@ 06:27pm EST
I've been reading again, finally. There's a short series of paperback novels by Frank Rich (maybe that one? I haven't been able to find out conclusively) about a character called Jake Strait. I read one of these when I was probably in 9th grade. My first job was at a McDonald's that was across the road from a K-Mart, and I made just enough that while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up in the afternoons I could walk to the K-Mart and buy a cheap trash paperback and a bottle of Coke. (It sounds very 70s when I put it that way, but this was in the mid-00's.) One of the trash paperbacks I found (and devoured, as was my style back then) was the third in this Jake Strait series, and I remember liking it quite a lot, enough that it's been stuck in my conscious mind since. They're not quite so easy to get hold of these days (not even an ebook available, so I don't think they were very popular, though they do all hover around a 4 star rating on Goodreads) but I managed to find copies and now the first two are sitting on my bed. I've gotten farther than I expected in the first one, although some of that is owing to my need for an oil change the other day.
It's... not good, exactly. It's mildly enjoyable. I think the way it's written is a little clunky and odd, some of the ways things are phrased could make more sense if phrased otherwise. I despise Jake Strait, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to or if he's written badly. There was a trend some time ago for writing anti-hero bad boys who were only protagonists because the system they lived in sucked even more than they did - possibly this was a product (or forerunner) of that trend. (These were published in 1993-4, so I'm not sure; I was 2 at the time and while I *could* read my family wouldn't let me touch adult books for another six years yet.) I've enjoyed some of these types; Deadpool of course comes to mind first, but also Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim (couldn't *stand* that main character for the first book, but he got much better very quickly) (shit, I need to get back to reading those; I think I'm a quarter through the third in that series), Ciaphus Cain from Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40k books, and probably others. I'm hoping I come to like Jake a bit better soon, but I'm also pretty sure some awful things are going to happen to him, so I'm not particularly stressed about it.
I do really like what's going on with the setting, though. It's supposedly set in 2031 which I think was a little too pessimistic on Frank's part but the 90s were sort of like that I guess. I *think* it's supposed to be somewhere in California, maybe LA? But Jake just refers to it as The City. (The book is in first person, which might be why I hate him so much. Gotta hear all his little thoughts.) There's vitamins in the beer and the cigarettes and money is in plastic credits (or the scan of a chip implanted into your hand). Jake lives in a section of the city that has been liberated by leftist activists who violently chased out the landlords (so he doesn't have to pay rent, you see). The Party, which seems to be the sole governmental figure thus far, decided it would be more cost effective to just let them have it than to spend the artillery to fight them. (Drones weren't really in fashion in 1993 the way they are now.) There's a lot of interesting little quirks of the neighborhoods Jake winds up in. (There's a *lot* of very outdated language and ideas, as well, but I try my best to be understanding. It's been almost 30 years.)
I'm going to keep going with it, even though I hate this character. Sometimes seeing interesting things happen to a character you hate is more enjoyable than seeing boring things happen to a character you like.
---