Mean Business on North Ganson Street By S. Craig Zahler

About the Author: S. Craig Zahler

S. Craig Zahler is certain to become one of the great imaginers of our time. ― Clive BarkerNovelist and cartoonist S. Craig Zahler is also the screenwriter, director, and musical co composer for the movies, Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. His second graphic novel Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos will be released by Dark Horse Comics as an oversized hardback in October 2022. He wrote and illustrated this large scale sci fi work. What a fantastic read! ― Patton Oswalt I had the best time reading this graphic novel. I never knew where it was going or how. ― Brian Michael BendisHis debut graphic novel, Forbidden Surgeries of the Hideous Dr. Divinus and his crime book The Slanted Gutter came out in 2021. "S. Craig Zahler is certain to become one of the great imaginers of our time." ― Clive BarkerNovelist and cartoonist S. Craig Zahler is also the screenwriter, director, and musical co composer for the movies, Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. His second graphic novel Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos will be released by Dark Horse Comics as an oversized hardback in October 2022. He wrote and illustrated this large scale sci fi work. "What a fantastic read!" ― Patton Oswalt "I had the best time reading this graphic novel. I never knew where it was going or how." ― Brian Michael BendisHis debut graphic novel, Forbidden Surgeries of the Hideous Dr. Divinus and his crime book The Slanted Gutter came out in 2021.Praise for his other books:"Whether writing westerns, science fiction, or crime, Zahler (Corpus Chrome, Inc., 2013) always manages to bring something new to the genre. [We fell] completely under Zahler’s spell A bravura literary performance.” —Booklist, Starred Review"Zahler tells a gripping story." ― Kirkus Review"Five plus stars to Hug Chickenpenny. Complex, well drawn characterizations, compelling imagery and a well ordered story" ― Publishers Daily Reviews"Zahler’s mean streets are bizarrely mean. But Mean Business is often mordantly funny, too—and not to be missed." Booklist, starred review “CORPUS CHROME, INC describes one of the weirder post singularity futures. The characters are very much alive. I was entertained throughout.” —Larry Niven, Hugo Nebula award winning author "Zahler's a fabulous story teller" Kurt Russell, star of Escape from New York, Tombstone, and StargateMy dark western Wraiths of the Broken Land is also available in trade paperback, hardback and ebook editions. Below is some praise from Joe R. Lansdale, Booklist, Jack Ketchum, and Ed Lee: "If you’re looking for something similar to what you’ve read before, this ain’t it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain’t it. But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this." –Joe R. Lansdale, author of The Bottoms, Mucho Mojo, and Savage Season "It would be utterly insufficient to say that WRAITHS is the most diversified and expertly written western I’ve ever read." –Edward Lee, author of The Bighead and Gast. "[C]ompulsively readable…. Fans of Zahler’s A Congregation of Jackals (2010) will be satisfied; think Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. [C]lever mayhem leads to a riveting climax." –Booklist "WRAITHS always rings true, whether it's visiting the depths of despair, the fury of violence, or the fragile ties that bind us together for good or ill. It's a Western with heart and intelligence, always vivid, with characters you will detest or care about or both, powerfully written." –Jack Ketchum, author of Off Season and The Girl Next Door Mean Business on North Ganson Street

Mean business on north ganson street pdf

He s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Sherlock he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues House he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Rake he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Backstrom he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Bosch he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Monk he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Psych he s great at solving cases but he has personality issues Inspector Morse He s great at solv honestly this list could go on and on. Mean business on north ganson street pdf This is all to say that while the Mean Business on North Ganson Street protagonist could potentially fit this mold.

Mean business on north ganson street pdf

The police that are present are largely corrupt and the entirety of the law force is a constant target to violent killers Victory is the kind of city where the street signs have all been decapitated and you gauge which turn to take by the severed cat head nailed to the telephone pole It s a brutal place and Zahler s description of it is rich and consuming in the best way It s a setting that I could spend much time in as a reader There are a few smaller confrontations between Bettinger and the cop hating locals and of these instances would have been welcome The world building is incredibly strong and contributes greatly for my desire to see this story as a feature film.

