Gascoyne

by Stanley Crawford

Book Overview

Meet Gascoyne, a man who spends whole weeks in his car, eating, sleeping and conducting his business via mobile phone. Gascoyne has found a new preoccupation--hunting down the killer of his business associate (last seen slithering away from the crime scene in a tree-sloth costume), and finding out how the southern California megalopolis has suddenly slipped out of his grasp.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585677396
• ISBN13: 9781585677399
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Part of the Family

GASCOYNE was long a family favorite as I was growing up. We had three copies, and my aunts and uncles had several more. I first read GASCOYNE some thirty years ago, and my brother, sister, and I still refer to it frequently. Perhaps the biggest testimony I can give to this marvelous book is that my grandmother, when she became terribly ill with a chronic disease, kept two books at her side -- the Bible and GASCOYNE. Late at night I would hear laughter coming from her bedroom, and I'd find out that she had again been reading GASCOYNE. One of the requirements of marrying into our family was that the potential spouse had to read GASCOYNE first. Said person didn't have to like the book, but exposure to Stanley Crawford's writing offered valuable insight to our family's humorous side. To know GASCOYNE is to know my heritage. I'll have to respectfully disagree with the other reviewers regarding the ending of this book. Throughout the book, it's amazing to watch the character GASCOYNE orchestrate the goings-on in the city -- he has his fingers in everything. As things begin to unravel and ultimately fall apart in the end, you just KNOW that the master of control is going to be able to pick up all the loose ends and start all over again. Crawford hints at that, and I think it's beautifully done. There's something to be said for leaving the details to the reader's imagination. In a great sense, the ending will be different for each reader, depending how the reader views GASCOYNE. I don't think it's a cop out; I think it's brilliant writing. All right, it's time for me to read GASCOYNE again!

Well, It's Different

GASCOYNE is the title of Stanley's Crawford's 1966 dark comedy; it is also the name of the protagonist and anti-hero at the center of the novel. (GASCOYNE's name always appears in all caps). To me, GASCOYNE is a cross between the movies Harold and Maude (VERY dark) and Airplane! (a million different jokes). The basic plot of GASCOYNE is simple. The protagonist controls a southern-California city that resembles Los Angeles. During the course of the novel, however, GASCOYNE uncovers the murder of one of his colleagues. Subsequently, GASCOYNE's entire corrupt empire is threatened and he must race to try to save his ill-gotten position as the city's oligarch. GASCOYNE controls the city from behind the scenes and few people know much about him. Crawford provides the following description of GASCOYNE - "...perhaps only as few as a hundred people in the city can be certain they have ever seen his face, and still fewer have spoken with him. Who is GASCOYNE? What does he look like? Where does he hide? Does he even exist? Many of us think that we have seen him every day - a paper-thin old man driving an old car which in its day was just a little too flashy - but no one is ever certain" (page 218). With GASCOYNE it's fair to say that the journey is much more important than the destination; the plot is secondary to the wicked satire that fills its pages. It would take too long to list all of the targets of Crawford's mirth; a few major targets include: 1) Business - GASCOYNE's world is completely corrupt and he uses any means available to get and keep an edge. 2) Southern California's traffic - GASCOYNE has an elaborate systems set up to keep his car rolling on the clogged roads. Among other things, he has timed all of the stop lights in town, he refuses to stop at toll booths, and he controls the traffic police. 3) GASCOYNE's complete lack of empathy for his suffering wife - GASCOYNE sends his wife into the mountains in a clunker car to do some research on one of his business problems. It becomes obvious to the reader that she is having an affair during her trip; but GASCOYNE's tunnel vision does not permit him to see it. Instead, he harasses her about not spending any more money than is absolutely necessary and about completing the research for him. Though I recommend GASCOYNE, there are a few negatives. I thought that the book lost some momentum in the middle. Once you understand GASCOYNE's perspective, the jokes just aren't quite as funny because they become more predictable. I also agree with the other reviewer who said that Crawford had no idea of how to end the book, so he just quit; the reader feels somewhat unsatisfied at the end. For readers who want to try something very funny and very different, GASCOYNE is still a wonderful book.

A gem of the sixties

I read this book many years ago and still, from time to time, have a quiet laugh to myself thinking about it. It's one of the most original plots I have ever come across and I wonder why no-one ever made it into a movie. It belongs in the same bag as Terry Southern's Magic Christian for its wickedly black humour, but adds in an Odyssey story line that keeps you enthralled all the way to the end. The (anti-) hero is Gascoyne, an aging operator who secretly runs a small town from the front seat of a beat-up car with the aid of Ritz crackers. Constantly on the move as he runs his patch, he radios back instructions to a telephone operator who is his only line of command. But lurking in the background is a manacing and growing danger that threatens to usurp Gasgoyne's position....I lost my original copy years ago, so I live in hope of finding another.