[.ca] The Burglar in the Rye (ISBN 0060872896)

From Amazon.com:
Lawrence Block is such a gifted writer that even a native New Yorker will be fooled into thinking that the Paddington Hotel, described in the opening pages of Burglar in the Rye, is a real institution. Block's descriptions of this enclave of artists, writers, and rock musicians is thoroughly convincing--although in actuality, the Paddington is a combination of the real-life Chelsea Hotel and Block's outrageous imagination. This is Bernie Rhodenbarr's ninth heist. Bernie is a gentleman burglar who runs a used bookstore in between criminal acts, steals mostly from the rich, and only hurts people when it becomes absolutely necessary. The Paddington is where Bernie goes to liberate the letters of a reclusive writer named Gulliver Fairborn from a literary agent. Fairborn's resemblance to J.D. Salinger and, of course, the fact that the woman who hired Bernie to steal the letters had an affair with Fairborn when she was a teenager, no doubt lend the book its title. But by the time Bernie gets to the Paddington, the agent has been shot, the letters already liberated--and a cop in the lobby recognizes our favorite burglar from a previous encounter. Now all Bernie has to do is find out who else wanted those letters badly enough to kill for them. In typical Rhodenbarr tradition, the plot is less interesting than the trappings: the books Bernie reads, the fascinating objects he picks up along the way. The reader also learns about some mind-expanding facts, such as the existence of a tiny South American fish that swims up a man's urine stream and lodges in his private parts! Or did Block make that up, too? Other Bernie picks include: The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, and The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza. --Dick Adler

Starting To Get Repetitive:
Bernie Rhodenbarr, used bookstore owner who sidelines as a professional burglar, is recruited by a beautiful woman to recover some letters for her, illegally of course. The letters are correspondence between a reclusive author and his agent. The agent wants to sell the letters, given their highly collectable appeal; the author desperately wants to stop her. The farce begins when Bernie breaks into the agent's room, but can't locate the letters. Instead, he locates her dead body that is lying in bed after she has been stabbed in the heart. Bernie is arrested but soon released and is back in his bookstore, only to be visited by a series of people determined to get their hands on the letters and believe Bernie can help them. Although filled with the trademark Lawrence Block humour and snappy dialogue, this book doesn't quite contain the edginess of previous Burglar books. The scenario of Bernie illegally entering a room that later proves to contain a corpse has been played in the earlier books. A new concept would have been refreshing. If you haven't read any of the Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries, you will probably find the story quite amusing and entertaining - and it is. If, however you have read a number of the books in the series, you'll find that it's all getting a bit repetitive.

Salute Mr Block - You've done it!:
Kudos to Lawrence Block for creating a witty series in the burglar mysteries, and a special kudo for this entry -- the best of the bunch (so far). The characters are appealing, the dialog is pithy, and the plot is intriguing. As usual, burglary is mixed in with murder, and our hero must find the killer to clear his own name. I loved the way Bernie confronts the suspects in the dramatic scene in the apartment. Such an intellect hasn't seen the pages of fiction since Nero Wolfe. I highly recommend this well written book. I suspect Mr Block would make for a most interesting dinner party.

