The Bruen Cure

Sometimes, when you have the feeling that your life is hydroplaning out of control, it can help to read or watch something about someone far worse off than you.

Now it has to be fictional, I'm not talking schedenfrude here. I'm talking watching Alex Cox's "Sid & Nancy" and feeling emotionally healthy and oh so clean afterwards. Or, as a more recent example, reading Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels. Taylor is one unholy mess of a man. A former Guard kicked off the force for giving the beatdown to the wrong VIP, he staggers through the streets of Galway scraping by as an ersatz investigator. An alcoholic drug addict, Taylor gets beaten to the point of death at least once in nearly every book and he hates his mother. But Bruen is so skillful Taylor has all our sympathy. Both protaganist and author are avid quoters and namedrop more than Dennis Miller (funny pre 9/11 Miller, let's be clear) and the cast of "The Gilmore Girls" combined. Bruen also seems to be obsessed with grouping things in threes and

typing
them
like this.

Surely that drove some editor, somewhere absolutely crazy but they're still in there. Gotta love that.

One word of caution about this cure-it's powerful medicine. As with all powerful medicines it should be taken with care. One book at a time. I made the mistake of taking The Killing of the Tinkers and The Dramatist on my trip and reading them back to back.

Big mistake.

I was left, as Taylor might say, gobsmacked. So please check the Taylor books out but use caution.