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Adult Books - Fiction - General Fiction
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The Four Corners of the Sky.
Malone, Michael (author).
May 2009. 560p. Sourcebooks/Landmark, hardcover, $24.99 (9781570717444).
REVIEW.
First published April 1, 2009 (Booklist).
Devoted Michael Malone fans have been waiting more than 20 years for another Handling Sin, perhaps the greatest road novel since Tom Jones. The wait is over. Malone’s latest isn’t exactly a road novel, but it’s all about movement, from flying jets at mach speed to embracing the uncertain ebb and flow of experience. Just as (ex-) Reverend Earley Hayes in Handling Sin shanghais his stolid son, Raleigh, into a raucous jaunt to New Orleans, during which he forces him to unlearn everything he thought he knew about right and wrong, so Jack Peregrine, con artist extraordinaire, must teach his daughter, 26-year-old navy jet pilot Annie Peregrine Goode, to fly toward life, not away from it. Annie is estranged from her father, who left her with her aunt and uncle when she was 7 years old, but when Jack turns up again, on the run as always—but this time apparently near death—Annie is swept back into the maelstrom of his life. So begins a rollicking roller coaster of a novel that fantails from sleepy Emerald, North Carolina, to Miami and on to Havana, with multiple stops in between, as Jack’s last scam plays itself out. The cast of characters is as large as it is rich. Malone is an absolute master of Dickensian character building, as capable of breathing vigorous life into slow-moving Uncle Clark and worrywart Aunt Sam as he is at imbuing his showstopping heroes with unquenchable spirit. And his bit players never saw a scene they couldn’t steal. Take Raffy Rook, Jack’s Shakespeare-quoting accomplice, who in summing up the philosophy of a con artist neatly captures the point of it all: “It was never the score; it was the insubstantial pageant.” Don’t miss it.— Bill Ott
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Features That Discuss This Work:
1. The Back Page : Pond Jumpers
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