Mean business on north ganson street book

S Craig Zahler is certain to become one of the great imaginers of our time Clive BarkerNovelist and cartoonist S Craig Zahler is also the screenwriter director and musical co composer for the movies Bone Tomahawk Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete His second graphic novel Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos will be released by Dark Horse Comics as an oversized hardback in October 2022 He wrote and illustrated this large scale sci fi work What a fantastic read Patton Oswalt I had the best time reading this graphic novel I never knew where it was going or how Brian Michael BendisHis debut graphic novel Forbidden Surgeries of the Hideous Dr Divinus and his crime book The Slanted Gutter came out in 2021 S Craig Zahler is certain to become one of the great imaginers of our time Clive BarkerNovelist and cartoonist S Craig Zahler is also the screenwriter director and musical co composer for the movies Bone Tomahawk Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete His second graphic novel Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos will be released by Dark Horse Comics as an oversized hardback in October 2022 He wrote and illustrated this large scale sci fi work What a fantastic read Patton Oswalt I had the best time reading this graphic novel I never knew where it was going or how Brian Michael BendisHis debut graphic novel Forbidden Surgeries of the Hideous Dr Divinus and his crime book The Slanted Gutter came out in 2021. Mean business on north ganson street pdf 2013 always manages to bring something new to the genre We fell completely under Zahler s spell A bravura literary performance Booklist Starred ReviewZahler tells a gripping story Kirkus ReviewFive plus stars to Hug Chickenpenny Complex well drawn characterizations compelling imagery and a well ordered story Publishers Daily ReviewsZahler s mean streets are bizarrely mean But Mean Business is often mordantly funny too and not to be missed Booklist starred review CORPUS CHROME INC describes one of the weirder post singularity futures The characters are very much alive I was entertained throughout Larry Niven Hugo Nebula award winning author Zahler s a fabulous story teller Kurt Russell star of Escape from New York Tombstone and StargateMy dark western Wraiths of the Broken Land is also available in trade paperback hardback and ebook editions Below is some praise from Joe R Lansdale Booklist Jack Ketchum and Ed Lee If you re looking for something similar to what you ve read before this ain t it If you want something comforting and predictable this damn sure ain t it But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view an unforgettable voice then you want what I want and that is this Joe R Lansdale author of The Bottoms Mucho Mojo and Savage Season It would be utterly insufficient to say that WRAITHS is the most diversified and expertly written western I ve ever read Edward Lee author of The Bighead and Gast C ompulsively readable Fans of Zahler s A Congregation of Jackals 2010 will be satisfied think Quentin Tarantino s Django Unchained C lever mayhem leads to a riveting climax Booklist WRAITHS always rings true whether it s visiting the depths of despair the fury of violence or the fragile ties that bind us together for good or ill It s a Western with heart and intelligence always vivid with characters you will detest or care about or both powerfully written Jack Ketchum author of Off Season and The Girl Next Door site_link Hardcover After a disastrous interview with a distraught businessman ends in tragedy Detective Jules Bettinger is forced to transfer from sunny western Arizona to a wintery crime ridden shithole in flyover country Exiled to the tiny police force in Victory Missouri where criminals outnumber policemen 700 to 1 Bettinger discovers a decaying community in desperate need of case closers A place that feels like Siberia than middle America a place where police and pigeons are endangered species Affixed to a pole on the right side of the road was a wooden plank that read WELCOME TO VICTORY Human excrement had been smeared across the greeting Classy With such a shortage of detectives it s crucial to pick cases wisely to prioritize where to devote his time to do the most good in the community And boy is Bettinger s first case a real doozy a grisly murder spree that devolved into multiple acts of necrophilia But after a couple of officers are slain in a brutal execution he s redirected onto that investigation Once he figures out that the act was retaliation for alleged misdeeds by his fellow officers and merely the opening salvo in a much larger war he doesn t know who he to trust And when things get personal he s forced to set aside his moral code and engage in the same ruthless homicidal tactics that are being deployed against him Much madness ensues This book got off to a rocky start for me What with the author s peculiar turn of phrase and strange phobia of names and straightforward description often referring to his main character as simply the detective or the man from Arizona and his partner as the big fella along with his annoying penchant for using twenty words when two would suffice Like so The young officer who had received a vomit crown and matching epaulets had departed early shaken by the experience while the lobotomized corpse was taken to a place that had steel doors an astringent smell and digital thermometers that displayed low temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit scales How s that angry ex wife of yours asked the thing that lived inside of Bettinger s mouth What s weed Curvature appeared on the