Book Review: Finch by Jeff Vandermeer

If I wasn’t a monster, I would be a detective. Actually, that’s not true. If I wasn’t a monster, I would be a mad scientist. I would be a mad scientist who might have dreams sometimes of being a detective. The mad scientist would emerge from these dreams feeling haunted and maybe sometimes beaten up. The characters who populated his dreams would swim with the fishes, or become wallpaper. The guts of the mad scientist would be twisted up like hamburger. Of course, this is all if I was a mad scientist. What was I talking about?

Finch is a something of a science fiction fantasy book written like a detective novel. The front and back covers bristle with references to noir fiction greats like David Goodis and Raymond Chandler, but it reminds me more of James Elroy. The main character is hyper-masculine in an Elroy way. Finch follows the classic noir trope of the lone righteous man in a pressure cooker. Which is:

• Our Detective is assigned a seemingly impossible case.
• Said case stinks of political corruption and/or is an obvious play in a deadly chess game between two or more interested parties.
• One or more interested parties puts pressure on the detective to:
  1. Solve the case their way, or
  2. Drop the case, or
  3. Join their side.
• The department chief has questionable motives and is one of the above-mentioned parties.
• The detective’s sex interest is not to be trusted.
• The detective is haunted by his past and/or is deeply heartbroken.
• The detective continues to investigate the case in spite of (or because of):
  1. Escalating threats.
  2. Escalating physical violence.
• The following occurrences are generally required, but not in any particular order:
  1. The detective is knocked out and wakes up tied to a chair.
  2. The detective’s partner is taken out of action.
  3. The detective is restrained by hoodlums while a gang boss uses him as a punching bag.
  4. The detective is told repeatedly that he is in over his head.
  5. The detective is officially taken off the case, but continues to pursue it.
  6. The detective is pushed too far by one of the interested parties and retaliates in an extravagant manner.
• In the end, the detective solves case his own way despite opposition. Justice is served and the city/town realigns with the cosmos.
• The detective wonders, bitterly, if he took the correct action.
• The detective’s sex interest turns out to be washed up. An interesting moll or frail met during the investigation replaces her.

You can’t tell me that you haven’t already read this story. It doesn’t matter. I’ve read this same story in countless other books, and in the hands of a skilled author, it’s still worth reading. In fact, I had a hard time putting Finch down and read it in two or three days.

Author Jeff Vandermeer fully imagines a dystopian world where fungi have replaced technology, food, weapons, disease, AND drugs. Think about that! Monstrous mushrooms have taken over the city and life has become dire for its inhabitants. Reading it, I was also reminded of Philip K. Dick: The detective is not a detective. There is nobody to trust. The story has nightmarish qualities and the main character struggles to keep a grasp on what is real and what is not. The goings-on are mostly depressing.

It wasn’t until I was about halfway through Finch that I found out that it is the last book in a trilogy. Luckily, it appears that all three novels can stand pretty well alone. Besides wishing that I had a little more information about the creatures called “gray caps,” I don’t think that I was missing much. Of course, maybe I was and don’t know it.

Creepy Factor: 4 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 5 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5 (hmmm. There is sex but not so erotic or weird.)
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 5 out of 5

Final result: You might not be able to tell by my review but I really loved this book. If you’re a fan of dark fantasy, this book will be straight up your alley. Vandermeer has created a compelling world, populated it with interesting characters, and used it to tell an old story in an exciting new way. Finch has been nominated for a Nebula award. (I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the awesome cover to this book was illustrated by John Coulthart.)

Finch by Jeff Vandermeer- Underland Press – 2009
Buy Finch now at Amazon

Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!

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