Spoonbenders

Going back through my recent reads I really enjoyed When We Were Real so I looked for another novel by Daryl Gregory… and here we are. It took a couple chapters to get in to this book because of needing to understand the context and, additionally, several of the characters are con-man-adjacent hence not obviously sympathetic but now I have a head of steam and this novel has a solid core of sadness. Additionally this story is set in the nineties, with references to Wu-Tang clan, ubiquitous AOL discs as well as Gateway Computers with their holstein themed packaging; which is for me, nostalgic but I wonder how it will age. The voice acting is good, in particular I enjoy the voice of Mitzi, the aged, pack-a-day smoker loanshark.

• “He walked across the street like a man with a bomb strapped to his chest. Inside, it was so dark he could barely make out Barney behind the bar. Frankie took a stool and waited for his eyes to adjust. “Is she free?” he asked. He knew she wasn’t. He could hear Mitzi in her office, yelling at the guy ahead of him. Barney didn’t look up. He was squinting at a Reader’s Digest over the tops of his glasses, which somehow made him look even more like Droopy Dog. “Bud Light,” Frankie said. Barney turned a page. “You won’t be here that long,” he said. Frankie started to object, then figured there was no percentage in pissing the man off. “Good point,” he said.”