Monday, Monday

 Kevin at 15. Some day he will look up!

Nearly finished my rewatch of MAD MEN and watching Don Draper self-destruct is as powerful as watching Walter White do it on BREAKING BAD. What flawed men they both were. And I will add watching Saul Goodman (Jimmy) do it on BETTER CALL SAUL is also gripping. Can't wait to see its resolution tonight but I will miss it. There has to be a story of a woman self-destructing but I can't come up with one as dramatic as these. Well, perhaps the prime minister on BORGEN, whose name eludes me. But she steps back from the edge.

RESERVATION DOGS is as good as ever. 

Enjoyed THE TWELVE CHAIR, which I have never seen before. Boy, Frank Langella was a gorgeous young man. I think his looks may have handicapped him in a time when we liked craggy leading men (Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfus, Jack Nicholson). A very cute movie.

Rewatched CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD and again was struck by William Hurt's distinctive acting style. You never forgot his performances. 

Reading the Michael Robotham book, WHEN YOU ARE MINE. He writes females so well. And although the first scenes are very familiar, he makes them fresh. Next weekend 1.5 million people will be below my windows watching THE DREAM CRUISE. Hopefully, I will be in Grand Rapids looking at quilts! The noise was intolerable this weekend, as people are already tail-gating. Making your exhaust system make noise shouldn't be allowed. Crotchedy old lady says. This cruise goes on for sixteen miles and includes nine cities. Read about it here. http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/

What about you? 

FFB: TRAP FOR CINDERALLA, Sebastian Japrisot

TRAP FOR CINDERELLA, Sebastien Japrisot

This is one of those books that depends on taking you by surprise and it is difficult to review it without divulging details that will detract from that pleasure. A girl wakes up in a hospital. She has just undergone plastic surgery to fix the burns she sustained in a fire at her house in a French resort. Her friend has died in the blaze. Or is she the friend? She can't remember much, including who she is. A third woman seems to play a role in both scenarios.

The book plays with this idea--who died and who survived. It is a moody, atmospheric
book--reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith. The book won France's most prestigious fiction award. It is short and dark. Read it when you are fully awake and not drowsing in bed or you won't know who is who either.

 

 

 

Short Story Wednesday: THE STORY OF AN HOUR, Kate Chopin

https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/ 

"The Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin was written in 1894. 

This is a three-page story that begins with the line, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death."

Her husband has been killed in a train accident and Mrs. Mallard immediately cries on hearing it, but asks for solitude and goes into another room. Over the course of the next hour, she suddenly sees the world outside her window as a more beautiful place. She embraces the new freedom that will be hers. "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering. 

She will not just be the handmaiden of her husband but can embrace a life with activities that interest her.  She is a young woman and it is not too late to make her way in the world. The yoke that marriage puts around her neck is broken.

And then the door opens, and her husband comes in. He was not on that train. 

Mrs. Mallard has a heart attack and dies. 

There are lots of discussions of this story online. Some writers believe Chopin could only get this story published by having her punished at the end. No one at the time would accept a good woman could rejoice (somewhat) in her husband's death. I don't know if I feel her death is necessary or not. How would the story end otherwise? Would she pretend to be happy her husband is okay? Or would she begin plotting his future death now that she understands herself?

A beautifully written story that says so much in three pages.

Kevin Tipple

TracyK 

George Kelley 

James Reasoner

Monday, Monday

 I am listening to Stanley Tucci's memoir called TASTE: MY LIFE THROUGH FOOD. It centers on the meals enjoyed by his Italian-American family growing up north of NYC and the years following. The recipes are wonderful, but there is no way I can eat like this. He must belong to the just a taste of it club because he is thin. He has the most wonderful forearms I have ever seen (based on his show on CNN). Also I can not imagine spending the time necessary to make some of these recipes. And each day many of them were served.

Food did not play a big part in my childhood. My mother was an indifferent cook and liked us all to be thin. Which we were. A pound of meat was more than enough for four and a frozen package of green beans was too.  I think we lost a lot by not enjoying food together. I can only think of one dish of hers I ever tried to repeat and it still was nothing special. I am not a great cook, but even cooking for myself I try to make a dinner I want to sit down to. There was not a cookbook in our house and the only spices were cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Surely there were others but I can't remember them.

How about your childhood! Was food a big part of it?

Also reading the newest Peter Robinson mystery. I think I have read them all, which is unusual for me nowadays. I have the new Michael Robotham at the library if it ever cools off enough for me to walk there.

