Review: Toughness, decency, and heart go together in this powerful police story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 25, 2012
Toughness, decency, and heart go together in this powerful police story.Superbia 2 continues to develop the stories of tough but caring cops who want to do right, who use a combination of daring and black humor and camaraderie to survive a world that presents them with nothing but trouble. In the office, they are surrounded by rats, suck-ups, and moronic bosses; in the field, they confront killers and thieves. Their relationships suffer; their health suffers; their hearts are strong. It's impossible not to be moved.Bernard Schaffer swears that the events in Superbia and Superbia 2 are all made up. I know that he's telling the truth. The man is no liar; he's a straight arrow, as good as they come.Yet, as you read about his protagonist, Officer Frank O'Ryan, you feel as if you are reading a policeman's autobiography. Everything feels intensely real and true. This is the great quality of literature that my patron, Aristotle, describes so well as a demand of drama -- to give the feel of truth and believability by the use of craft. Observations of human behavior in this book are so sharp, so keen, from Chief Erinnyes' denial of his self-destructive life, to Officer Reynaldo Francisco's good-hearted naivete as a rookie, to small touches like the racist remark of a K-9 cop, or the ludicrous attitude of an officer playing World of Warcraft Online while on duty in a trailer in the sticks, that it is almost impossible to believe it isn't real, that it didn't happen, that Bernard Schaffer is one of the most inventive and satisfying craftsmen ever to write about the police. No, it didn't happen, but this fictional dream is still the truth. Bernard Schaffer is no liar.I received an ARC of this book.