I always find myself more critical of books I simply pull off the shelf in the bookstore.It's as if they owe me more for their being picked at random, as if their cover were false advertising if they don't sing in my hands.It was with this in mind that I was first skeptical of The Dart League King.Morris' premise is all well and good:small-town guy Russell Harmon lays his self worth on his performance in one dart match with a former dart champion.But then came the clichés.Russell snorts cocaine on the first page, and reveals his debt to a small-time drug dealer by the third.He lives in his mother's basement and can't hold a steady job.His ex-girlfriend walks into the bar, and Russell repeatedly compares her breasts to grapefruits.By the end of the first chapter I was ready to see if I could return the book to Barnes & Noble, get my money back.
I read on, however, and got hooked.Dart League King is a thriller wearing the bulky overcoat of literary fiction, and once you get past Morris' need to overwrite, it's an entertaining read.The intersections between his characters--one an anal-retentive DEA agent, the next a lovingly psychotic drug dealer--are real and well rendered.
Two elements of the novel left me unsettled long after I put the book down.The first is a gratuitous subplot about a recent college grad embarking on a career as a serial killer.The second is Morris' seeming inability to convincingly write female characters.Beyond the attractive young woman at the bar (she sleeps with two characters in the course of the novel), the only other women here are an all-but-faceless drowning victim and a sexless shrew of a wife.If Morris can write complex and interesting male characters, he ought to give the reader a bit more with his female ones.
All in all, I am glad I picked Dart League King off the shelf.I recommend you do as well, though I can't guarantee you won't suffer some buyer's remorse.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Dart League King: A Novel (Paperback)
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