Now and Then (Spenser)

I've read every Spenser novel, beginning when I was in high school in the '80s. I've reread a number of them.

In the past decade, I've grown very bored of Spenser's new novels. I wonder if Dr. Parker isn't growing bored, as well.

I rarely read the dialogue between Spenser and Susan. They love each other. They are hot for each other. They have complex emotions. They bore me.

Spenser's supporting cast reads like a joint United Nations/Politically Correct Univ. task force on thuggery. Check 'em off: African American? CHECK. Italian-American? CHECK. Native American? CHECK. Latino? CHECK. Homosexual? CHECK. Each is aware of his group's stereotypes and the role he is to play in the UN/PCU exercise. The banter is dry and witty: think Oscar Wilde with a BowFlex and a shotgun.

This novel, in particular seems as if it was written by cut-and-paste from all the other Spenser novels. There's no need for character development anymore, because the same characters (or archetypes) keep popping up.

Each time a new Spenser novel comes out, I tell myself I won't read it. Invariably I do. I am assured of a speed read through a familiar plot, 30-40 pages of Spenser/Susan dialog I can skip, a few well-written scenes of violence, some food/alcohol references, and some knight errant meditations on the harshness of the world.

I have avoided Dr. Parker's other series because his voice will always remind me of Spenser. And I want to remember the younger, MORE complex, MORE passionate, MORE violent Spenser, rather than his aging, tired self.

Maybe it's time to send Spenser and Hawk off to the old thugs' home...

Spenser and Susan have never gotten over the time they split and Susan took up with another man. Now Spenser becomes entangled with an FBI agent who is married but suspects his wife of infidelity and hires Spenser to find out. Spenser finds out but the agent and his wife are both killed. Spenser is reminded of his and Susan's split and he cannot let the case drop. He and Susan discuss aspects of the case and how it reflects on their split.The FBI becomes involved but relaxes and permits Spenser to proceed and do their work for them, but interactively. Spenser is given knowledge that governmetn forces dig up. The wife's seducer is found out to be a ladies man who has assumed a false identity, is actively involved in attacking the government with the secret hope of destabilizing it and causing whatever trouble to it he can. Towards the end Spenser and Susan agree that their way of life agrees with them, the seducer is exposed and his counterfeit identity given to the FBI to straighten out. Spenser and Susan, who have been contemplating marriage seem to come to an agreement to continue to study it but Spenser is of a mind that it would not work if conventionally followed. What they have now is best for them. This is one of the few books wherein the life style of Spenser is examined in great detail but not resolved, still it helps in the book to understand its working and for future books to proceed without too much pondering over the relationship between Spenser and Susan, they can discuss the psychology of the new antagonists involved. It helps to hold the series together which I think is necessary, making this an almost must read story.

Spenser NOW & THEN (2007) set me on a mission of detection--to compare and contrast Robert B. Parker's 1st Spenser novel with this one, his last, before he died at his desk writing still more Spenser tales (subsequently published.) It is my contention that the 1st novel is often the best an author has to offer, maybe not in writing, but in the having of something to say--the big idea rattling 'round his or her brain that is. Parker's 1st, THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, was published in 1973 and so there is a record of thirty-four years (he wrote 34 Spenser novels.) from first to last. Parker is an author/writer worthy of envy. He did what many writers aspire to but few accomplish--he created a character and a career and a good living for the rest of his life. Looking at Parker's book's author photos on the jackets of the books gives me the impression Spenser was a man Parker wished he was (not at all unusual for authors). He-Spencer- was fearless (on the outside). This line is uttered, in code, in both the 1st and last book. Indeed, the stories are very similar as are the hero and the villains. Spenser has calmed down some in the 2007 version and become a little less antisocial, but not much. I wrote down the characteristics of Spenser as I read NOW & THEN. I wrote: Clever, Strong, Quite, Smart, Healthy, Tough, Protective, Honest, Sentimental, Sensual, Sexual, Competitive, Confident. When the GODWULF MANUSCRIPT (a terrible title btw) took place (The early 70s and in Boston) Spenser was 37 years old (Parker was 41), a Korean War veteran, single, former cop turned PI, former heavyweight boxer, and a very violent, hard-drinking, junk food eating, apolitical, hyper-sexual, wise cracking, large athletic, observant, smart, well-read always-gets-the-girl, always-gets-his-man man. A man's man. A Clint Eastwood 'Man With No Name' type. For example: Spenser, in the span of 24hrs, screws both his employer (a 43 yr.old married socialite) & her daughter (a 20yr.old victim of all sorts of 'Things'); and insults just about everyone else, wolf's down 9 Big Macs, eats a dozen donuts, drinks gallons of coffee and several pints of bourbon, beats up boys and men, breaks laws right & left, cracks wise, sleeps little and cooks up some great meals. But there is this - if not for the heroic action of the large, unattractive, dull, wife of a weak university professor, Spencer would have been killed by a skilled outlaw hired enforcer thug. But in the end, Spenser survives a bullet wound, the case, the law, and gets still another girl who fell for his charms. Now, in NOW & THEN, it is 2005 and there are still more radical, weak, anti-government, murderous, radical professors to be dealt with. Spenser has a girlfriend, a 'shrink,' and is still in Boston. He's now (doing the math) at least 69 years old and horny as he ever was, but he keeps his lasciviousness confined to 'his' girl. He's made some friends, anti-social professional killers, who he has do most of his work. Spencer now is mostly a thinker, but still packs a mean & powerful punch (in and out of bed.) Parker now, as writer & author, doesn't bother with much of anything other than clipped and snappy dialogue between Spenser and his pals, girlfriend, bad guys, and the cops. I recommend the early Parker, if you like "Manly-men" fantasy tales. Here's to Robert B. Parker, cheers.