young woman s chin Tires screeched and the long four wheeled organism shot past the policemen Honestly this showy pretentious style seemed out of place for a rather straightforward crime novel But eventually the worm turned and I was able to forgive the author for being a little too in love with his own voice when I came across a dialog driven chapter about a twenty year old girl named Kimmy that was so well written it had me weeping for humanity Then as I rounded into the second act things went pear shaped so quickly and so dramatically that I began to tear through the pages like a madman My heart was racing I broke out into cold sweat and nearly chewed my fingernails down to the quick That part of the storyline was so compelling and intense that you couldn t have pried the book outta my hand with a crowbar However by the time the explosive third act arrived and the story shifted to the fringes of the crumbling rustbelt city that seemed like a nightmarish post apocalyptic wasteland than anywhere in the continental U. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Bottom line If a gruesome crude story shot through with dark humor and violent individuals that come in only two forms bad and worse set in a nightmarish wintery landscape sounds like your idea of a good time then you ve come to the right place After all this is the same sick and twisted mind behind films like Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 Hardcover Ding ding ding ding ding And we have a winner for HOLY CRAPiest book of the year ______________________Detective Jules Bettinger s mouth has gotten him into trouble and now he s been banished to Siberia a crime ridden shithole named Victory Missouri where 70% of the males have criminal records and there s one cop for every thousand citizens There Bettinger encounters a boss and coworkers who just can t get over how dark his skin is It s like outer space without the stars and a new partner he cannot trust His first case A grisly murder that turned into multiple acts of necrophilia. Mean business on north ganson street book Before long the necrophilia case has taken a backseat as a pair of cops are brutally slain Then a few officers go missing Bettinger and his partner must learn to work together or they may be the next officers gunned down. Mean business on north ganson street book This book will send you through an emotional wringer you ll laugh be horrified and maybe even wipe away a tear or two It is gross funny and extremely violent Be warned bad things happen to people who deserve them but horrible things happen to those who don t. Mean business on north ganson street pdf What starts out as almost a fish out of water comedy of manners tale quickly gets dead serious and the last third of the book takes a truly dark turn that I was not expecting I was on the edge of my seat chewing my nails by the time I reached the slam bang finale that s set in a nearly post apocalyptic area of the city inhabited only by meth heads and the homeless You just know that when one of the characters says Watch out for pits And another man adds And bear traps that you re in for one hell of a ride Hardcover Fast paced crime thriller Intensely violent. Mean business on north ganson street pdf After being indirectly responsible for a suicide Lieutenant Detective Jules Bettinger from Arizona is banished to the fictional town of Victory in Missouri that has the highest murder rape and other crime rates in the United States He moves with his family his wife an acclaimed artist and his two children to Stonesburg Missouri which is the only family friendly town within driving distance of Victory Missouri. Mean business on north ganson street book When he arrives in Victory he discovers what a rat hole of a place it is The temperature never seems to rise above freezing and the wind howls non stop His first case is the rape murder of a hooker Her body has been found mutilated and raped posthumously on North Ganson Street a section of Victory known to locals as Shitopia Unpleasant section of the novel to read but forget about it there s worse to come. Mean business on north ganson street book This is a remarkably brutal novel as was the previous Zahler novel I read no ahhhh wait a second It s brutal but not quite as sadistic as the acts perpetrated upon the citizens of a small town by the bad guys in Jackals This is a fast paced suspenseful novel full of dread The descriptions of the tortures the main characters endure are hard to read It s phenomenally violent and that last third of the book when the lead character Lieutenant Bettinger and his partners chase the bad guys north of Shitopia to an abandoned area known as The Heaps is a page turning marathon of violence and ultra mayhem. Mean business on north ganson street pdf If cop thrillers spiced with descriptions of sickening rapes maimings beatings bear traps eye gougings teeth smashing and other delightful descriptions of harrowing punishments dealt upon human bodies is your thing then here s a 12 pack to go. