How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Not bad
Advantages:
Almost a good book
Disadvantages:
Shallow narrative and two dimensional characters
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
Ash Wednesday - Ethan Hawke
I bought this on whim when I was recently stocking up on books for my daily commute. I had no idea that Ethan Hawke was now writing books but was swayed by the cover art and blurb and was intrigued to see the kind of work he was putting out. Pretty thin reasons for buying a book but there you go. Here's what I thought.
As an actor Hawke has been around for many years now, first coming to prominence in the saccharine Robin Williams blub fest that was Dead Poet's Society. Since that time he has appeared in many Hollywood films of varying quality but has managed to build himself a solid reputation as a semi-serious thesp. As an author he published his first novel, 'The Hottest State', in the late nineties and followed it several years later with 'Ash Wednesday'.
'The Hottest State' is a tale of a dysfunctional young couple who fall in love and embark on a troubled rollercoaster of a romance before ultimately finding some level of acceptance and happiness. In contrast, 'Ash Wednesday' is a tale of a dysfunctional young couple who are already in a relationship who embark on a troubled rollercoaster of romance before ultimately finding some level of acceptance and happiness. I wonder what his next book will be about.
Maybe I'm being a little harsh, so let's look at 'Ash Wednesday' in more detail.
The story follows the relationship between Jimmy Heartsock and his girlfriend Christy Walker. Two twenty-something's who have already been together for a couple of years but who have recently allowed their relationship to drift to the brink of break-up. Jimmy is a sergeant in the US Army; he has never seen active service and is never likely to. He serves his time at a desk in New York under the less than supportive command of his lieutenant. A persistent if not addicted drug user he avoids responsibility and ambition wherever possible and spends his time moaning about his lot in life. The story starts with Christy trying to break up with Jimmy, he persuades her otherwise and their relationship moves quickly towards parenthood and marriage as they embark on a cross country car journey. The main problem with this book is that the two leads are so unappealing that at no point do you feel any empathy with them. It is impossible to build any connection to them and so you feel detached from their emotional trials, virtually all of which are self-inflicted. Jimmy is a self-absorbed man-child who still thinks he is seventeen; despite being nearly thirty his dress choice when out of uniform is his high school letter-man jacket and this is how he defines himself. Rather than thinking about those around him he tackles every situation like a spoilt child with no thought beyond his own emotions. Christy comes closer to being a fully realised character but is still very shallow; there are glimpses of her back story but not enough to take her out of the two-dimensional feel of the rest of the novel. More down to earth than Jimmy her ambitions are restricted to attaining some stability in her life and settling down. However, she shows no conviction in pursuing these goals and sticks with Jimmy despite knowing that she is really backing the wrong horse. Their journey takes them through many emotional encounters leading to the final defining moments but the narrative lacks drive and purpose and as a reader you never feel particularly caught up in the story. This is a shame as there is a good book in here trying to get out, it's just that Hawke doesn't quite pull it off.
Admirably, Hawke employs a number of clever narrative devices in the novel. The most obvious is his alternating point of view. The book is written entirely in the first person, but the point of view alternates with each chapter between Jimmy and Christy. This is a neat trick and Hawke pulls it off well with each chapter carrying the distinct voice and personality of the character.
As an actor Hawke made his name playing characters of a distinct type; post college twenty-something slackers who are more often than not aspiring actors/poets/writers. And there's the rub, 'Ash Wednesday' reads exactly like something one of these aspiring writers would have conceived. It looks like the author spent his formative years reading Salinger and Kerouac too many times and thought 'this is easy, I'll have a go at that'. The result is a derivative mish-mash of ideas that, despite containing some clever touches and a level of creative ambition, falls someway short of its aspirations. If this had been written by one of his struggling characters it is doubtful that it would have reached publication, but given the authors fame this was never going to languish in the rejected pile.
