The Rich Man's Table by Scott Spencer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Rich Man's Table
Book Review: Dylan connection is no turn off - a fine novel anyway!
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this novel because I've been enjoying Bob Dylan's music for over 25 years. But I found myself admiring Scott Spencer's ability with words regardless of the Dylan connection. The book stands on its own as novel and has made me want to read more of this author.Book Review: Knocking on heaven's door!
Summary: 5 Stars
What a beautiful novel. I read this right after MEN IN BLACK, also a great Spencer book. I must admit I'm not much of a Dylan fan, but this book makes its own sense, with or without Bob. It's a wrenching look at parents and children, and at the lonely frightening maddening world of a man who gets what he wants. It's like the Midas touch, but real. I'll never forget this one.Book Review: Scott Spencer's The Rich Man's Table (review4659@aol.com)
Summary: 4 Stars
I read The Rich Man's Table by Scott Spencer with more than keen interest. Employing the fictional vehicle of a bastard son in search of his father, Mr. Spencer has written an imaginative novel obviously inspired by the Folk-Rock legend, Bob Dylan. The raw outlines of biographical event in Bob Dylan's career direct the presentation of his character, Luke Fairchild. Anyone who has ever wanted to have a sense of "who" Bob Dylan is will find more insight in The Rich Man's Table than in any biography of Bob Dylan I have ever read. But there is a larger venue here than imaginative insight into the person of Bob Dylan, this is also a novel about the character of genius and the hysteria of celebrity.I think there is a misguided popular notion that the dynamically enabled and insightfully directed character of genius is virtually clairvoyant, nearly omniscient. The real brilliance of Mr. Spencer's novel is in its revelation of genius as something that quite simply is; that is, a force that is large, impressive, and dynamically persuasive but one that moves and forever alters the world more incidentally than knowingly. As Mr. Spencer writes: I was now one of those people who believed in the sympathetic magic of the well-meaning sentiment. And why not? What else do we have? The clenched fist eventually becomes crossed fingers. (Quality Paperback, p. 191)
Scott Spencer also paints a portrait of celebrity that is wonderfully experiential. The clamoring presence of lost souls and sycophants around Luke Fairchild makes the absurdity of such shameless adoration markedly visible. The oddity of celebrity becomes dramatically apparent and helps inform the richness of the novel.
However, the pleasure of the novel is spoiled as it nears its conclusion. It loses its impressiveness when it turns to the keenly improbable to realize its completion. The last several chapters reek of contrivance ruining the wonderful believability of the chapters preceding them. It's not that events could not have happened as they do, it's that they are highly unlikely. A national icon of far reaching resources would indeed have found a more capable means of handling a medical emergency than the plot affords. What was wonderfully alive becomes fancifully artificial. It is a shame, before its clumsy, concluding chapters, The Rich Man's Table was an accomplished, animated work.
Book Review: Scott Spencer, Among Our Best Authors
Summary: 4 Stars
I think Scott Spencer has yet to write his best work, but his potential moves closer with every new volume. His prose encourages you to enter into his world, a world of his own rules and morals and standards, which in turn echo your own unspoken core. His work is rapture, on the edge of sanity.Book Review: one of the best novels ever
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this book for my birthday (because I'm a Dylan fan) and I totally liked it. It held my interest all the way --every page was either good or great. It's not really about Dylan but it real made me understand what it feels like to have so many people riding your coat tails. Scott Spencer is the man and I'm going to read all his books this semester.