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Total Recall (Mass Market Paperback)

by Sara Paretsky (Author) "They wouldn't even start the funeral service ..." (more)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Dell Publishing Company (Oct 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0440224713
  • ISBN-13: 978-0440224716
  • Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,073,173 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #45 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > P > Paretsky, Sara

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Age and experience has not withered VI Warshawski. In Sara Paretsky's latest tale, Total Recall, the uncompromising and wildly unconventional private investigator chases leads and suspects around Chicago "like a pinball, careening around the city", despite the fact that she is now positively the wrong side of 40. Paretsky's heroine is called in to investigate a seemingly simple case of insurance fraud (one of her specialities), when things get rather more complicated. At a conference on Christian-Jewish relations, the media is attracted by two very different stories: while protesters outside call for the recovery of Holocaust assets from insurance companies in denial, inside, a middle-aged Jewish man--helped by a recovered-memory therapist--recalls a childhood devastated by Nazis.

Warshawski soon becomes involved in both stories. As her journalist boyfriend prepares for a trip to Afghanistan to investigate the dismal human rights record of the Taliban (a timely, if not prescient, angle from Paretsky), a friend of his staying from New York decides to embark on a book on recovered memory, inspired by a TV special on the therapist and her star client. Hired by the author to help check out the duo's authenticity, VI finds herself on a collision course between the past and the present and between her professional life and her close friendship with a group of Jewish friends. One of these, the spiky surgeon Lotty Herschel (a regular Warshawski character), is deeply disturbed to find her own past may be linked in some way to that of the troubled client.

With her sharp wit, cynicism and daredevil approach to her job, Warshawski is as annoyingly loveable as ever. There are enough twists and turns to this, her latest outing, to offer a challenging read to die-hard fans and newcomers alike. Irritatingly, however, Paretsky leaves some major strands of her story untied, leaving you wondering and, as ever, waiting anxiously for the next VI Warshawski adventure. --Carey Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The New York Times Book Review
Total Recall is written with the stylistic verve and intellectual energy of a writer just coming into her own. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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They wouldn't even start the funeral service. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The same headstrong, wilful -- beautiful V.I., 26 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Total Recall (A V. I. Warshawski novel) (Paperback)
There isn't a private investigator in the whole of contemporary fiction as strong or as angry as V.I.Warshawski. From her brilliant entry into crimewriting with "Indemnity Only", Sara Paretsky's interest in corrupt dealings with finance & insurance, makes her an expert in the fascinating study of following money trails through account books. "Total Recall" reveals the background to Dr Lotty Herschell's escape from Europe, while V.I. investigates a man using a name Lottie remembers from her past, but she refuses to identify it. He insists he is related to her friend Max, but refuses to reveal his real name. V.I.'s exasperation with clues that lead nowhere, a local blue-collar family cheated of death insurance, apparently connected to banks in Switzerland, where protesters in Chicago are calling for recovery of holocaust assets. The plot is exacerbated by a recovered-memory therapist who insists the imposter is who he claims. Lotty crumbles slowly under the pressure of her past, while V.I. drives around Chicago piecing together a mosaic of information from deaths & lies & misplaced corporate loyalty. As always, Warshawski is driven forward mostly by impatience but also her sense of honour & determination to keep her word, solve the mysteries & put everything right. There is nobody anywhere as exciting or as ethically bolshie as V.I. There isn't a shred sanctimony in Paretsky's books, but each is written with witty humour & a strong social conscience.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Memory Fragments Glazed into a Colorful Plot Window!, 7 May 2004
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Total Recall (V.I. Warshawski Novels) (Hardcover)
I would have graded this book at 3.5 stars, if I could, so I rounded to the even number above as my math teachers always taught me to do.

Total Recall is built around the theme of how our current behavior is held prisoner by our perceptions of the past. Ms. Paretsky does a fine job of making it clear that we should keep our eyes open, look around, and exercise an open mind instead.

The strength of this book is the way that many different story lines are intertwined in a way that keeps your attention and mostly make sense. Despite this successful plot design, I was disappointed that several promising themes were raised and not fully dealt with, such as "recovered" memory, what Holocaust survivors should and should not feel guilt about, and the need for proper management and regulation of insurance companies. I would have been glad to read another 100 pages of this fine work to explore more in these areas.

The book's key weaknesses were in two areas: First, the characters are developed in ways that make them less strong and heroic than you probably have thought of them based on earlier V.I. Warshawski novels, particularly Lotty. Ms. Paretsky seems to have a jaundiced view of the moral strength and courage of her characters in this book except for Vic, which left me feeling a little down at the end. To me, the book's portrayal of the ongoing characters in this series seemed inauthentic in terms of the earlier novels. Second, the ultimate resolution of who the "bad guys" are and why they have been misbehaving didn't seem quite believable. I would have liked a better "rabbit out of the hat" to explain all of the contemporary wrong-doing.

Overall, the book gains a rich glow of context from touching on children escaping the Holocaust that I thought allowed the book to transcend the usual mystery genre. Ms. Paretsky effectively uses Lotty as a narrator for parts of the book, which helps to give her story line a richer flavor.

Vic is well portrayed in the book. She is her usual impatient, remorseless, and rule-bending self. You will enjoy her frustration with traffic, cell phones, and people who will not help her immediately. The story line of her relationship with Morrell is very delicately and interestingly done here.

After you finish this book, I suggest that you think about where you could change your assumptions about who you are and what you are able to accomplish . . . for the better. Break the chains of beliefs that create self-confining habits. Then, act with the potential you hold within you!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Total Hit, 1 April 2005
This review is from: Total Recall (Paperback)
A moving and also winning story, which shows Sarah Paretsky at her best, with VI batting for her oldest and most long-suffering friend.

The story is unusual in having long flash-back scenes over many years which effectively show the effect of suffering on VI's friend. This helps to inform the current day storylines which demonstrate how difficult "Total Recall" can be.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars okay
Whilst the story is entertaining and well told it's not exactly hihghly original and becomes predicatble pretty soon. Read more
Published 11 months ago by T. Krings

2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult
Having read every other VI book I waited desperately for this to be released, however I was incredibly disappointed. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2007 by S. Bradley

2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult
I've read and re-read all the VI novels and this has got to be my least favourite. It is difficult to stay focused on and remember all the characters as there are two stories... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2006 by S. Bradley

4.0 out of 5 stars Memory Fragments Glazed into a Colorful Plot Window!
I would have graded this book at 3.5 stars, if I could, so I rounded to the even number above as my math teachers always taught me to do. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Paretsky's best
Sara Paretsky is one of my favorite authors and with Hard Time she's surpassed herself. I was disappointed with Total Recall even if it is a good book. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately disappointing
The book started promisingly, as as new reader of Sara Paretsky I was suitably impressed and became ingrossed in the intriuging and very topical plot. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good but missing something.
Good book, one of SP's best I feel. I enjoyed delving deeper into the life of Lotty, even though I guessed what had happened to her about a 1/4 of the way through the book. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2001 by E. Chittenden

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