Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "Four Kinds of Rain"

Robert Ward is a novelist and screenwriter. His first novel was the critically acclaimed Shedding Skin, which won the National Endowment of the Arts award for first novel of exceptional merit. He has since written seven more novels, including Red Baker, which won the PEN West prize for Best Novel of 1985.

His latest novel is Four Kinds of Rain, which he was kind enough to put to the "page 69 test." Here is what he found:

I took a look at page 69, and it turns out it's one of my favorite parts of the book. My hero Bob Wells has decided to steal a valuable, ancient mask, The Mask of Utu, and then resell it...but since he's not a crook, and has no experience in stealing anything, he has not a clue as to the worth of the mask. All he knows is that the mask is considered "priceless"...but what does "priceless" mean? Bob thinks of old movies, in which shady art dealers (the kind always played by Clifton Webb) say ancient objects are "priceless" but in those movies the crooked dealer always knows what the term means. Bob, however, doesn't know anything at all...until he learns on page 69 that Utu was once sold for between 9 and 10 million dollars. This fact stuns him. Can he walk up to a crooked art dealer, Colin Edwards, a guy who is ruthless and probably a killer, and demand between 9 and 10 million bucks for The Mask of Utu? Certainly not. The guy will either laugh at him or shoot him in the head.

This leads Bob to start thinking about the mask in another way. Maybe he shouldn't consider how much Utu is worth on the black market but how much he needs. This is almost a Marxist notion. "Each according to his needs." By page 70 Bob is thinking about the mask in this new way. Does he need two million, three, four? Pages 70 and 71 are an extended comic meditation on how much he thinks he needs. And, of course, the more he thinks, the more he thinks he has to have. He has started on his downward spiral into greed, madness and eventually murder. Right here on page 69.

So, yes, page 69 is very representative of the book, in that much of the novel is about Bob's rationalizations for his evil actions. Which is what I believe good crime writing is all about. Not so much about the crimes committed but the reasons and psychology of the criminals and the cops who apprehend them.

Thanks for being interested in my novel. Hope this helps explain what I am attempting to do in Four Kinds of Rain.

Thanks to Robert for the input.

Read an excerpt from Four Kinds of Rain.

The novel was one of Sarah Weinman's "Picks of the Week"--she called it "one of the most plausible noir novels I've read in some time." David J. Montgomery wrote, "Four Kinds of Rain is as black as a chain smoker's lungs, but it's also deviously funny, as Ward takes us into the mind of this very human, but very messed-up man. The plot is twisted and suspenseful, but it's the wonderfully original characters that really bring it all to life."

Veronique De Turenne reviewed Four Kinds of Rain for NPR's Day to Day.

Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times called the novel "Fiercely funny...as sharp and nasty as a paper cut."

Praise from Ward's peers includes:

"Four Kinds of Rain is a great read. Robert Ward has created a darkly comic masterpiece that keeps you thinking long after the last page is turned."
-- Michael Connelly

"Four Kinds of Rain is feverish and funny, an end-of-the-dream novel that could only have come from the very talented, slightly twisted mind of Robert Ward."
-- George Pelecanos

"Noir for the lost. Heartbreaking, hilarious and oh so beautifully written. A renegade prose poem to the loss and regret we carry like the best rock 'n roll music, full of beauty and despair with the gonzo gift of sheer immediacy."
-- Ken Bruen