The Penguin Press / Penguin Putnam
US Hardcover First Edition
ISBN 978-1-59420-211-7
Publication Date: 02-23-2009
280 Pages; $25.95
Date Reviewed: 06-13-2009
'The Manual of Detection' is not what it pretends to be. It is neither non-fiction, nor is it a manual. Indeed, the title refers to a fictional work of non-fiction referred to and often quoted in the novel, which both pretends to be and is — and is not — a classically-styled piece of hard-boiled noir. Nothing, it seems, is what it seems to be. The world we live in may be a novel, the works of non-fiction that hold our lives may be a farrago of lies, and our dreams may be more dangerous than the drudgery of our everyday lives. Jedediah Berry is more than a clever craftsman; he's a master criminal out to steal your dreams, or even more ominously — to bring them to life, your life.
For all the metaphysical ingenuity that underpins 'The Manual of Detection,' the novel and the telling are quite straightforward; at least to begin with. Charles Unwin works in a city where it always rains, for The Agency. He's clerk, a nothing, a non-entity even in his own formulations, and quite happy in that role, though he does have his eccentricities. Lately, he's been taking the long way to work, to watch a woman in plaid board a train. Today, however, is not his lucky day. The detective for whom he correlates notes and closes cases has gone missing. Unwin has been promoted, and his first case is to find his detective, Travis Sivart, the man who solved so many famous cases; "The Three Deaths of Colonel Baker" and "The Man Who Stole November 12th." And all this without even being given the limited edition of 'The Manual of Detection.'
Berry's prose is rain-slicked and grimy, detailed and compelling. Once you start the novel, you'll feel the presence of the city, even though it will never be named. Berry's flowing style surrounds and enfolds the reader, suckering you into a world almost like the one you inhabit. In some ways, it's more real, in some ways, it's less real, and in every way it is surreal. There's a real cinematic feel at work at well. After reading this novel, you'll be able to look up the rain-slicked sides of the Agency's skyscraper, you'll be able to wander through the rubbish-strewn aisles of the Travels-No-More Carnival, and you'll stroll through the Museum in the after-hours hush.
While 'The Manual of Detection' starts out seeming as if it is a sort of surrealized-amalgam of every noir ever written, Berry's plot quickly goes places you will not expect. What start out as hints of unease and impenetrable shadows are soon filled in by a cleverly constructed plot that takes Unwin at least two steps beyond any reality the reader might hope to reside in. From the get-go, it's clear we're in no-City and every-City, the mythic sum of all the mean streets that were ever mapped in the written and film noir worlds. And Berry admirably works within that genre, until he manages to slip right and into the metaphysical dream worlds that inform our so-called "realistic, hard-boiled" detective fiction. This sort of writing has always been a dark dream of the City; Berry takes that idea literally, and conjures up a literary work to suit the facts of the dreams and the dreams of the facts.
None of this would work if it weren't for Berry's characters, who really stick in readers' minds. Unwin is not really a likeable guy, but he's a compelling character. He really doesn't want to be a detective, even though as a reader you love him as a detective. His sidekick, so to speak, Emily Doppel, is first met asleep at her desk, but she quickly becomes so loveable that you'll be hard-pressed not to think of which actress you'd want to play her in the movie. Travis Sivart is the man who isn't there, and yet, you'll want him on your side. Enoch Hoffman tends more towards the Saturday matinee side of things. He's the bad guy, but at least he never cackles.
There's no denying that 'The Manual of Detection' is more unusual than you might expect or even (at first) want it to be. Berry's mythic invention of a noir made real leads one to understand just how unreal such constructs were. Readers expecting purity of any form will be disappointed. This is not a simple noir, nor is it a weird work replete with the fantastic. Instead, the hard-boiled and the very weird work together to take readers to a new place altogether. You turn the pages and start to dream of the City. Whether or not you ever wake up from that dream is a mystery that is more easily stated than solved.
New to the Agony Column
03-29-10: Commentary : S. T. Joshi Flies on 'Black Wings' : Mario Guslandi Reviews 'Black Wings' by S. T. Joshi
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Jo Nesbø, Part 1: "I liked the look of the book, it had a pig's head on the cover."
03-26-10: Commentary : Jack Bowen Peels Off 'If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers' : A Brief History of Thought
03-25-10: Commentary : Michael Pollan Lays Down the Law : 'Food Rules' — The Pocket Palate
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Terry Bisson Interviewed at SF in SF on March 13, 2010 : "I'm an open source guy, if they want to do it, it's all right with me ..."
03-24-10: Commentary : Dexter Palmer Recalls 'The Dream of Perpetual Motion' : Steampunk Tropes, Literary Fiction
03-23-10: Commentary : Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Cook Up 'The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals' : Set Your Inner Evil Monkey Free
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Malinda Lo Interviewed at SF in SF on March 13, 2010 : "My version of Cinderella does not have a fairy godmother..."
03-22-10: Commentary : Steven Erikson Breathes 'Dust of Dreams' : Penultimate Malazan?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Stephen S. Hall : "..receptivity to new or contradictory knowledge is really important..."
03-19-10: Commentary : Adam Nevill Inherits 'Apartment 16' : Home is Where the Hell Is
03-18-10: Commentary : Stephen Kessler Follows 'The Mental Traveler' : Bad Trips and Good Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Alta Ifland and Stephen Kessler : "I had to do it; it was a way of both coming to terms with the experience, of documenting the experience, of commemorating it..."
03-17-10: Commentary : Ted Chiang Charts 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects' : Joshua Blue, Digital Chimps and Lives in Flux
03-15-10: Commentary : Elif Shafak Reveals 'The Forty Rules of Love' : Intimacy and Centuries
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Elif Shafak : "I know that culture that exists in my country, that is carried on by women, generations of women."
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