It has been such a hot week here I have barely been outside. I would have to walk to the park to sit outside and it just doesn't seem worth worming my way through the construction to get there. A real deficit of this building is there are no sitting areas outside.

TV-Still watching the super-creepy BLACK BIRD. FOR ALL MANKIND has sort of lost my interest even though lots of stuff has happened this season. ONLY MURDERERS IN THE BUILDING also seems lacking. It probably is me.

And rewatching MAD MEN, which is my favorite show ever. Watched a great documentary on Kanopy about the Hollywood photography coming out of the agency Magnum.

Please notice this.  http://jerryshouseofeverything.blogspot.com/2022/08/catherine-keane-house-march-7-1949.html

What are you up to?

FFB: Small g, Patrica Highsmith

 (Because it's always worthwhile reading a review by Deb again)

Small g: A Summer Idyll by Patricia Highsmith (Review by Deb)

Patricia Highsmith’s Small g: A Summer Idyll was published posthumously in 1995.  In fact, it had been rejected by Highsmith’s publisher just a few months before her death.  Perhaps the publisher found the book so atypical for Highsmith that they weren’t sure how to market it.  Certainly it does not contain the oppressive sense of dread and foreboding that is a hallmark of much of Highsmith’s work.  With its roundelay of love affairs and heartbreak involving a large number of people, Small g put me in mind of some of Iris Murdoch’s novels of the early 1970s (without the philosophical trappings, however); and I think this work, as unlike anything else that Highsmith ever wrote, is a fitting coda for her body of work and perhaps even goes some way toward humanizing a woman who even her closest friends had to admit was a very difficult and demanding person.

Set in Switzerland during the 1990s, Small g covers a few eventful summer weeks in the lives of an interconnected group of lovers, friends, and acquaintances—some gay, some straight, some still finding their way—who live and work in the same Zurich neighborhood.  The hub of this circle is a local restaurant-bar called Jakob’s, designated in local guide books with a lower-case g to indicate it caters to a mixed gay and straight clientele.

Most of the events in the book are filtered through the perceptions of Rickie Markwalder, a middle-aged commercial artist who is still recovering from the grief of losing his young lover, Peter, to a stabbing some months before.  Police believe Peter was the random victim of a botched robbery committed by drug addicts looking for money, but Rickie is not so sure.

Within Rickie’s circle is Luisa Zimmermann, a young apprentice seamstress who has run away from an abusive family and was in love with Peter.  Although her love for Peter was unrequited, Luisa remains close to Rickie, at first because it helps her feel closer to memory of Peter, but eventually she and Rickie become good friends.  This friendship is a morale booster for Luisa, who lives with and works for the dominating Renate Hagnauer, an ugly homophobe who none-the-less spends several hours a day at Jakob’s.  By a combination of emotional blackmail and controlling the purse strings, Renate keeps Luisa under her thumb.  Renate also poisons the mind of Willi, a mentally-disabled handiman who repeats and believes the gossip and rumors (which almost always reflect badly on gay individuals) that Renate relays to him.

Into the mix come some more people:  Teddie Richardson, a young Swiss-American man who becomes an object of both Rickie’s and Luisa’s affection; Dorrie Wyss, a vivacious lesbian who finds Luisa attractive; and Freddie Schimmelman, a married, bisexual policeman who begins an affair with Rickie.  Freddie is presented in an interesting way--his marriage and his other relationships are depicted in a very matter of a fact manner; his sexuality hardly an issue.

With the main characters in place, and lots of others in supporting roles, the story can begin in earnest.  It all starts with an attack on Teddie Richardson and Rickie’s single-minded pursuit of the culprit. Freddie uses police connections to help prolong interest in a case that the police would undoubtedly have allowed to go cold.  The reader knows who attacked Teddie (and Rickie has very strong suspicions), but will the police ever have sufficient evidence to charge the person?  Meanwhile, Luisa must skulk around, making secret telephone calls and even using Rickie as a go-between in order to meet with either Teddie or Dorrie, or even to slip out of the apartment for a cup of coffee with someone other than Renate.  It all sounds a bit soapy, but Highsmith’s sure hand and attention to detail keep the plot running efficiently.

