Anonymous Rex

I like the smell of old books, like nothing else in the world, so I get the majority of my books second-hand. Some come from Bookhaven, my favorite used book store in the city, run by my favorite booksellers. The rest are half books, trash books,* inheritances, and thrift finds. Wednesday’s entry is from a thrift store in Jamaica Plain, Mass., Boomerangs.

With a title like Anonymous Rex, of course I had to buy it. To sum up: dinosaurs didn’t go extinct, they continued to evolve and adapted to live alongside us in increasingly elaborate guises, while we remained none the wiser—for around two million years. Well, except for that dragon debacle during the dark ages. Also, herbs are drugs to a dinosaur. A quick trip to a farmer’s market and you’ve got your Stego by the tail, so to speak. The prehistoric revisionist premise is to be accepted as fact, straightaway. Garcia sidesteps the easy tactic of tedious, patronizing dialogue delivered by characters who already know the facts by which they then must pretend to be shocked,

“Well, since we’re dinosaurs, it turns out we lay eggs.”
“You shut the f- -k up, really!?”
“Yes. You’re laying one right now!”
“Well, I’ll be danged.”

I've read that sort of thing enough times that I appreciated the matter-of-fact way my suspension of disbelief was encouraged. The world reads well and nothing else is completely unbelievable. It isn’t a strange, alternate reality, (though I’ve seen that done too). There are no superpowers granted to the dinos and they’re not the behemoths they once were so I don’t have to accept hologuises or invisi-shields—I was easily taken along on the ride.

This is a typical detective tale with telltale lingo like, “At the very least, I’ll save a fin on cab fare." There’s little here however, in the way of stereotypes, that isn’t the fault of genre writing and the plot moves quickly, if a little predictably. Vincent Rubio, PI, is an embittered, substance-addicted, poor-as-a-dirt-floor detective, determined to find justice for his ex-partner if it’s the last thing he does. The twists, backstabs, and intrigues come at the expected intervals but the dinosaur element really does keep it interesting and it’s a good dose of pop-fiction. There’s energy in his writing and the glee of a longtime detective fan mixed with the excitement of a kid walking into The Museum of Natural History for the first time. His enthusiasm to be telling this story is catching and overall, it made for a fun read.

Because of the dinosaurs. I really like dinosaurs.

Aside from the terrible lizards, there was one more thing that automatically endeared him to me:

“As expected, I did not reach dreamland even once. … I would lurch back into the bedroom...and attempt to drift off into slumber, which never came. The sandman is a lazy shift-about. I hate him.”

It’s good to know that even velociraptors are insomniacs.

Results:
Title: Anonymous Rex
Author: Eric Garcia
Page count: 273
Time: almost five and a half hours! Including several breaks to be distracted by the internet, lay around with Professor Charles Xavier, and generally loaf.


Thursday: TBA, possibly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


*"Trash-" a prefix, can be used to describe anything found on curbs, in boxes, in piles, etc. on trash night. It's a big deal around here. I have trash furniture, many trash books, and my old housemate even used to bring home trash food, which I thought was taking the second R just a bit too far.