A stylistic tour de force....engagingly comic, hypnotically seductive...an authentically psychotic monologue [blending] the bombastic strains of superhero fantasia and a familiar streak of ironic Jewish pragmatism....charismatic.” — Madison Smartt Bell, New York Times
“Extraordinary. . . . The novel that’s surprised and impressed me most this year.” — Douglas Adams, “Books of the Year,” The Guardian (UK)
“Dazzling. . . . never loses [its] light touch. . . . Fink not only faithfully recreates the old world of radio serials, but also brings his naïve main character into the morally ambiguous 1980s and gives him a sad, stubborn dignity.” — Chris Petrakos, Chicago Tribune
“Marvelous. …[its] two plots, past and present, trot in and out of the ring like trick ponies, carrying an impossibly colorful but appealing cast of characters.…The plot is as absurd as it is intricate…it’s fun and sad at the same time. — Terry Bisson, Washington Post
“Impressive. . . . Fink has a fine ear for dialogue [and] Ray Green is a truly original creation.” — Time Out London
“A freewheeling, high-energy tour de force. . . . Breathtaking in its juxtaposition of wisecracks and tragedy, with a veritable Don Quixote running loose in the American Southwest: a distinctive debut.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Adventures uses Green’s semi-literate style to beautiful effect. . . . Further Adventures is creative, wrenching, even funny—an intelligent look at pop morality taken to its logical extreme.” — James Poniewozic, New York Perspectives
Dazzling. . . . never loses [its] light touch. . . . Fink not only faithfully recreates the old world of radio serials, but also brings his naïve main character into the morally ambiguous 1980s and gives him a sad, stubborn dignity.
Impressive. . . . Fink has a fine ear for dialogue [and] Ray Green is a truly original creation.
A stylistic tour de force....engagingly comic, hypnotically seductive...an authentically psychotic monologue [blending] the bombastic strains of superhero fantasia and a familiar streak of ironic Jewish pragmatism....charismatic.
Adventures uses Green’s semi-literate style to beautiful effect. . . . Further Adventures is creative, wrenching, even funny—an intelligent look at pop morality taken to its logical extreme.
Extraordinary. . . . The novel that’s surprised and impressed me most this year.
Marvelous. …[its] two plots, past and present, trot in and out of the ring like trick ponies, carrying an impossibly colorful but appealing cast of characters.…The plot is as absurd as it is intricate…it’s fun and sad at the same time.
A freewheeling, high-energy tour de force from British-based TV writer Fink—this one featuring a former star player in a short- lived 1930's radio serial, who emerges from a lifetime of seclusion in the persona of his radio role to battle for justice, only to find reality more than a match for him. Ray Green, aka Reuven Agranovsky, once provided the voice of the Green Ray for eight years (1938-46) while a young man, throwing himself into the part so vigorously that he could no longer separate his life from the weekly episodes. Now, silenced by the sponsor's decision to cancel the show, he's spent 40 quiet years in New Mexico—until one day a chance street encounter with thugs trying to abduct a woman gives him the chance to relive his former glory. He jumps into the fray and sets Amelia free, putting in motion a bizarre sequence of events in which the two join forces to elude the grasp of a wetback-smuggling, drug-running FBI agent, formerly Amelia's lover and the father of her daughter Dolores. Ray is duped by both sides, and Agent Newberry almost convinces him to betray her, but his new-found love for her triumphs. They cross into Mexico to her home in order to find her child and live in peace, only to have their domestic bliss last less than a week when Amelia is brutally murdered and Dolores is kidnapped by Newberry's goons, leaving Ray to return to the US with vengeance in his heart. Easily captured and brought to Newberry, unwittingly implicated in the drug trade by being forced to take part in a deadly ambush, he escapes with a plan to get Dolores away from her evil father, but that fails too. Breathtaking in its juxtaposition of wisecracks and tragedy, with averitable Don Quixote running loose in the American Southwest: a distinctive debut.