Spencer is always great -- I've now reread them all 3 times --even when I know the storyline by heart, his characters still jump of the page.

Private investigator Spenser is hired by a man who doesn't want to tell Spenser where he works, which is understandable when we learn that the man is an FBI agent. He wants Spenser to investigate his wife's possible infidelity, which Spenser proves by first following the woman and then - when he's sure there's infidelity going on - by planting a bug and taping her while she visits her lover's apartment. Spenser and his associate Hawk get an earful they aren't expecting, though, when the lovers' postcoital chat indicates the woman has been passing information learned from her husband on to her lover. Who is the head of some sort of political group, a counter-culture sort of group reminiscent of the 1970s. With the case over as far as his client is concerned, Spenser continues the investigation. The male half of the adulterous couple, the head of the activist group, proceeds to target Spenser's love, psychologist Susan Silverman. Just how dangerous will things get? And how far will Spenser have to go, before he can find out everything necessary to bring this man down?

I didn't enjoy this as much as I usually enjoy Spenser novels, probably because it referred so often to the 20-year-old era in Spenser's relationship with Susan when things went sour for awhile. I agree with other reviewers who have said that it's ground the characters needed to revisit and resolve; but I didn't have fun revisiting it with them, unfortunately. A good story nevertheless, and I did like the resolution.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

Here we have the 35th installment of the Spenser series. I have read no more than 10 so I wont get into the analysis of which is best or who are the favorite recurring characters. I like to pick up these audio books at the library. The character actor Joe Mantegna reads with class, although he seems to enjoy doing the female voices a bit too much. I dont see how anyone could not like this genre. Parker gets to the point immediately, does not dull the senses with pointless descriptions of scenery, landscapes, and architecture, and writes clever and focused dialogue.

If this book were an episode of the Rockford files it would likely be a two hour "sweeps week" special, pre-empting Quincy, M.E. Not sure how Rocky would fit in to the mix, but I guess he could plug some bad guys as well as Vinnie. I dont see Angel lasting long in the ring with Hawk so some major rewrites are clearly needed.

In this piece we see that Spenser is a true professional; his client and the client's wife get killed, so Spenser puts his enterprise at risk and tracks down the murderer. The client was an FBI agent who suspected his wife of cheating. Spenser quickly proves him right. The wife's boyfriend is an academic and community organizer type, who turns out to have ties to an international terrorist organization. The boyfriend and his thugs come after Spenser and Susan, so Parker enlists Vinnie and Hawk to protect the fair maiden. Fortunately Spenser and the local constabulary reached a working agreement years ago, so no one seems to worry about property damage, illegal taping, or van loads of dead lawbreakers showing up in parking lots.

There is a significant sub-plot here with Spenser and Susan. These cheating clients remind them of their time apart many years ago, and stir up a discussion of marriage, which does not get resolved here. In fact I think it reflects rather poorly on Susan and Spenser, why can't these people get married like the rest of us.

Having read all of the Spenser novels (36 by my count) I want to share my views on the series now that Robert B. Parker has died. Now & Then is a kind of summary book in that Parker brings back most of the gang from previous books. Susan and Hawk, of course, and Vinnie and Chollo two shooters who appear when Spenser is in trouble and Quirk, Belson and other Boston legal-types. It is as though Parker knew he was writing his last book and wanted to give them a final curtain call.

Like the last few books in the series this one is weak and is more of a reminisce about his past relationship with Susan. The wit seems forced and repetitious, the violence (10 people are killed) gratuitous. I listed a rating of three stars but what I really mean is five stars for the early novels and fewer for the last ten or so. This latter group seems to have been just dashed off, unlike the earlier books which presented Parker's philosophy about crime and life. For Parker crime results from dysfunctional families. Susan is, of course, a stand in for Parker's real life wife, Joan, to whom he dedicated all the novels. Spenser is Parker's fantasy of who he would have like to have been. Spenser is unique among PI's in that he uses his wit as well as his fists and his gun with equal adroitness. Much of the fun of the series came from Spenser's repartee with adversaries as well as wutg Susan, Hawk and other supporting characters.

The early books in the series had a time line with the characters aging with each book. But it became apparent after 20-25 books that Spenser could not continue to perform as Parker wanted him to so he stopped the aging process and for the last 15 or so books Spenser and the other characters remain frozen in time. I wrote to Parker at one point when Spenser was clearly too old to engage in the activities Parker was asking him to do. I did a kind of satire with Spenser and Hawk going to McDonald's for coffee and being charged the price for senior citizens and thus realizing they were getting old. Parker did not answer but the aging process did stop. Parker gives away Spenser's age in Now & Then by having him say on page 276 that he fought Joe Walcott. The real "Jersey Joe" Walcott was in his prime in the late 1940's, thus for Spenser to have fought him he would have to be 70-80 years old in the present (Parker was 77 when he died.) One way to stay young and virile, I guess, is to create a character like Spenser.

I recommend the Spenser books to anyone who likes a good tale, told with wit and charm. But you should start from the beginning and read them in sequence.

Took this to the beach and finished it in about 3 days. Good plot line and characters. This is only my 2nd Parker book but I think it is a good read.

I enjoy Spenser novels.

His dialogue sparkles, as usual.