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Recommended Hardcover After his smart mouth inadvertently lands him in hot water Detective Jules Bettinger finds himself and his family exiled from the warmth of Arizona to the frozen wasteland of Victory Missouri a charming place littered with pigeon bones dead cats nailed to posts and faeces covered signs His first case A serial necrophiliac But before he can kick himself into oblivion for fucking his career up so badly a war between the gangsters who run the town and the shady police hardly much better themselves is about to erupt And then the cop executions begin Mean business indeed I m not a huge fan of crime fiction as I find the stories too contrived limited and formulaic while the writing tends to be bland and dull police procedurals ugh S Craig Zahler s Mean Business on North Ganson Street though is different for its lively unique prose style that lends the story an unexpected but not unwelcome playful tone It s also the novel s downfall Zahler is an extremely verbose writer deeply in love with his extended vocabulary and eager to constantly show it off This makes for a very plodding pace to what should be a zippier read given the exciting subject matter There were so many scenes that after I finished them I wondered What the hell was the point of going through all of that Without going into specifics that might spoilerize Zahler can t ever leave anything to the reader s imagination everything has to be described in excruciating detail He can t say that the character went to the place and then pick up the story at that place no we have to read about the drive over there where nothing really happens Then scenes between characters that you d take as read ie one character telling another I ma git them for this etc are similarly pointlessly written up We can t have characters say they ll go somewhere and then show up there or say they ll pick up something and just deal with it in a sentence we have to see them do everything in extensive detail and it becomes so wearisome to read Maybe he thought he was building tension by taking this approach but I just found it frustrating This modestly sized 300 page novel would ve been so much better at 200 pages or less I also wasn t taken with the main character Bettinger who was a rather bland good guy He s good at his job he has a loving family yawn I just found him such a boring person to spend any time with The villain was underwhelming too and given that he was off page for nearly the entire book the showdown with him at the end felt rushed and slightly anti climactic But there were many parts I enjoyed The scenes without Bettinger were cracking particularly once the cop executions begin I liked the Victory police a hard boiled murderers row of crazy anti heroes fighting for a semblance of justice in hell on earth and who you re never quite sure to root for or not Bettinger s partner Dominic was very memorable as was their boss the boxing mad larger than life Inspector Zwolinski and the dialogue throughout was near as dammit perfect always giving the reader a strong idea of the characters Mean Business on North Ganson Street is an extremely violent and graphic genre novel that suffers from overwriting and pacing issues But it s also unique for Zahler s style with enough compelling material in the characters and story to keep from becoming a bore Given how good his movies are Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 both of which I d highly recommend if you ve not seen them I d hoped this would be as high quality but it seems that the movies are so good because of the 2 hour run times Take those constraints away and Zahler s otherwise enthralling storytelling becomes sprawling to its detriment Mean Business isn t a bad read but I d caution anyone expecting the same level of awesome as his movies And I can t wait for Dragged Across Concrete out next month Hat tip to Dan 2. Mean business on north ganson street pdf 0 for the rec Hardcover

Mean Business on North Ganson Street By S. Craig Zahler
1250052203
9781250052209
English
293
Hardcover
mean business on north ganson street book
A distraught businessman kills himself after a short impolite conversation with a detective named Jules Bettinger Because of this incident the unkind but decorated policeman is forced to relocate himself and his family from Arizona to the frigid north where he will work for an understaffed precinct in Victory Missouri This collapsed rustbelt city is a dying beast that devours itself and its inhabitantsand has done so for than four decades Its streets are covered with dead pigeons and there are seven hundred criminals for every law enforcer Partnered with a boorish and demoted corporal Bettinger investigates a double homicide in which two policemen were slain and mutilated The detective looks for answers in the fringes of the city and also in the pasts of the cops with whom he works men who stomped on a local drug dealer until he was disabled Bettinger soon begins to suspect that the double homicide is not an isolated event but a prelude to a series of cop executions Mean Business on North Ganson StreetMean Business on North Ganson StreetS Craig Zahler has proven himself to be one of the best new auteur filmmakers He made his directorial debut in 2015 with Bone Tomahawk a top notch western with an extremely effective horror turn in the last act This put him on my radar to watch closely and his second directorial effort did not disappoint The rule breaking grindhouse throwback Brawl in Cell Block 99 cemented Zahler as one of my favorite filmmakers I am eagerly anticipating his next film Dragged Across Concrete which should be coming out later this year hopefully it gets a wide release. