Beautiful Children: A Novel
by Charles Bock
Book Summary Information
Author: Charles BockEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-13
ISBN: 0812977963
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Beautiful Children: A Novel
Book Review: What happens in Vegas
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like TC Boyle, if the stories of Raymond Carver strike a chord, then Beautiful Children is for you. The story is set in Las Vegas, the throbbing heart of America's lie about itself: that life is a game that can be played and won. It's a downbeat tale, centering on the disappearance of a twelve year old boy, the struggle of his parents to deal with the disaster, the events that led up to it, but most importantly, the connections between this and a carefully selected cast of others, the flotsam and jetsam that wash up on Vegas's grimy shores, or who strive to make a living there and not be overwhelmed by the brutal realities of a city whose sole purpose is to entertain.
Bock says in his afterword that the book took a long time to write. All of that effort shows on the page. There are a lot of words, but they all need to be there. It's rare that I don't become impatient with a story, flipping to the end to get the resolution without having to wade through the author's attempts to keep me engaged. Beautiful Children is one of those rare exceptions. OK, I did weaken and turn to the back at one point, but the story is so well put together, that cheating didn't work. I had to go back and read the rest to find out why things end up the way they do. I like that about a book.
There are a few niggles. Newell, the lost boy, is twelve when he vanishes. I felt he should have been a year older, or more mature, for the logic behind his disappearance to really work. The story of one character, a low rent comic book artist, loses momentum and trails away in the middle section of the book. As he represents the "tourist" in Bock's tarot array of types, his perspective is needed all the way through, to keep us remembering that there is a world outside the oasis of casinos. The lives of the teenage runaways seem a little too gruesome to be true (but I've never been one, so what would I know?).
But these are just niggles. It's not for hopeless romantics. It's not for those who like tidy endings with sunsets. It's not for those who think the porn industry is good clean fun. Beautiful Children is for those of us who like to be provoked, to be invited to draw connections and to ponder the improbabilities of the world.
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