Thinner

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From AudioFile
A fatal accident leads to a gypsy curse and Billy Halleck's efforts to remove it. It's a great plot, but Joe Mantegna disappoints the listener with his clumsy pacing and uneven characterizations. Mantegna's New York crime king, his old gypsy and Halleck characters, while skillfully done, cannot overcome his poor job with the several females in the book. Neither does he capture the nuances of French-Canadian dialect in Old Orchard Beach nor the subtleties of the upper-crust Connecticut accent. Not surprisingly, he also commits the dreaded "Banger" pronunciation of the author's home city. The poor narration of this volume cannot be saved by the startling and appropriate musical accents sprinkled throughout the story. What a disappointing performance of a top-notch thriller! R.P.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
Six weeks after an old gypsy man curses Billy Halleck for sideswiping his daughter, he's ninety-three pounds lighter. Now Billy is terrified-and desperate enough for one last gamble that will lead him to a nightmare showdown with the forces of evil that are melting his flesh away.


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''Thinner'' is very bad. It is not just bad because it overindulges Mr. King's mannerisms of employing brand-name and vernacular cliches. It is also bad because its story about a Connecticut lawyer forced by a gypsy's curse to lose weight endlessly is sloppily plotted and morally confused. . . . He has the instinct and the style and the God-given ability to tell a story. If he would only rid himself of the gimmicks - if he would only stop reaching for effects and take his instincts seriously - he could perhaps be considerably more than simply a certain type of writer. -- New York Times


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