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Being a fan of Zahler s work it was a pleasant surprise to learn that he had already established himself as a successful author in advance of his film career The writing within his two feature films are absolute standouts of the years in which they were made and both Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 had some of the best dialogue and character work around It was exciting to learn that he had material for me to experience I d like to take a moment to admire how goddamn good Zahler is at titling his works Bone Tomahawk Brawl in Cell block 99 Dragged Across Concrete Wraiths of the Broken Land A Congregation of Jackals and the subject of this review Mean Business on North Ganson Street are all badass titles. Mean business on north ganson street book Mean Business follows Detective Jules Bettinger as he is forced to relocate from Arizona to Victory Missouri dubbed the worst city in America The relocation takes place after a short scene that brilliantly sets up the protagonist Bettinger is a great detective but he s blunt witty rude and has little patience for those on the other end of conflict A business man speaks to Bettinger at the police station about the disappearance of his wife and the blunt detective gives it to him straight that she isn t in danger she skipped town with his money and never loved him On his way out the door the businessman steals an officer s gun and kills himself thus Bettinger is relocated as punishment. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Our protagonist has an excellent way with language he s chock full of smarmy comebacks and witty jabs but he doesn t use this clever language to dress up or soften the intent behind his words He is direct and to the point and doesn t mind being seen as an asshole. Mean business on north ganson street pdf This is a character trait that could be clich There are a great many protagonists who are constructed with a similar formula particularly in procedural television The number of protagonists who can be described by the line He s great solving cases but he has personality issues is a little overwhelming A lot of these are good but the formula is apparent he never feels clich His personality comes across wonderfully and he makes for a really fun well defined character to follow through this incredibly dark story Bettinger s family is also well developed especially his wife and the relationship that the two of them share There s a bit of characterization that I love for the wife s character where evey time she laughs it sounds like there s an old man in her chest having a fit and Bettinger loves to get that oldster chuckling Their relationship is sweet and provides an excellent balance to Bettinger s disposition She s a great character in her own right as well not just in relationship to the story s lead She s a painter and as the story progresses we learn about her as a person and an artist The trajectory of her career with a highly lauded gallery to feature her work provides a good foil to the dangerous and consuming work of her husband In many detectives stories an aside to explore the protagonist s family can feel like little than a distraction to the central plot but here every time Bettinger took a minute to call home while on the job I was fully invested and grew to like the characters and . Mean business on north ganson street pdf The novel is host to a bevy of antagonistic characters the main baddie left a mystery for a good chunk of the book and even after the reveal they are exclusively referred to without actually being present until the very end This isn t an issue as there is a strong cast of secondary antagonists with a mysterious man called E. Mean business on north ganson street pdf K being particularly menacing partly due to his horrific actions but also due to how little we learn about him as a reader A great example of how to create intrigue by withholding information. Mean business on north ganson street pdf In addition to the antagonistic characters the book is also set in an oppressively antagonistic setting The fictional setting of Victory is easily the most engrossing aspect of Mean Business on North Ganson Street Victory is a city comprised almost exclusively of criminals not even police maintain order or even the setting as a television series. Mean business on north ganson street pdf I looked into it after finishing the book and according to Deadline the film rights were actually acquired by Warner Brothers back in 2013 with Zahler set to write the script and the film set to star Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx I would hope Zahler would be able to direct it as well but the is no director attached and it doesn t look like the production has moved forward As much as I like DiCaprio and Foxx I don t think they fit the roles According to Deadline Dicaprio is supposed to play Bettinger which is definitely not right since Bettinger is described as having skin as dark as outer space but without the stars and Jamie Foxx is set to play his parter who is constantly described as being absolutely massive but Foxx is only 5 9 far from a behemoth still that s an easier change than a complete race swap which is pretty important to the character If I were casting I d go with someone like Lance Reddick or Michael K Williams as Bettinger and someone like Tiny Lister JR or Terry Crews as his partner. Mean business on north ganson street pdf I would like to see Mean Business on North Ganson Street as a novel the entire story is very cinematic and the short chapters many lasting only a page or two made the pacing feel considerably film like than your average book as it moved from scene to scene Mean Business on North Ganson street pulls no punches It s mean it s brutal it s cool it s witty and one hell of a read I was reading it quite late one night and had to put it down before I fell asleep I had a dream in the book s world then finished the rest of the book first thing in the morning A novel hasn t grabbed me like that in a long while I highly recommend it Hardcover Author S Craig Zahler after an incredibly successful pair of westerns and a groundbreaking science fiction novel tries his hand with a straight crime