Citizen Vince
Jess Walter, Harper Collins, 2005
Reviewed December 2009 by Linda Carlson
If you were forced to flee the Mob in New York City and join the Witness Protection Program, would you be relieved or annoyed to find yourself in sleepy Spokane?
If, while in Spokane, you worked full time managing a doughnut shop, simultaneously running a nifty credit card scam, would you also have time for a girlfriend?
Furthermore, if you received your voter registration card in the mail on the very same day that you learned you might have to defend yourself against a truly scary former-Mobster from New York City, would that be just another day to you?
These questions and many others are thoroughly addressed in this delightful yet exhausting novel, set in the last days of the Carter presidency. The nation is on the verge of a cultural shift, and so is Vince Camden.
In some ways Citizen Vince reminds me of a season of”24.” It’s action-packed, and the protagonist never sleeps. He does, however, eat and use the bathroom. In other ways, it reminds me of “Grosse Point Blank”; our hero is on the wrong side of the law but you root for him anyway. Plus there’s a potential girlfriend.
I was slightly irritated by the author’s re-invention of Dick’s as a Spokane landmark, but otherwise I enjoyed this book a lot. I recommend it to anyone who hails from a small town or a big city, votes Republican or Democrat, or just likes a fast-paced story incorporating both humor and violence.