Posts Tagged ‘The Fan’
Beginnings
October 27th, 2019 Posted 9:43 am
On Sunday we do beginnings – all the Peter Abrahams novels, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker. Since it’s World Series time, how about The Fan (filmed by Tony Scott with a fine cast)? Sports often play a role in our work – Bernie pitched for Army, as Chet and Bernie readers know – but never more than in this one. It begins with sports talk radio – a kind of Greek chorus that appears several times in the book. Gil is the fan.
[“Peter Abrahams’ The Fan is a shrewdly crafted thriller about a spoiled, egotistical home run hitter and the schlemiel hunting knife dealer’s rep whose hero worship metastasizes into obsession…the tale’s sharp characterizations, crisp style, and unpredictable plot twists add up to a highly credible and suspenseful literary entertainment.” – Entertainment Weekly]
“Who’s next? Gil on the car phone? What’s shaking’, Gil?”
Dead air.
“Speak, Gil.”
“Is this …”
“Go on.”
“Hello?”
“You’re on the JOC.”
“Am I on?”
“Not for long, Gil, the way we’re going. This is supposed to be entertainment.”
Dead air.
“Got a question or a comment for us, Gil?”
“First-time caller.”
“Fantabulous. What’s on your mind?”
“I’m a little nervous.”
Tags: beginnings, The Fan
Posted in Chet The Dog
October and Baseball
October 5th, 2019 Posted 8:38 am
This is the best month for baseball lovers! Football, basketball, hockey – they’d all be basically understandable right away to a newcomer seeing a game for the first time, but baseball: never! Baseball comes up quite a bit in our work – in the YA thriller Bullet Point, for example, the kids’ picture book Quacky Baseball, and of course The Fan was all about baseball. (Cal Ripken, Jr., paying me a very nice compliment on its accuracy, asked how far I’d gone in baseball. That was a funny conversation.) Baseball also comes up in the Chet and Bernie series. Here’s a little something from Thereby Hangs A Tail:
We drove toward the sun, through a few neighborhoods a lot like our own, then past a baseball field with a kids’ game going on. I didn’t understand baseball but it always looked like fun, and the ball itself I loved. Who’d have guessed what the insides were like? At that very moment a kid swung his bat and the ball went soaring into the sky. We weren’t going very fast. Would it be totally impossible to –
Tags: baseball, Bullet Point, Cal Ripken Jr., Quacky Baseball, The Fan, Thereby Hangs A Tail
Posted in Chet The Dog
Beginnings
February 17th, 2019 Posted 7:13 am
On Sunday we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Peter Abrahams novels, including those written under the Spencer Quinn pen name. Here, from 1995, THE FAN (filmed by Tony Scott with a fine cast). Sports often play a role in PA’s work, but never more than in this one. It begins with sports talk radio – a kind of Greek chorus that appears several times in the book. Gil is the fan.
[“Peter Abrahams’ The Fan is a shrewdly crafted thriller about a spoiled, egotistical home run hitter and the schlemiel hunting knife dealer’s rep whose hero worship metastasizes into obsession…the tale’s sharp characterizations, crisp style, and unpredictable plot twists add up to a highly credible and suspenseful literary entertainment.” – Entertainment Weekly]
“Who’s next? Gil on the car phone? What’s shaking’, Gil?”
Dead air.
“Speak, Gil.”
“Is this …”
“Go on.”
“Hello?”
“You’re on the JOC.”
“Am I on?”
“Not for long, Gil, the way we’re going. This is supposed to be entertainment.”
Dead air.
“Got a question or a comment for us, Gil?”
“First-time caller.”
“Fantabulous. What’s on your mind?”
“I’m a little nervous.”
Tags: baseball, beginnings, Greek chorus, The Fan, Tony Scott
Posted in Chet The Dog
Beginnings (More)
February 25th, 2018 Posted 8:54 am
On Sunday we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernie’s (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 1995, #8 – THE FAN. It was made into a movie of the same name, directed by the late Tony Scott and starring Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, Benicio Del Toro, and Ellen Barkin. It begins with sports talk radio, which I used as kind of a Greek chorus.
“Who’s next? Gil on the car phone? What’s shaking’, Gil?”
Dead air.
“Speak, Gil.”
“Is this …”
“Go on.”
“Hello?”
“You’re on the JOC.”
“Am I on?”
“Not for long, Gil, the way we’re going. This is supposed to be entertainment.”
Dead air.
“Got a question or a comment for us, Gil?”
“First-time caller.”
“Fantabulous. What’s on your mind?”
“I’m a little nervous.”
Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Ellen Barkin, Greek chorus, John Leguizamo, Robert De Niro, sports talk radio, The Fan, Tony Scott, Wesley Snipes
Posted in Chet The Dog
