“We’re not stealing a snake man.”
Patrick Sullivan and his friends are constantly seeking a new scam and nothing is off limits. These kids have stolen stereos, safes, guitars and petty cash so deciding to steal over two hundred thousand dollars from Led Zeppelin would only make sense. In Black dogs Jason Buhrmester presents a fictional rendition of the events leading up to the robbery of Zeppelin at the drake hotel in July of 1973.
Frenchy, a Music enthusiast who lives in his mom’s basement, Keith, who specializes in the installation and theft of car stereos, and Alex, a friend who was recently released from prison for a previous crime round out Patrick’s crew. They get stoned and argue about music like normal kids, but it would seem their thrill seeking tendencies are insatiable. The boys are ruthless to say the least. They manage to break into friend’s homes to steal valuable, rob a pawnshop of a rare guitar, and steal a safe containing tapes that may incriminate a district attorney. They get into bouts with a Christian biker gang, run from the police, and quarrel amongst themselves constantly. Despite the wreck less attitude shared by the group, they mange to end up on top by the end of this unheralded adventure.
This book was a quick and fun at times. It gets right into the plot with no back-story and moves at a nimble pace until it is finished. There is no lesson to be learned and there are no hidden meanings. The story is action packed with a few jokes peppered in here and there all set to a classic 1970s rock and roll soundtrack. Black dogs is very short and could be easy to ready in one sitting.
This novel was funny at times, but was never very interesting. Breaking into a building to buy a coke from a machine is humorous, but not very memorable as a scene. The descriptions do a great job of describing a setting, but aren’t clever enough to really evoke any sort of emotional response. Alex’s bedroom is a great example of this. Buhrmester writes, “A clear plastic bag on the floor read BALTIMORE COUNTY JAIL: PERSONAL BELONGINGS. Inside were the clothes Alex had on the night the cops nabbed him.”
The scene is described in two or three sentences, giving a basic idea of what the place looks like and then moves on. The sentence that says the bag contained clothes just felt useless. The problem isn’t the length it’s the lack of clever and meaningful phrasing and this seems to be the issue with most aspects of Black Dogs. Many aspects of Backwoods Billy’s introduction seemed lacking in this way. “ They stole anything, tore up everywhere they went and kicked the shit out of anyone” just seemed a bit stale. One could argue that such critical analysis of short moments could be a bit obsessive, but in a book this short it extremely important to nail these introductions. The rest of the character development is on par with this one. The main character, Patrick, just seems like a punk ass kid. His past is barely mentioned, and even his physical description is minimal and hard to remember. The rest of the gang could be substitute for each other at many times. They are all a bit different, but in general they are just seen as a group of stoned thugs to the reader.
The scene is described in two or three sentences, giving a basic idea of what the place looks like and then moves on. The sentence that says the bag contained clothes just felt useless. The problem isn’t the length it’s the lack of clever and meaningful phrasing and this seems to be the issue with most aspects of Black Dogs. Many aspects of Backwoods Billy’s introduction seemed lacking in this way. “ They stole anything, tore up everywhere they went and kicked the shit out of anyone” just seemed a bit stale. One could argue that such critical analysis of short moments could be a bit obsessive, but in a book this short it extremely important to nail these introductions. The rest of the character development is on par with this one. The main character, Patrick, just seems like a punk ass kid. His past is barely mentioned, and even his physical description is minimal and hard to remember. The rest of the gang could be substitute for each other at many times. They are all a bit different, but in general they are just seen as a group of stoned thugs to the reader.
The plot itself lacks the sense of surprise. The contents of Billy’s safe present a bit of suspense, but the outcome turns out to be pretty boring and cliché. There are plenty of crazy events but the characters don’t really seem out of place within them. The characters careless nature is defined very early in the novel and because of this the absurdity of their problems is weakened. The Holy Ghosts are immediately described as being barbarous and bloodthirsty so getting into a fight with a bunch of carnies seems like all part of a days work for them. The Zeppelin heist itself was the biggest let down of the entire book. Gaining full access to the Drake Hotel was achieved through nothing, but bullshitting a few people and they obtained money completely by accident. The fact the gang simply found the money in a guitar case that they stole made reading the rest of their journey just seem useless. The happily ever after ending really rounded this book off to being mediocre at best. Black Dogs would be easy for a kid to read, but isn’t quite appropriate. The concept is exciting, but not clever enough to make it a worthwhile read for an adult.
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