A Catskill Eagle (Spenser) [Paperback]

I just finished Robert B. Parker's "A Catskill Eagle" for the fifth time in as many years. I didn't intend for it to become a yearly ritual, but it has done that and I'm happy for it.

Eagle is the book that makes Spenser epic, that cements the bond between Spenser and Hawk among the great literary friendships. It is Parker's way of enforcing the comparisons between his own Spenser and the unstoppable, nameless knight of Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queen". It is more than a knight's tale, more than a picaresque, more than a detective novel.

To rescue Susan from her other lover, a rich, cruel and brutal man, Spenser and Hawk cut a swath of destruction across America. In order to secure the distressed damsel, they commit murder and arson and eventually sign on for an assassination. As an example of the depths of love and fealty, this book ranks up there with The Sun Also Rises. As an action-adventure it is perfect. As a hilarious buddy comedy it belongs in the same cabinet as any Hope/Crosby road film.

If there is a weak spot in this novel, it is in Russell Costigan himself, Susan's lover. In his desire to make Russell the very opposite of Spenser, he makes him dislikable, crude, a whiny, insecure neanderthal undeserving of Susan's love or attention. It makes her decision bewildering and unbelievable, despite Parker's attempts to explain.

But this book isn't about Russell. It's not even about Susan. It is about the quest. It is about the things around us that define who we are and how we respond when we are needed. And in that, it succeeds far beyond almost anything else you will read in this genre.

Rachel Wallace and Hawk, feminist and leg-breaker, connect for some exquisite, touching banter. Though that's not the main theme, it's one of my favorite feathers in the nest of A CATSKILL EAGLE, # 12 in the Spenser series.

CATSKILL's plot and delivery changed style considerably from previous novels in the Spenser series, giving the appearance that the classic detective novel's solitary-private-eye may have walked off lonely street. Here he sang heated duets of a different kind of wounded blues (slowly being healed). Spenser and Hawk were a team throughout this plot. They committed and sacrificed nearly everything, to rescue Susan, both body and soul. Paradoxical hints were given that she couldn't, yet might rescue herself, which brought up the issue again of Robert Frost's "need and love being one." The full quote from Frost's poetry was used in MORTAL STAKES, # 3 Spenser, and repeated here within a fascinating, key exchange between Spenser and Susan's psychiatrist.

We had the FBI and CIA entering into this plot, requiring their piece of the purge-of-society-pie, in return for rescuing Hawk and Spenser from legal consequences of ethically chaotic acts collecting the highest of criminal charges, in the name of saving Susan.

The GYRE was still churning. The storm swirled stronger, hotter, and faster. Of course, due to all the above, this novel pushed a more rapid, forceful read than previous Spenser offerings. What a contrast this was to the pilot, THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, both great novels, and as age-stretching different as the 70's were from the 80's.

Parker is uncannily adept at using soul pain to spin the process of ethical evolution, tossing questions without answers, for readers to clear, if they can get up from their easy chairs and walk, after a bout of several pages ingested here. I had to wonder if someone whined that Spenser hadn't been providing enough fast-paced, heart-screeching action. Well, Parker brought it on now, whatever it took to addict readers to his characters and series.

I recall reading a comment Parker made in his blog on Amazon USA, about having accepted this series as his means of earning a living. GYRE, VALEDICTION, and now CATSKILL have surged snippets of speculation in my mind, about an author accepting a dream come true, which then swirls into a yolk of a different color, which he may not have anticipated. What if, whereas, wherever, and whatever, I doubt Parker/Spenser would be able to walk away from a challenge, not even one which took over 30 years of his life, working through both internal and external literary expectations, necessities, and trade-offs.

To me, within the potent force of the pivotal point of this novel added the previous three, Parker felt to be struggling at soul bottom with a pair of the most basic of needs, those of demanding freedom of creative expression, and those of expecting a soul mate to behave as one.

Or. Maybe Parker simply enjoyed the heck out of writing this fast-paced, thought-provoking adventure, rescuing Susan with Hawk's help, drawing in the FBI, CIA, Quirk, and Benson to aid and abet in a swirling storm of ethical chaos.

This one has taken most if not all the so far ingredients and themes in the series, tossed them into a pot of High Plot, simmered through GYRE, turned up the heat a bit in VALEDICTION, then stirred with a vengeance of nuclear proportions in CATSKILL.

CATSKILL's ending was amazing, one of the best in the series, as far as achieving literary clarity and finesse of a seasoned novelist's skill. As per this whole series, however, ethical considerations on each page, including the riveting denouement, reached a high of surging questions and contemplations of actions that we usually condemn, placing them in the hands of the heroes. I couldn't put this one down, then automatically move my mind onward, to whatever was next in my life.

I've been nagged by this story for many reasons. I've known a few readers to quit the series here, no longer able to see Spenser, Hawk, or Susan in a clean, heroic light. I'm speculating that readers will either do that, or willingly acquiesce to a near compulsive need to continue to observe and contemplate the evolution of characters, themes, and literary style in this series.

I'm willing to go into the dark of my mind, with a hero struggling so closely with evil (in order to define and extract it from himself and others), he won't be able to avoid getting dirty.

Linda Shelnutt

This is one of the better and more revealing titles in the list of Spenser giving important aspects to the Backstory between Hawk, Spenser and Susan. I have read 20 + of the novels in this series and this filled in some interesting new information in how spenser became what he is.
I enjoyed it immensely, which doesnt mean you will as I recognise that people have virtually every range of emotions about these books from condescendingly sniffy to confirmedly non judgemental as to the quality.
I just enjoy the dialogue and the characters and if we solve anything along the road well so be it. I personally dont care.