story in the form of a very dark police procedural novel As always with Zahler s work his characters shine with originality and infused with a history that reinforces their decisions and motivations Violent and graphic the author does not shy away from making the reader feel uncomfortable immersing them in a world of dark secrets and spontaneous brutality There is a point in the story where all the pieces of events become clear and when you discover the intent of the antagonist the book becomes impossible to put down Even though I enjoyed the author s westerns and science fiction this is a welcome addition to an already impressive body of work from one of the truly rare voices in today s fiction Zahler doesn t just crank out pages to meet a publisher s deadline He meticulously crafts a thriller that at times leaves you breathless Highly recommended Hardcover Mean Business on North Ganson Street is like a kick to the face that you never see coming You read the log line expecting it to be just another cop drama and then wham it grabs you by the short hairs and never lets go. Mean business on north ganson street pdf I ve read two books by S Craig Zahler both of which were hardcore noir westerns The type Zane Grey would have read got on his horse and made for a safer town Now Zahler segues to modern day crime with the same in your face no holds barred writing style that readers of the gritty nitty like me love Don t get me wrong This isn t some street torture porn This is MAN ON FIRE SEVEN kind of stuff It s smart it s dark and it will whip your ass if you stay up too late reading it. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Basic idea is a cop from the big city gets in trouble for doing his job right politics biotches and the only gig he can find is in some violent little town in Missouri His partner doesn t like him His wife doesn t like the area And that s as upbeat as things ever get Pretty soon someone starts executing cops and these two have to find those responsible and stop them before they become targets themselves If you like your stories cutsie and all tied up stop here This isn t for you If you like your reads raw the kind that has you muttering holy S % in bed prompting your spouse or lover to ask again and again what are you reading then dive right in Mean Business pulls no punches The characters are dark but real The dialogue is like Mozart fresh from the hood And when it s all done and you re taking a shower to clean up and thank the stars you don t live anywhere near a town like that you ll be running to the computer to see what Zahler has next Go ahead Pick it up And get ready for a whole new ride Hardcover I ve read a couple of hard hitting novels last year most of them horror Let s Go Play at the Adams was a great psychological novel that probed a little too close to comfort in its findings of growing up into an uncomfortable world Dathan Auerbach s classic Penpal built its creeping horror steadily before hitting you with a one two punch towards the end of it and I ve also read the second biggest kahuna of modern horror Jack Ketchum s Off Season the first I suppose may be Jack Ketchum s own Girl Next Door which not only has one of the strongest build ups of foreboding dread ever featured in a novel s first half but was also one of the most fever pitch reads I ve ever experienced that felt the closest to what I would describe as undergoing a heavy mental whiplash All of these books are good and I believe they all deserve the amount of praise given to them already However if I were to tell anyone what was the most hardest hitting brutal and unforgiving read I ve read last year I would probably still say Off Season but not before I mention this book first S Craig Zahler s 2014 novel Mean Business on North Ganson Street Let s put it this way while a straight up novel about a depraved cannibal family may dig deep to the point of questioning your own mortality and time already spent on this world the thing about Mean Business is not that it is depraved than something like Off Season it s just that while Ketchum s novel had its own small cast of well developed fleshed out characters stuck in a little unlucky spot by the coast of Maine Mean Business has a whole canvas of colorful characters tied to an entire city of toppled structures and aerosol tagged complexes that simultaneously bursts with life and blasts with horror in equal strokes You care about both casts from each novel in similar ways but because of how rich and deep the environment of Mean Business is and also by how easy it is to be picked up and absorbed by it every execution and blow hurts a lot feeling like a fabric of this world s existence and history had been torn apart rather than it being just a fictional slaying. Mean business on north ganson street pdf It s easy to compare the levels of horror reached in this novel to other crime novelists like James Ellroy and Shane Stevens writers who knew how to portray the horrific ways our fellow humans can commit atrocious acts upon each other but with the amount of attention and detail given to creating this world right from the pages it is also one of the most uniquely immersive pieces of fiction that I ve read in a longtime that s the kind of feeling I tend to associate from reading any good work of sci fi or fantasy not necessarily from anything tied to the crime genre It s nasty and ugly but it s also big and beautiful. Mean business on north ganson street pdf I could probably stop there I could also probably talk further about the character dynamics at play specific key moments in the story oh boy is there a lot of them or even how much spotlight is given to nearly every