.
Written by Block as if Scudder were dictating, we follow the man from youth through the trials, tribulations, joys and celebrations that contributed to his life in the here and now. He will wander through his memories to share with us those that meant the most to him. The book really reads as if it's a true memoir. After all, Lawrence Block is still one of the most skillful writers alive. It's no surprise to this reader that after I finished I still wanted more. That's what Block's books are noted for.....leaving you wanting more.
June 30, 2023
Possibly the final chapter in the Matt Scudder story and always going to get 5 stars from me, I suppose. I've read the whole series, often as soon as they came out, and loved them all, especially 'Eight Mlion Ways To Die'. I can't believe that it's been 4 years since 'A Time To Scatter Stones' and a lot has happened to the world since then, obviously.
Our hero/anti-hero looks back on his life and ponders some of the events that happened before 'Sins Of The Fathers', as well as updating us on what's happened to some of the people, with whom he shared his life.
It's useful - and interesting - background, but the bookalso stands on its own, as a good story well told, in this case by Matt himself, putting right some of the inaccuracies introduced in previous books, by his ghost-writer, Mr. Block :-)
I wanted to read this book straightaway, but had to consciously slow down my reading speed, because I also didn't want it to finish.
I guess that you can never tell when a series of books will end, but this is a great summing-up of a truly brilliant book series.
Our hero/anti-hero looks back on his life and ponders some of the events that happened before 'Sins Of The Fathers', as well as updating us on what's happened to some of the people, with whom he shared his life.
It's useful - and interesting - background, but the bookalso stands on its own, as a good story well told, in this case by Matt himself, putting right some of the inaccuracies introduced in previous books, by his ghost-writer, Mr. Block :-)
I wanted to read this book straightaway, but had to consciously slow down my reading speed, because I also didn't want it to finish.
I guess that you can never tell when a series of books will end, but this is a great summing-up of a truly brilliant book series.
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