The Stamp

1 rating: 3.0

A Short Novel by Ed Brodow

Tommy Courten, an IBM sales executive, finds his life upside down when his baby sister is murdered and the prime suspect escapes to South America. The police and the FBI give up on the case but Tommy, who is addicted to the violence he experienced as … see full wiki

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A Short Novel That Should Have Been Longer

Feb 26, 2012

by MichaelN
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Exclusive to the Lunch Network

Rating:

I was approached by the author to review this book and I am grateful that he chose me for the honor. I had previously enjoyed his historical fiction work entitled, "The Fixer." That book was excellent in every way. This book is more of a short story that I read in about an hour. The narrator of the book starts with the premise that all people are "stamped" with a certain year of their life. This means that omething about that year defines the person you are and how you choose to lead the rest of your life. He gives examples of some of his relatives, before going into the story of Tommy Courten, one of his friends.

Courten served in Vietnam and during a mission in 1968, his actions led to the death of 200 Vietcong as well as the man who was right next to him. The personality gleaned for Tommy was a person who took charge and fought against the norm if he didn't believe it. Tommy's sister is the victim of a brutal crime and when the authorities cannot capture the perpetrator, it is up to Tommy to hunt him down.

The story is a very quick read and I tried to rate it higher but was not sure what the author was trying to precisely convey as Tommy later comes to the realization about the person he has become. Perhaps if the author had expanded this part of the book it would have been better. Also, having been to both Cartegna and Barranquilla Colombia several times, I was a little taken aback by the author's descriptions of the locations. They seemed like false sterotypes of someone who hasn't been there, more so than fact.

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woopak_the_thrill February 26, 2012

Sounds pretty cool. I was asked by a first time author before to review her book. I didn't like the book at all, and so I asked if she still wanted me to post the review since I did not want to pan a new writer---she declined but she did keep my notes as reference.

MichaelN February 26, 2012

Ed is actually a Lunch member and he approached me through this web-site. Maybe James Camaron or JJ Abrams will be calling on you to review their next work. After all you are the "Roger Ebert' of Lunch and your thumbs up can make all us Lunchers go to a film.

woopak_the_thrill February 26, 2012

Heh. Like that will happen. It is weird that those Japanese movie distributors (pink movies I really don't collect) are the ones who always approach me LOL! I guess they think I have a twisted taste in movies...

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