Literary Whodunnit-Cum-Send-up Is Great Fun:
When they're well done, books about books, and metafiction, and metacinema, and roman-a-clef writing give me great pleasure. ("Bookworm's Delight," right?) Indeed. This particular Bernie Rhodenbarr book--and, I surmise, the series in general--works at two levels, at least: as a rather straightforward genre whodunnit, but one infused with Block's clever writing and--I found--amusing dialogue (with enough lightly-tossed-off literary allusions to satisfy readers attracted by the book's bookish associations), Bernie Rhodenbarr's attractive "honorable thief" persona, the agreeable NY City 12th-and-Broadway book district locale. The Rhodenbarr book is also a gentle send-up of the whole damn genre, which surely needs sending up from time to time. To discuss at length any particular aspect of the fun Block has in doing so would be to deprive readers of their own pleasures of discovery, so I'll say no more. What I most enjoyed, however--but what other readers have found particularly objectionable--is Block's use of the JD Salinger-Joyce Maynard materials. Sensing a kindred perspective, I for one am wholly with Block here, having read Maynard's original NY Sunday Times Magazine piece, wondering what the editor could have been smoking when s/he decided to print it, and rankled at how it came to pass that someone more than a decade younger than me--Maynard was 14--could be designated by the authoritative NY Times as the voice of MY generation!!! The nerve. Given my 35-year-old peeve, I LOVED the way Block has worked the Salinger-Maynard story and would, moreover, love to believe his insights were authentically based in fact. Alas, we--or at least I--will never know, but it's fund to conjure. It's easy to recommend The Burglar in the Rye for the beach, for the airplane, or just as an afternoon's entertainment--yes, it is, in Block's larger oeuvre, an "entertainment" in Graham Greene's sense, as opposed to, say, the Matthew Scudder books, which are darker and more probing--a suitable distraction in a difficult time (exactly my purpose in picking it up), filled with sweetness, light, good cheer, and hardly anything--aside from a chaste lesbian romance--that the Legion of Decency would find objectionable.

Burglary Was Never So Much Fun:
Bernie Rhodenbarr runs an antiquarian bookstore in Manhattan. He’s also a burglar, and just about everybody knows it, which has its good and bad points. (People always know who to go to for a quick breaking and entering…but the cops also suspect you every time one occurs. Oh well, life’s a two-sided coin.) A woman named Alice walks into Bernie’s bookstore and hires him to steal some letters that a reclusive writer named Gulliver Fairborn sent to his agent. No problem. Except that Bernie breaks into the agent’s apartment and finds the letters gone and the agent dead. Did I mention the police knocking on the apartment door at that very moment? Lawrence Block’s protagonist is a completely likable criminal with a quick mind and a heart of gold…uh, for a burglar. Block masterfully moves the reader along through a series of wild, yet believable occurrences that make for very entertaining reading. The dialogue is snappy, the characters are well-drawn, and the writing is sharp. What more could you ask for? Be prepared for loads of fun. 308 pages

Bernie Bearly Breaks into Burglary:
Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, "honest" person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn't proud of what he does, doesn't like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing nonessential valuables from rich people. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. As the series develops, Bernie has a chance to show that he has "ethics" that he follows. Very nice! So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar in the Rye is the ninth book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart and The Burglar in the Library. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Despite that admonition, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. This is the last book in the series as of now. The series, always comical and satirical, continues the new turn begun in The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart. The spoof expands to the detective/thriller genre in general. I found this change to be a welcome and charming one. Anyone who is a fan of The Purloined Letter will appreciate the many references to it. The Purloined Letter has been a favorite mystery short story of mine since I was a boy along with The Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deft display of the power of misdirection. Lawrence Block does a fine turn here in showing new ways to redirect attention in this entertaining literary thriller. So what's it all about? The story is loosely based on the background of one J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. Here, he's called Gulliver (Gully) Fairborn, and his former agent is planning to sell some of his letters, and destroy Fairborn's privacy. A beautiful woman, Alice Cottrell, asks Bernie to retrieve the letters, and Bernie becomes a hotel guest in the Paddington Hotel (themed to Paddington the bear) to give himself an inside edge. The entry into literary agent Anthea Landau's suite goes well, except Bernie finds her dead there. Right behind him are the police, and Bernie's on the run. While escaping, he manages to pick up an interesting item but soon finds himself under suspicion for the murder. Coincidences begin to pile up, and Bernie breaks and enters his way into our hearts with an outlandish scheme to remedy all the wrongs and bring the killer to justice. The resolution has great literary panache of the sort that will leave you chuckling for some time. Some of the funniest parts of this book are the on-going references to rye. Bernie starts drinking rye rather than Perrier (when he's planning to do a heist) or Scotch (when he's kicking back). He explains how rye bread is made. He reviews folk songs that mention rye. Pretty soon, lots of others are drinking rye too and discussing its merits. Bernie just can't seem to get away from rye! Does that make him a catcher? The theme of this book focuses on the importance of (and challenges involved in) maintaining privacy. Remember: It's not just celebrities who have this problem! Donald Mitchell Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage