The Tzer Island book blog features book reviews written by TChris, the blog's founder.  I hope the blog will help readers discover good books and avoid bad books.  I am a reader, not a book publicist.  This blog does not exist to promote particular books, authors, or publishers.  I therefore do not participate in "virtual book tours" or conduct author interviews.  You will find no contests or giveaways here.

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Entries in Kem Nunn (1)

Friday
Apr042014

Chance by Kem Nunn

Published by Scribner on February 18, 2014

Eldon Chance is a forensic neuropsychiatrist who makes his living serving as an expert witness in civil or criminal cases involving brain injuries. Despite a healthy income he is bleeding money, in part because his wife is divorcing him, in part because he owes a huge debt in unpaid taxes. Chance is forced to sell his ridiculously expensive antique desk but gets more money than the desk is worth by having restoration work completed in a manner akin to art forgery, which sets up a relationship with the restoration forger, a big guy named D who is there to help when you need a big guy to solve your problems. Or, more likely, to make your problem worse.

Chance is pretentious and self-impressed. It's easy to understand why Chance's wife left him. His ethical breaches during the novel range from sleeping with a patient (who maybe isn't technically a patient, but close enough) to chatting with everyone he meets about the various patients he's treated or evaluated. He makes poor judgments throughout the novel (listening to D is the biggest one) and seems incapable of learning from his mistakes, which makes it difficult to get behind him as a character. He sort of deserves all the misfortune that comes his way. For much of the novel I wondered why Kem Nunn had chosen to write about such an unlikable character, but it all makes sense by the end.

Chance becomes obsessed with Jaclyn Blackstone, or at least with one of her multiple personalities. Despite her paranoia, Chance comes to believe that Jaclyn is being abused by her husband, who happens to be a cop. When the cop becomes aware of Chance's interest in his wife, bad things start happening to Chance and his family. Chance turns to D, a well-rounded criminal who is more literate than most, for help. The guts of the novel concern Chance's investigation of Jaclyn's past and her relationship to her husband, as well as the threats that someone has made to expose Chance's own past and to set him up for crimes he has not committed. The plot is interesting, as you would expect of a story that gives prominent attention to Tijuana hookers, San Francisco massage parlors, random acts of violence, and crazy people. After a slow start, the story builds intrigue as it moves toward its conclusion.

There are times when Nunn's prose is cold, detached, and pedantic. There is a formality to the style (not always present but often enough) that sometimes gives the novel a nineteenth century feel. That put me off for about half the novel. Nunn strives for an elegant prose style and often achieves it, but at other times his writing comes across as stuffy. I might understand that if the novel had been written in the first person (as are some of Chance's reports, quoted liberally at various times in the novel) because Chance is stuffy, but it seems an odd stylistic choice for a third-person voice. In any event, after the story started to grab me, I either became accustomed to the prose style or ignored it in favor of appreciating an engaging story. I particularly like the delightfully ambiguous and twisted ending and the opportunity it gives Chance to come to terms with his life. While it took me awhile to appreciate this novel, I was a fan by the time I reached the conclusion.

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