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Three Weeks To Say Goodbye
Three Weeks to Say Goodbye
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Matthew
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Dec 31, 2013 01:42PM
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Cody is featured in a couple other CJ Box books. I was aware of that before I read this one, but I actually did not know he was in this one.
He can be found in
and
I haven't read either yet, but this do-whatever-it-takes-even-if-it-might-be-too-much hero should be worth checking out in his own stories.
I think Cody was one of the more interesting characters of the book, for sure. He was smarter than he let on. The one thing that stopped him from getting things done faster was himself. His short fuse, lack of credibility and drinking problem created a sense of disaster all their own. He also felt very unfriendly and unwelcoming towards the end of the book once he started sobering up and putting his head on straight. He felt the most real of the characters, he almost had an odor when I was reading along. Towards the end of the book Cody became distant and mysterious. I sort of felt this was a mechanism to keep you in suspense by the author, which really urks me. He tried to explain it at one point, that he was doing a service for Jack by not including him, but in actuality it just shot his tension through the roof and decreased my interest in reading the chapters between then and when he would show up again. It was a tell by the author that Jack is just along for the ride, again, until Cody sweeps in at the last possible moment and saves his ass. Which is what happened, unfortunately.
Jack McGuaneI thought Jack was the weakest character in the book. He did nothing but shoot people, which seems like the easy way out.
Jack was along for the ride the entire time. He never made any contribution to a happy solution and barely participated in his own life. He had a sense that he was supposed to be protecting his family, but he barely even spent time with them during the last three weeks they were supposedly together.
I think Jack was supposed to represent the average man going through an extraordinary event. In turn I feel like he was a boy trying to become a man, and he didn't even do that.
I couldn't tell why these people were helping him, other than they'd grown up with him. He didn't really know either Brian or Cody. Brian had to know he was potentially putting his life on the line. I could see Cody helping just because of his sense of justice and the intrigue of a larger case.
All in all, Jack was along for the ride. He just happened to be lucky enough to know people that would do the things that he couldn't or didn't do for himself. I had very little empathy for him or his situation towards the end of the book. I also think that the cops just letting him shoot Garret was totally off the wall crazy and unbelievable, none of them had a problem with that, not even Turkleton. What gives?
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Great point! I actually did not care for Cody and first - pictured him as a useless slob. He grew on me as the story went along. Until you mentioned it, I didn't really think about it, but I can definitely see his main role being to increase the suspense. Also, his sudden revelation about the guy from New Mexico was a rather convenient "Deus Ex Machnina".
Mod
I thought Jack was the weakest character in the book. He did nothing but shoot people, which seems like the easy way out.
Jack was along for the ride the entire time. He never made a..."
I agree that Jack was not a fantastic character. He was there to be dumped on and then over-react. His responses were often unbelievable and I am not sure how he wasn't in jail early on in the book. I did feel bad for him in his plight, but I was face-palming most of the way through no matter what he did.
From my experience with other CJ Box works, I think the ending where he shot everyone and got away with only minor jail time is because Box likes to frequently include "Western vigilante justice".
Matthew wrote: "Joe wrote: "Jack McGuaneI thought Jack was the weakest character in the book. He did nothing but shoot people, which seems like the easy way out.
Jack was along for the ride the entire time. He ..."
Totally, I could see that being a personal morality of his. It felt very hal delivered, like when a friend tells you a story about something you were there for. Almost like there was no other way about it.
To me, shooting someone isn't really justice. They're dead. You put a stop to any future medling they could do, but anyone can shoot another person. There's nothing clever about it.
It takes me back to where I was talking about Jack becoming a man. I was sort of hoping that he'd put the Moreland family behind bars and exonerate Cody's career. Then they'd grow up a bit on the idea that the law does work nd they felt like they took control of a situation that was steamrolling them from every direction. Instead, they shot some dudes in the forest in front of a bunch of people, covered their tracks and pretty much walked away. I think that's akin to winning an argument by yelling louder.
Mod
Definitly more of a revenge with violence instead of revenge with cleverness. As you said, not much character growth. I think that maybe that is why Box chose pediphilia as the main sin of the bad characters so that we would be okay with "Western Justice".
Matthew wrote: Definitly more of a revenge with violence instead of revenge with cleverness. As you said, not much character growth..."That's a good point. I was hoping something horrible happened to them. "Western Justice" seemed somewhat appropriate given the crime.
-- Brian --I really don't have much to say about Brian. He seemed like an alright dude. I got the impression that he was into money and politics. I thought it was a little unbelievable that he pulled together his connections to find "the photos". There's a whole other story there, where Brian had to ask the right people about the shady underbelly of the court system. I liked how they mentioned it from time to time, letting Jack know that Brian was out in the world creating a bit of a stir.
The fact that Brian never just told Jack about what he was up to was an interesting choice by the author. I had a lot of fun imagining that story quite often. I could see him out in the world, sleuthing around, schmoozing, bribing, feeling the eyes watching him, the eminent danger clawing at his back as he dug further and further into the case and maybe a lot of other interesting things. In the meantime Jack was just going to work and waiting.
Mod
Also, as you kind of touched on, it seemed like every character had connections. If I am ever in a situation like this, I would be useless because I have no connections!
Jack does just pretty much sit there getting angry and letting everyone else do the dirty work to him. The best way I can describe it is the story happens to him and around him, but he is hardly a party of it.
Yeah, I had a difficult time telling if Cody and Brian were friends, as well. It was mostly clear that they didn't really care for each other, but at the same time they withstood each other. This reminded me of how family members will sometimes tolerate each other for the common good of the group despite strong personal feelings. Zinging the other every chance they get.Brian was always one upping Cody with his social standing and etiquette. I got the sense that when it came to Cody Brian just thought he was better. On the flip side, Cody was more than slightly jealous of Cody because of his status and how unintelligent he thought Brian was. Or at least that's what I'm thinking, given their behavior towards each other.
Cody was the most interesting character for me. I didn't like Melissa. I just can't imagine not doing anything if that was to happen to me. To me it seems she just gave up without a fight and then spent most of the book telling others to do something about and crying. If that were me, no one would get near my baby without me putting up a hell of a fight!
Mod
Good point - Melissa was just kind of there and not very passionate about anything the whole time. Really, this was more of a book about the supporting characters instead of the main characters.
Jack and Melissa both were almost business as usual. I don't know if that's the way it would be. I personally would agree with the concept of doing more, but at least there was a sense that they were crippled by the inevitable.I thought about if it was me. I would have had my wife take out all the money we could afford in cash and have her go hide out while I went to every news outlet I could think of and pleaded my case. The Judge wanted Jack to go quietly, but he had so many ways to make a scene.
The author did pick a good character to have the problem. Jack was cornered in all aspects of his life inside his mind. He couldn't loose his job because he had no other skills. He couldn't be mean to his wife because he thought she was too good for him. He didn't do what his parents wanted him to do. He's unable to have kids on his own which is hurting his marriage. He has all these things building up in his mind, determining how he's going to act. The one thing that really everyone gives him credit for is the baby.
So maybe he would just sit back and let all these horrible things happen to him. I think that he would.
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