The End-of-Year round-ups are coming in thick and thicker, people, and Mark Evans at the Irish Examiner has done our “sharp, witty, 200 km/h” humble offering THE BIG O proud. To wit: “THE BIG O is the Sligo-born author’s second novel, disproving the difficult tag by following the many sub-plots he constructed for EIGHTBALL BOOGIE with a cleaner, smarter tale. However, it is Burke’s dialogue that stays longest in the mind. This author doesn’t do exposition. Why use colourful prose to describe what’s happened when you can get one of the likeable characters to tell it like it is? So, do yourself a favour if you’ve found yourself in a bit of a reading rut – let these gun-toting, scheming criminal oddballs blow the cobwebs away.”Mark? Consider us blown away. We thank you kindly, sir …
2 comments:
Er, not to accuse you of any such thing, but has Mr. Evans never heard of "As You Know Bob" syndrome? (Part 5 - Background)
"A pernicious form of info-dump through dialogue, in which characters tell each other things they already know, for the sake of getting the reader up-to-speed. This very common technique is also known as "Rod and Don dialogue" (attr. Damon Knight) or "maid and butler dialogue" (attr Algis Budrys)."
How's tricks, Steve? Never heard of 'Rod and Don' or 'As you know, Bob'. I aim for "No one ever skips dialogue." (attr. Elmore Leonard). Hey, you have to have something to aim for, right? Cheers, Dec
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