Like a Hole in the Head

by Jen Banbury

Book Overview

It all starts when Jill, a part-time bookseller with a dangerous wit, buys a first edition Jack London from a shifty-looking dwarf -- and then unloads it for a nice profit. Jill's luck turns sour fast... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316171107
• ISBN13: 9780316171106
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Style and wit

I stupidly told the ladies at my local mystery book store that I rarely enjoy mysteries by women. To atone for this callous remark I agreed to read each of their favorites. Of the three, this on stood out. I thought Jill was a hoot. The character resonated with me. The dialogue popped pretty well. The plot was fun, not the usual, deliberately paced, whodunit with just enough twists to qualify it as a mystery. The plot slipped and slid around just like life.First rate.

How can you not like this book?!

I loved this book. Sure it is a ridiculous plot with more unbelievable circumstances than the traditional novel will allow--but this isn't your traditional novel. Banbury pulls off her story with the strength of her characters. A heroine for those of us who don't always like who we are and where we are headed, but have faith that it will all work out in the end. Don't over-analyze the realism of the plot--just go along for the ride.

Breath taking.

I am not a fan of reading books, because some books take too damn long before they get to the point. However, Like A Hole In the Head, is so fast pace, i want to jump out of my pants. It is extremely satisfying from the start to the end.

Want to laugh out loud?

I wrote to Jen Banbury to let her know I laughed out loud on the subways in NY. She wrote back and said many people told her they laughed out loud on trains and planes while reading this book. I bought it for friends who also love it! I hear Calista Flockheart (Ally McBeal) is up to play the part in the film version. What do you think? I don't know. Anyway, great book, very funny...

Maltese Falcon meets Marx Brothers

Like a Hole in the Head is that rare piece of fiction that you can't put down. I let 15 people read the first page and all of them wanted to borrow the book when I finished, and several said they were going to buy it that day. It's also one of those memorable books, like Catch-22 or an early Garrison Keillor, that made me laugh out loud and not be able to continue reading for a while. There are pages and pages of passages that I email and read to friends, even on the telephone, even long distance, particularly the Monster Truck episode. Banbury is a screaming original, even as she uses all the noir devices from crime fiction and pulp movies, which she should know since in real life she casts cheap movies. She'd better be set for interesting times and be good with handling money, because she has written a book that she can take to the bank and to Hollywood. It's only a matter of time before Quentin Tarantino or Robert Altman buys this book for the screen, if it hasn't already happened. The plot: Jill, a resilient yet emotionally broken recent college grad has landed a job in a seedy used bookstore, the Bitter Muse, after driving around aimlessly when her mother dies. From there, it's a purely original story, part slapstick mixed with crime (a truly terrifying kidnapping scene), sort of Maltese Falcon meets an updated Marx Brothers via a smuttier and sassier Dorothy Parker. Like a Hole in the Head is a first novel from a young Yale grad who works in Hollywood. Maybe that's why the book is so scripted and movie-ready. But it doesn't matter. Let's have the movie.