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| Director's Cut : A Moses Wine Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Roger L. Simon
Publisher: Atria
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $22.99 (100%)
New (17) Used (34) Collectible (3) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 715780
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0743458028
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743458023
ASIN: 0743458028
Publication Date: June 24, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 11 | | NEXT » |
 Moses Wine, Movie Director???? December 11, 2006
I've read all of the Moses Wine books, and I enjoyed the movie "The Big Fix" a great deal; I think it's one of my favorite detective novels. Wine's an amusing character, a Berkeley radical who's by now bemoaning the fact that he agrees with John Ashcroft on certain things with regards to dealing with terrorists. Simon appears to be one of the liberals who was (as I read on another one of these people's blogs) "mugged by reality on 9/11". There were little hints of a more intelligent, less idealogical person peeking through even in the earlier books. Wine has always been more of a cynic than most idealists, and more pragmatic, too. You only have to read "The Big Fix" and get Simon's take on self-help gurus to know that he's not quite as trendy as most in Hollywood.
In the current outing, it turns out Moses is buddies with a group of Hollywood types who meet at the Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax. Anyone who's been there can imagine this sort of thing happening--I myself have seen actors in restaurants there, and I'm notorious for not seeing celebrities--and it lends an air of authenticity to the story. One of his Hollywood buddies is a TV guy who's going to make a love story about the aftermath of the Holocaust, only he's been having trouble while he's filming on location in Prague. He contacts Moses, in a panic, and insists that our hero get on a plane and fly there to see if he can stop the threats and pranks that threaten the movie.
Simon has a dry wit that's just about as biting as it can be, at times. From an FBI who questions a *Jewish* private eye about his contacts with the 9/11 hijackers to an Arab terrorist who wants his hostage to tie *him* up to a film festival that's 90% pretence and marketing, this is Simon's send-up of the post 9/11 world, and of Hollywood at the same time. Moses even takes a turn at directing the movie, and of course that turns out pretty funny, especially when it turns out he's not as bad at it as you might think.
I heartily enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it.
An Amusing Tale for Our Time January 24, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have read a couple of Simon's books, but I don't remember them being this clever. A private detective becomes a movie director. Quite witty. Wild Turkey (was that the name?) was also humorous.
(Some strange reviews on here with seemingly hostile motive perhaps? I don't understand what that is, but shouldn't Amazon have a way of dealing with this?)
 Stunning bad January 2, 2005
2 out of 36 found this review helpful
This book would have been merely a laughably sophomoric piece of poorly-edited hack fiction if it didn't try to promote itself as capitalizing on September 11th. The book will probably be historically significant only in that the author's fascination and glorification of such insidious real-world personas as Ashcroft and Freeh lends it a bit of Leni Riefenstahl kitch.
terrible October 30, 2004
7 out of 30 found this review helpful
I'd give this zero stars if that were an option. It is poorly written, poorly edited (there are a tremendous number of grammatical and spelling errors for a published book), and, most importantly for a thriller, it is just plain boring.
Don't waste your time on this garbage.
Director's Cut... Cut, cut, cut October 13, 2004
7 out of 30 found this review helpful
Like anyone who enjoys a good mystery, I was looking forward to this read especially having been recommended by Hugh Hewitt, a radio talk show host who had previously suggested works from Joseph Epstein and Daniel Silva. Both were great reads.
I should have been somewhat suspicious seeing only 240 pages, surely not enough to develop the characters, background and rich plot that often adds to pleasure of a good novel. I found the plot sophomoric, even laughing out loud not a the humor but the utter ridiculous situations. For example, why would private investigator Wine consider staying on with the production of a "B" rated movie that ends up on some obscure cable channels? Not only does he stay but becomes the director of this crazy movie. Perhaps some of Mr. Simon's humor was lost on me but too many times I found the plot farfetched.
If Mr. Simon were to remove a few choice swear words, this book might be appropriate for junior high school. They might appreciate characters like "Anna Rockova", yes Mr. Simon has seen several episodes of the Flintstones. My advise would be to "Cut" this one off at the pass and move on to more seriously researched terrorist mystery. It's no wonder that Mr. Simon must use a blog to help promote his work. Not worth the $16.95.
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