Beginnings

Sunday? Beginnings! Since John Wilson, in his Friday review of A Farewell to Arfs in the Washington Examiner quotes the beginning, let’s go with that part of his review (behind a paywall).

Here’s Chet’s narrating voice in the very first paragraph of A Farewell to Arfs, which I’m quoting in its entirety: “Who wouldn’t love my job? You see new things every day! Here, for example, we had a perp clinging to a branch high up in a cottonwood tree. That wasn’t the new part. Please don’t get ahead of me — although that’s unlikely to happen, your foot speed and mine being … very different, let’s leave it at that with no hurt feelings.”
Even from this very brief excerpt, you can pick up a lot about Chet as the narrator. He’s cheerful, for starters. That doesn’t mean he is always happy, of course — that would soon pall — but he’s upbeat by nature. We, meaning readers who enjoy his voice, who stick with his narratives feeling no sense of strain, admire his spirit; laugh, not harshly, at his foibles and misunderstandings, not the least of which are verbal; and are genuinely touched by his friendship with Bernie, who is a deeply appealing character in his own right.
All is not sweetness and light here, though. On the contrary, Chet and Bernie inhabit the same old world you and I know firsthand. But whereas many highly praised crime novels are self-consciously “dark,” and, hence, ultimately boring, to me at least, A Farewell to Arfs, the very title of which dares you to condescend to it, and the rest of the books in the series give us light and darkness intermingled. At the heart of this latest book is AI’s ability to wreak harm, a threat about which Quinn is all too persuasive, in case we were inclined to pooh-pooh such concerns: persuasive, but never preachy.
So check out this latest offering in the series. If you enjoy it, as I hope you will, spread the word, not least among your fiction-reading friends and acquaintances who are also dog lovers. Meanwhile, you can go back to the first book and start to catch up. You may find yourself reading the whole lot before the next book appears.

7 Comments on “Beginnings”

  3. Don’t you just love a review by an obviously intelligent, well-spoken professional? I would welcome Mr. Wilson to join our group. As another ardent fan, he would fit right in!

  4. This is why I love Chet.

    I haven’t though much about my dog’s inner voices.

    I do know that when she is in the front yard, do Diana every pedestrian walking down the sidewalk is a potential perp and must be warned not to enter the property line. As for Freyja, all I can think of is, “la la la la la, I love it here.” Being husky I think she has more ADHD than the average dog. When it comes to focus she is the opposite of Chet.

    I think it is the essence of dogs to be cheerful. When they cannot be cheerful, they are miserable because that is what their natural essence is.

    A good review about the essence of every C&B book without giving away any of the plot except for the vague mention of AI.

    A reminder to WTAFP and OFA. It is WIFE APPRECIATION DAY.

    It is also Make a Hat day. I have just found a hat I started to knit but never finished because I ran out of yarn. Now I have two skeins of this exact yarn in the house….somewhere. Which is the story of *my* life. It’s discontinued so I do need to find them. I had three, enough to make a hat and a pair of mittens for my red wool winter coat. Not like I’d ever need them. It’s San Diego and the chances of me being anywhere with cold and snow in the winter are pretty low, but one never knows. I do have a hat and mittens for my rain jacket. I even have a photo of me in them from Glacier Point in Yosemite in April or May. Glad I brought them with me as I didn’t need them in the valley. This was 2016, before Diana. Ramses was having a sleepover with his pal Candy at my parent’s house. And I have two pair of wool mittens my Mother made me. I shall keep them always.

    It is National Double Hamburger day and National Cheese Toast day. I can’t handle a double cheeseburger any more but I was planning on a grilled cheese as I do have fresh tomatoes. All of the tomatoes in the garden are starting to ripen at the same time so I’m planning on making a batch of roasted tomato sauce, then freezing it in individual portions for “eggs in purgatory” on pasta whenever I want. It is also National Linguine day. Not a huge fan of linguine. I prefer Angel hair or even just Spaghetti with my red sauce. Occasionally Rigatoni or Fusilli. I use elbows for lentil soup, broccoli soup and mac n cheese, Orzo for salad and Acini de Pepe or Vermicelli for chicken soup. Of course Lasagne noodles for Lasagna.

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