Thanks to Jonathan Lethem, I found this unique and brilliant tour-de-force.

books:


	• It Happened in Boston? (20th Century Rediscoveries) Russell H. Greenan Modern Library, 2003 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It Happened in Boston?

I just finished reading the new Modern Library edition of "It Happened in Boston?", which I had first read 35 years ago. It still seems as startling as it was then; all these strange characters, and the mad protagonist. What a feat of imagination! I had actually expected it to feel somewhat dated but it didn't - quite the contrary, it seemed completely of the moment. I think this edition should find a new audience, among readers who did not exist when it was first published.

Recognized

Make no mistake, this quirky, sparkling page-turner is a joy to read----with one major flaw. On almost every page, this particular reader, in any event, cannot help but be reminded of another, greater novel, The Recognitions by William Gaddis. The thematic and plot similarities are simply too great to be coincidental. The Recognitions was out of print as well until a few years ago after it was listed in The Greatest 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century. I am not knocking Greenan's book. But The Recognitions is by far the more magnificent and profound novel dealing with an artist who is conned into painting forgeries and many, many other things beside. On the other hand, not too many people, I've found, are willing to take on this 1,000 page, closely-printed, spellbinder of a book. Perhaps it is best to regard Greenan's book then as a condensed version of the Gaddis book---Not a al Reader's Digest! It's far too well-written for that!-In Greenan's Afterword, he avers, "What authors put down on paper springs from....all the books they have read." There can be no doubt in the mind of anybody that has read it that The Recognitions was one of these key influences.

So, for those deeply intrigued by the themes and artistry of this book: Close the Greenan, open thy Gaddis.

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Now You Get It ...

In spite of its literary brilliance and its narrative genius, there will be people who won't like Boston?. I don't say this as a lofty proclamation or to cast aspersions on those folks. Consider a five-star restaurant's most expensive and well-touted fresh salmon entree. It may, in fact, be a meal of the highest quality and finest ingredients, but, hey, some people just don't like fish.

This book is populated by intriguing characters (our artistically brilliant and unnamed protagonist's goal is to assassinate God, if that tells you anything) with curious and delicate lives that flirt with the fringes of madness before plunging in headlong. It is really pointless to try to explain the basic plot, since it holds no more prominence than the philosophical inquiries and didactic ponderings that motivate it. These underlying ideas never drag the story down, as one might suspect, although they are probably at fault when it comes to why some might like this meal and some might flat out reject.

In kind, the ending does leave something to be desired, since it is a resolution of the ambiguous kind. Greenan doesn't kowtow to fortune cookie solutions, and he leaves the point of the book (as well as the answer to those inquiries and ponderings) in the hands of the reader, who may either be delighted to answer, or disgusted with the presumption. Again, it's a matter of taste.

I, for one, was licking my fingers when I was done.

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Thanks to Jonathan Lethem, I found this unique and brilliant tour-de-force.

Russell Greenan penned a masterpiece with this book that, were he a British novelist, might have had a shot at a Booker Prize. Absolutely brilliant! None of Greenan's other books measures up, but this one is so luminously creatively intelligent that it was an impossible act to follow in kind.

A superb read - highly recommended

A funny, quirky, intelligent and talented main character has his way with God, and I enjoyed every word.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

First published by Random House in 1968, Russell H. Greenan?s It Happened in Boston? is the story of a brilliantly talented, unbalanced artist who strives to meet God face-to-face in order to destroy Him. It is ?a magic spell of a book?phantasmagoric, lushly written, full of unforgettable characters and brilliant twists of plot,? writes Jonathan Lethem in his Introduction. With a vivid depiction of the art world and a breathtaking narrative that incorporates forgery, time travel, and murder, Greenan?s hilarious and disturbing debut novel?now an underground cult classic?is ripe for rediscovery.

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