minor character that pops in and out of the narrative but I would rather not disclose anything else about this novel this is one of those stories where going off the premise alone is all you really need to know beforehand and I also think there are a couple of good reviews written here that dive into that stuff already What I do like to make note of here however is how incredible the writing style is. Mean business on north ganson street pdf To note I am familiar with Zahler s film work in fact I think his films are probably some of the best films ever produced in recent years so a lot of the characterization work and his heightened reality dialogue are things that I ve expected to appear here What I was surprised by however was how sparse and sharp Zahler s writing style actually is. Mean business on north ganson street book You watch something like Bone Tomahawk or Dragged Across Concrete right and you listen to the flow of dialogue from any of the characters or see how much time is dedicated to even the littlest moment on screen Bone Tomahawk s exchange about reading books over a bath and Dragged Across Concrete s epic sandwich munching scene for example Not only do you think to yourself Man this feels like something you would read in a novel but following that This would be jam packed with paragraphs upon paragraphs of detail if it was Not that I am against anything like purple or bloated prose mind a lot of Lovecraft s stories are effective and fun in that way and I love the approach of it taken in some of Stephen King s earlier novels it s only that after seeing these Zahler directed joints I ve expected extensive detailing in a Zahler written novel to be the case But it isn t really since it s rare that a page of this novel contains a hefty paragraph in the form of something taken from Lovecraft or early King The writing or rather the structuring of it sentences paragraphs lines of dialogue etc follows closely to the traditional custom of crime thriller writing to be straight and sharp to the point But it really isn t like that either is it Because while that tight structuring is there so are some of the flourishes that one would expect to come from a Zahler novel The waiter departed and the detective opened the menu Underneath the rugose lamination were photographs of shining vibrant delicacies that could not possibly exist in Victory Missouri Sipping tea he perused fabrications until his partner entered the restaurant and sat on the opposite side of the table The big fellow s troubles were remarkably well concealed pg 63 Rugose lamination shining vibrant delicacies and perusing fabrications on top of all that some may think writing like this of which is an absolute constant in this novel just so we re clear on that is worthy of empty air trying to pass itself as a material thing but I think there is something magical involved in this that extends beyond the characters and the settings of the story not only do these choices create these odd interesting textures within the sentences that make them chewable to read rather than making them easier to glaze through but it also gradually makes the novel feel grander than its length may suggest This novel runs close to 300 pages but finishing it feels like you ve read a 500 page novel instead that has to be a pretty impressive feat somewhere right I think so. Mean business on north ganson street pdf Mean Business on North Ganson Street is a great novel it might even surpass Zahler s own films and is one I would gladly recommend to anyone with a kick for rough crime thrillers or who is seeking for something really special I will be checking out of his written work very soon Hardcover erno i bejvali cool iks kr t v c cool ne mohl b loch doufat e kdy bude Co se s nima sakra stalo ove e Stali se z nich Afroameri ani Zl kniha Nikoli ve smyslu patn ale rochn c si v hnusu v kalech p n mrtv ch holubech d vno padl ch charakterech i penisy u ez vaj c ch e ch Temnota je to komiksov nikoli by jen n znakem realismu zav n j c a p ep len a na hranu parodie sebe sama Co j zachra uje je e Zahler v styl je pln ern ho humoru stav c m na j zlivosti sarkasmu cynismu a pro hl ku nikdy nechod c daleko Popravd on ty humory cpe do ka d ho popisu i ka d ho dialogu a n kdy u to je dost za ka dou cenu N kdy ale na t st v t inou ne V sledek m bl e k stylizovan m tarantinovk m ne li klasicky st i en m drsn m krimin lk m ale ono to funguje a mus m ci e jsem se dlouho tak dob e u knihy nepobavil takov m t m zl m muhehe zp sobem Na druhou stranu je to sv m zp sobem koda proto e pod v m t m sebe shazova n m n nosem je znateln v ce ne solidn nekompromisn z klad drsn koly Zahler ji prok zal e v n poklesl nry l tky a charaktery s t m spojen zvl d v te n Kdyby se trochu v ce soust edil na nrovost a naopak tolik netla il na odleh enou strunu tak to mohlo b t i n m v ce ne pouhou oddechovkou na nejedno krut zasm n kde n hl p klon ist na v nou strunu v z v re n t etin od pogromu policist p sob jak ze zcela jin knihy Ne nutn lep i hor ale v n j knihy Nem jeden z v s bejt hodnej policajt Vyhodili ho v sedmdes t ch letech Hardcover.

, Mean business on north ganson street pdf Praise for his other books Whether writing westerns science fiction or crime Zahler Corpus Chrome Inc, Mean business on north ganson street pdf I was anxious to escape from this mad world with some semblance of my sanity left intact: Mean business on north ganson street pdf In the end it was a bit of an overwhelming experience one that I won t soon forget but one that I was happy to finally be able to set aside: Mean business on north ganson street pdf Wow I m betting this place doesn t rake in a lot of tourists dollars.S.V