Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 21, 1993 TAG: 9311210212
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO Book page editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In some ways, David Handler's Stewart Hoag mysteries are completely anachronistic. There's virtually no violence or racy sexual scenes in the novels; the language is tightly controlled so profanity is used only when it's part of a character. The most immediate comparison is Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man." But that's not fair.
Yes, Handler is writing about witty, attractive characters - Hoag is an ex-hotshot novelist turned ghost writer who is sometimes married and/or involved with Merilee Nash, star of Broadway and Hollywood _ and, yes, they have a dog, a basset hound named Lulu. But Handler's humor is more sharply satiric than Hammett's and the social commentary in the novels is much stronger than the conventional mystery elements.
His subject this time out is Hollywood, probably the easiest target for a satirist, but Handler avoids cheap shots. Hoagy is hired to ghost a celebrity autobiography of Matthew Wax, a Spielbergian wunderkind whose independent studio is about to collapse in an increasingly nasty divorce from his actress wife, Pennyroyal Brim. As he's done in his previous novels, Handler mixes fiction with real characters and situations so smoothly that the lines - if there are any - between reality and imagination disappear.
He has an astonishing talent for that particular kind of writing. No one else even approaches him. At its best, his fiction is wicked, funny and much more accurate and true than the press releases Hollywood would have us believe. At its worst, his work is intelligent and entertaining.
That's why this novel isn't anachronistic at all. In fact, the recent death of River Phoenix and the uncertainty surrounding it have eerie parallels in "The Boy Who Never Grew Up." That, of course, isn't meant as a recommendation. It simply shows that Handler's insights into the entertainment industry are remarkably perceptive.
Though I haven't read all of the Stewart Hoag novels - and another is on the way - this is the best in an excellent series.
by CNB