{"id":15650,"date":"2021-08-09T19:36:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T23:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15650"},"modified":"2021-08-09T19:36:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T23:36:53","slug":"the-man-by-the-sea-by-jack-benton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15650","title":{"rendered":"‘The Man by the Sea,’ by Jack Benton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, an update <\/strong>on my car. The part arrived. They tried to put it in. It turned out to be defective. They\u2019ll order another. Estimated time window: about a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably won\u2019t be surprised by now to know that I wasn\u2019t surprised at all by this. I was expecting it to be the wrong part, but otherwise this was the scenario I fully anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway<\/strong>, on to my book review. The Man By the Sea<\/a><\/em> by Jack Benton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John \u201cSlim\u201d Hardy is a private eye in Lancashire, England. He is a failed soldier and a serious alcoholic. He\u2019s been hired by a woman to follow her husband, whom she suspects of having an affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s not having an affair. Slim has discovered that the man is going once a week to a secluded cove known for dangerous rip tides, where he stands reading out loud from a book. What he\u2019s reading, Slim discovers (I forget how), is a Latin incantation to the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of reporting the good news to the wife and closing the case, Slim gets obsessed with the husband\u2019s reasons for this behavior, and starts looking into his past, and into local history. Not neglecting to turn the situation fully ironic by having an affair with the wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this summary sounds improbable, the rest of the book is even less plausible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever read a novel so detached from genuine human motivations and behavior. At every juncture, the characters fail to do what a normal person would do, but instead act in some hysterical way. They respond operatically, or perhaps more aptly, soap-operatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And our hero is not just a maintenance alcoholic, like your run of the mill literary private eye. Slim Hardy is a full-fledged dipsomaniac, subject to black-outs and car accidents and completely out of control. He needs to be locked up for the protection of himself and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story was sad, the narrative frustrating to read. I do not recommend The Man By the Sea.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, an update on my car. The part arrived. They tried to put it in. It turned out to be defective. They\u2019ll order another. Estimated time window: about a month. You probably won\u2019t be surprised by now to know that I wasn\u2019t surprised at all by this. I was expecting it to be the wrong … Continue reading ‘The Man by the Sea,’ by Jack Benton<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3805,3806],"class_list":["post-15650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-jack-benton","tag-the-man-by-the-sea"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15651,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15650\/revisions\/15651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}