The Westing Game
The Westing Game is a super-smart whodunit. A Young Adult classic for over twenty-five years, this book didn’t even appear on my radar till recently when a reviewer of The Atomic Weight of Secrets mentioned it. Better late than never, I thought, and hunted it up at the library.
If you’re in the mood for an intricate puzzle book, this is worth picking up. The scenario is that sixteen people have been mysteriously invited to the reading of a millionaire’s will. His death is suspicious, and his will invites them to solve the puzzle by dividing up into pairs and following the cryptic clues he provides. The winner will be his heir.
It’s a puzzle book, but a two-dimensional puzzle isn’t the best metaphor for how the book works. It doesn’t supply pieces that gradually fit together into a whole picture. It’s more like a Rubik’s Cube, or maybe a holograph; your perspective gets altered with each new piece of information, and the ground is constantly shifting underfoot.
It’s an exceedingly clever book, but in all honesty it didn’t impress me as having much heart. There is some real insight into human nature, but somehow it doesn’t work to build much sympathy for the characters. All are a little odd (much like real people, perhaps?), but I never found myself really pulling for any of them. It was mentally engaging while I had it in front of me, but it didn’t haunt me in the between-times the way some books do.
6 Comments
Carrie, Reading to Know
This sounds really, really fun! I think I would like it, based on what you say here. I’m going to snatch up a copy when I find it! Thanks for the tip and heads up about it.
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
Yeah, it’s fun as an intellectual sort of game, but not memorable in terms of characterization. Have you read anything by Konigsburg? Somehow the writing is similar (at least to me), but hers has more heart.
Janet
I read ‘Mixed Up Files.’ All I remember is being totally frustrated with the main character. :-)
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
I was thinking about The View from Saturday. I don’t really remember much about it specifically, but for some reason I think it reminded me of The Westing Game. Keep in mind that I could be totally off with this impression since I have such a bad memory!
hopeinbrazil
Your review was right on the money. Clever, but missing that little something that makes you love a book.
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