Booksteve Reviews: The Only Criminal by Tim Lucas

 I’m on record as being a big fan of writer and former Video Watchdog editor/publisher Tim Lucas. Full disclosure, I have known Tim personally for more than three decades, although not well, and we don’t speak often. I recently reviewed a couple of Tim’s non-fiction collections of film criticism and had a great time going through them. I quote liked his relatively recent novel, The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes as well, and I’m a big fan of his first published novel, Throat Sprockets. In fact, my bookstore did his first autographing for that one. 

 

All of which leads me to say I’m sorry I really couldn’t get into Tim Lucas’s new book, The Only Criminal. The long text section accompanying the story details the book’s evolution and how important it was/is to him. For Tim, The Only Criminal is that book that everyone has inside of them just kicking, screaming, and clawing to get out. For most of us, it never makes it out but, in his case, here we are.

 

The premise of The Only Criminal is certainly unique. The story takes place in a world where there is only one bad guy and he’s responsible for not only all crime, but all music as well. He’s never named and only one person, The Only Witness, is known to have seen him and lived, and yet all the books, magazines, newspapers, and television shows are about him as well. Here begin my problems. How did the world get to such a point for one, but more importantly, how is it logical to anyone in that world in any way, shape, or form?

 

Okay, suspension of disbelief. It just is, somehow. Our protagonist, Dr. Paul Vaguely, is obsessed with the Only Criminal. Outside of work, his life is built around his obsession. Then one day, his work and his obsession converge as the one person to have seen the Only Criminal alive becomes Dr. Vaguely’s patient, and the world wants details. 

 

Soon, the world Vaguely knew changes in ways he can’t seem to understand, and he begins to realize that he has a higher calling…sort of, in a sense.

 

I like the premise. As untenable as it is, it’s original and intriguing. The back matter tells the reader how much effort went into the story over decades, which makes me feel bad about not being able to really connect with it in any real way. The author’s non-fiction is always learned and informative, understandable without talking down to the reader. His prose, here, feels overwritten and for the longest time we simply have the premise reiterated as we go through several sections of what feels like set-up, without even a hint of the book’s overall plot. 

 

Tim writes that the book was largely inspired by the works of the great French director Georges Franju, including Judex, starring Channing Pollock, and Shadowman, which, surprisingly, Tim saw double featured with The Stranger’s Gundownat Cincinnati’s International ’70 theater—the same time and place I saw it. Like Tim, it was only later that I discovered Judex but it became a real favorite of mine, too. 

 

The Only Criminal distills basic concepts from these influences without lifting them whole and mixes them up into a literary, literate stew of (pardon the expression) vaguely philosophical, satirical metaphorical, and metaphysical ruminations on life, love, and responsibility. While I admit there were points where it certainly did make me think, in the end I realized I wasn’t sure exactly WHAT I was expected to be thinking about. As I said above, we all have that ONE book inside of us that needs to get out. That doesn’t mean that said book will resonate with everyone who reads it.