I have read a few Mickey Spillane works, and what hits one
most, quite frightening, is the violence in the books. It is often more than
gratuitous, brutal. Tremendous ruthless battles and fights, blood spilling out
from guts and nerves and from pretty much everywhere. It is no different here,
the brutality of the fights involving Mike Hammer. If he is not a sadist, then
one wonders what a sadist is!
Yet this novel, the story is quite good and i daresay convincing. The psychology behind the trend of events, the flow, the "twisted" youngster himself is quite spot on. Do we at the end feel pity for the boy genius?
Yet this novel, the story is quite good and i daresay convincing. The psychology behind the trend of events, the flow, the "twisted" youngster himself is quite spot on. Do we at the end feel pity for the boy genius?
I like the undulations
of the way he (the boy genius) has fallen for the lady in question here, though
she is much older and would regard him as a child. But psychologically and
emotionally he is no kid. He is very intelligent cerebral and calculating.
Which all adds to the pathos of this hard-hitting story, I suppose.
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- Henry Ozogula
