Thu 12 May 2016
A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review: JACK FINNEY – The House of Numbers.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[8] Comments
by Marcia Muller:
JACK FINNEY – The House of Numbers. Dell First Edition A139, paperback original, May 1957. Expanded from a novella in Cosmopolitan, July 1956. Film: MGM, 1957, with Jack Palance, Harold J. Stone, Edward Platt, Barbara Lang.
Jack Finney has the unusual ability to create edge-of-the-chair tension and sustain it throughout a long narrative. In this riveting tale, Ben Jarvis and Ruth Gehlmann conspire to help Ben’s brother, Arnie, escape from San Quentin. Arnie, who was sentenced for passing bad checks while trying to raise money to buy Ruth an expensive engagement ring, has attacked a guard; there is a paroled prisoner on the way back to San Quentin to testify about the assault, and the penalty for attacking a guard is death.
Arnie appeals to Ben for help and lays out a dangerous but basically simple scheme for escape. Ben wavers but finally he and Ruth agree to aid Arnie. The scheme unfolds bit by bit, and the reader is solidly on Ben and Ruth’s side throughout, experiencing their apprehension and terror — and eventually agonizing over the same terrible decision they face.
Finney knows San Quentin, although his view of it is colored by his association with then-warden Harley O. Teets, a humanitarian administrator to whom the book is dedicated. (In fact, the dialogue of the fictional warden reads a little like a public-relations release.) However the method Finney devises for the escape is ingenious, and characters are well drawn. The suspense, as with all of Finney’s works, is guaranteed to keep you turning the pages.
Although best known for his science fiction and fantasy works, such as the popular Body Snatchers (1955), which was twice made into a film under the title Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, 1978), Finney has also written three other suspense novels: Five Against the House (1954), Assault on a Queen (1959), and The Night People (1977). Five Against the House was made into an excellent film in 1955, starring Kim Novak and Brian Keith, and directed by Phil Karlson.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
May 12th, 2016 at 10:37 am
Reading these reviews makes me realize what a valuable reference 1001 MIDNIGHTS is. Thanks for reprinting them, and I’m sure glad I have a copy of the book.
May 12th, 2016 at 12:06 pm
Even more thanks to Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller for allowing me to post them here. I’ve said so several times over, but it always bears repeating.
May 12th, 2016 at 12:16 pm
To me, the name Jack Finney brings up memories of his stories of time travel and alternate, parallel worlds to ours. Either way, these tales are filled with a certain romantic (as I recall) nostalgia for the past. The title of one book I know I’ve read is THE WOODROW WILSON DIME, which in itself conjures up all sorts of possibilities.
May 12th, 2016 at 12:50 pm
I have to second the 1001 MIDNIGHT’s praise.
Re Finney, he was particularly ingenious at the caper novel, which at least three of his suspense novels are (this, ASSUALT ON A QUEEN, and FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE, I haven’t read THE NIGHT PEOPLE). I always hoped he would one day combine sf and caper novel just to see what happened.
ASSAULT ON A QUEEN was also a film with Frank Sinatra, Virna Lisi, Anthony Franciosa, and Richard Conte.
Justifiably he is best remembered for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and his bestselling TIME AND AGAIN. I think his last book was the long awaited sequel to TIME AND AGAIN.
May 12th, 2016 at 1:19 pm
I love the original novel THE BODY SNATCHERS (or, strictly speaking, the update he did in the ’70s to tie in with the film remake) but its very popularity does seem to have skewed the way that he is perceived by the reading public. He does tend to be seen as a fantasy author, but as the caper novels show, he was just as good at that sort of thriller. I have paperback copies of ASSAULT ON A QUEEN and FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE, but they are both from the early ’60s. As far as I know they have been allowed to fall out of print, which is a terrible shame.
I have to say that one of my favourite short stories is by Finney. CONTENTS OF THE DEAD MAN’S POCKETS is a straight thriller, and absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, like his other non-fantasy stuff , it is much harder to find.
May 12th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
I enjoyed this book despite its outlandish premise. Wrote about it on my blog three year ago. Finney was a great storyteller. Pretty imaginative which is the most underrated resource of any writer of fiction. I don’t think there are many imaginative writers anymore. Everyone strives for “realism”. “Pfui” to that, to quote Nero Wolfe. Keep meaning to track down the movie version with Jack Palance as the two brothers.
Nitpicking correction (forgive me): First timeslip novel is TIME AND AGAIN –excellent in its richly detailed social history, the sequel is FROM TIME TO TIME. Haven’t read the second book but I’m sure it’s just as well researched.
May 12th, 2016 at 2:36 pm
I was so impressed by TIME AND AGAIN that I was convinced one could really go back in time if one followed the directions as outlined in the book. I think I had a cold when I read it so I wasn’t thinking clearly.
May 13th, 2016 at 1:02 pm
Randy,
I had the same reaction, just not the will power or wherewithal to try the experiment. Finney makes it so believable you start to think that it would work if you just followed the instructions and had that coin.
J. F.
FROM TIME TO TIME isn’t quite as good, but only because the impact of the first book isn’t there, otherwise it is one of the better sequels of its sort.