Robert McCammon

"1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities. In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot ... In a different part of town, Curtis Mayhew, a young black man who works as a redcap for the Union Railroad Station, has a reputation for mending quarrels and misunderstandings among his friends. What those friends don't know is that Curtis has a special talent for listening--and he can sometimes hear things that aren't spoken aloud"--Amazon.com.

The Listener

Janice Hopper

** spoiler alert **
           This is a very spoilerific review, because I Have Thoughts About This Book. Be warned.

I've read Robert McCammon books since the late 80s/early 90s. I know pretty much what I'm getting into with his books. But this one didn't work for me as well as some others have.

For one thing, there are children in peril. I don't have kids, so I don't have the reflexive dread that parents often have whenever children are threatened, even in fiction. But as I've gotten older, the idea of ANYONE helpless being threatened by Really Bad People really bothers me. I don't watch/read stalker stories, where women are in trouble and helpless. I just don't have the stomach for that stuff anymore. Too much of that happens in real life, and I just don't need to have it in my fiction. And make no mistake: there are REALLY Bad People in this book. Like, cartoon bad. The only way I got through it was to know that the kids were mostly okay. Mostly.

And then there was the character of Curtis, the titular Listener of the title. I kinda think that McCammon might have been trying not to fall into the Magical Negro trope, but I'm not really sure he avoided it very well. Curtis can communicate telepathically with Nilla, the 11-y.o. girl of the kidnapped pair. This telepathy seems to be a rare gift, just something that folks are born with, nothing weird or nasty at all. This telepathy helps Curtis to communicate with Nilla, and to pass word to her father and to help to save the children. It's what ultimately saves the kids.

But Curtis is a gentle soul, someone who can't imagine hurting anyone. He's relentless in working to save the kids. And, because this is set in the 1930s in Louisiana, he runs afoul of white people. There is a section I can only call torture porn, where three rednecks that Curtis had tried to flag down for help absolutely savage Curtis and leave him where they are certain he'll die. They'd have lynched him if they'd had any rope. But they didn't, so they left him with a boxcar full of rattlesnakes.

So naturally Curtis is too pure to survive. His death conveniently removes any question of what would happen to a black man who broke into a store to steal clothes after he'd been beaten to a pulp, stripped naked and left for dead, and who might have been blamed for the death of one of the Very Bad (White) People in that time and place. At every turn, Curtis is a tool for the White People In DANGER!!!!!1!!1! Seriously. O.o And he's good and sweet and steadfast (his heroes are the characters from Le Morte D'Arthur, ffs), so naturally he's doomed to die for the white kids. Jeezopete.

I dunno. I think the book was well put together, but Curtis deserved better. I just had issues, especially with the beating scenes, so I can't be as positive as I wish I could be. Though there is one lovely little bit of description close to the end, as Curtis's soul leaves his body.

Disappointed.

The Listener

Reviews