If I have a quibble with the book it’s that we really never see into the emotional lives of the characters; we can only guess at their motivations.  We can deduce that part of Renate’s homophobia (and overbearing, protective attitude toward Luisa) may stem from her own suppressed lesbianism, but Renate never reveals that aspect of herself.  Also, we can infer that Rickie pursues Teddie’s attacker because Peter’s killer(s) were never caught, but Rickie never lets that element of his pursuit come to the forefront of his emotions.

At this point, I must also address an act committed by Rickie’s doctor that is so unconscionable as to be both illegal and baffling [SPOILER]:  The doctor tells Rickie that he is HIV-positive and allows him to continue believing this for several months, even though the doctor knows this is not the case.  The fact that both the doctor and Rickie (and, apparently, by extension, Highsmith herself) think that what the doctor has done is fine and “for the patient’s own good” is mind-boggling to me and reinforces my belief that, whatever her virtues as a writer, Patricia Highsmith is not someone I could have personally liked.

Eventually, an accidental death, sets the plot spinning into an entirely different orbit.  Ends are tidied up a bit too neatly perhaps, but there’s a sense of the characters reaching certain points in their lives and have learned lessons (some rather harsh).  The summer idyll is over and life continues on even when the weather changes.

 

Short Story Wednesday: "Winter Light" James Lee Burke

 You can read it here. https://www.jamesleeburke.com/winter-light/?fbclid=IwAR3ExWObQYtL3hN-VAHXvfhwCaiJzSDzlxcMrKV9eqpiKOJ5vQcKXdN1BDc

 

At the Traverse City Film Festival, the founder's prize was given to a film called GOD'S COUNTRY, which was an adaptation of James Lee Burke's story "Winter Light." 

In the original story, a professor at a Montana college, newly retired, confronts two townies who are parking on his land as they hunt. The story escalates as the adversaries rev up their game. The story works very well because of the gorgeous writing, the setting, the plot and characters. And the director God's Country originally made a short film, which stuck pretty closely to this original scenario. 

But when Julian Higgins decided to go on and make a full-length film of the story, he made many significant changes.He changes the professor from a white retired man to a still -working Black woman (Thandiwe Newton). The woman was a cop in New Orleans before she came west with her mother. Higgins adds a lot of complexity to her character as well as to the hunters. He adds a town sheriff into the mix who is unable to deal with the hunters. Although I liked the story very much, most of what Higgins added made it a more interesting story to me. See what you think if the film comes your way. 

Kevin Tipple

Jerry House 

George Kelley 

Todd Mason

Monday, Monday

 

Mostly good to very good movies. Especially liked GOD'S COUNTRY based on James Lee Burke's story "Winter Light" and SORRY I MISSED YOU, (Ken Loach) and BAD AXE. The crowds were almost as big as previous years although there were less films and fewer venues. The weather was sensational and we had several excellent meals. So lucky to get away for a week in terrific northern Michigan.  Masks varied but not enough for my peace of mind.

Reading NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney. Watched not a minute of TV this week. 

What have you been up to?

Traverse City Film Festival 2022

 

 Off today. Back next Sunday. Twelve movies. Crossed fingers I don't catch, you know. I am so lucky to have free lodging with a friend.

FFB: IRON GATES, Margaret Millar

The Iron Gates was Margaret Millar’s fifth novel, published in 1945. It introduced Inspector Sands of the Toronto police force. Millar (who was, of course, Ross Macdonald’s wife) didn’t use Sands in her novels often, and The Iron Gates was not one of her more famous crime novels. The Edgar Award-winning Beast in View (1955), How Like an Angel (1962), and The Fiend (1964) are the three books for which she’s probably best known. Although Millar is not well-remembered nowadays, devotees find her writing particularly rewarding. She’s especially skillful at portraying women, although her stories are very different from those of writers known for targeting female audiences.

Millar’s greatest strength was in exposing the psychological underpinnings of a crime. Her books are more about motivation than detection. What appealed to me most as I read her novels back in the 1970s was that her writing was never formulaic or predictable. Her best work is found in the standalones. Even Sands, a charming and fully fleshed-out detective, never steals the story from the women who dominate The Iron Gates entirely. It’s not about the detective.

Lucille Morrow lives with her wealthy physician husband, his two grown children, and his sister, Edith, in a large house in Toronto, Ontario. Lucille is Andrew’s second wife. His first wife, Mildred, was murdered in a nearby park 16 years earlier. That case was never solved. The two stepchildren, Polly and Andrew, tolerate their stepmother. And she tolerates them. This uneasy rapprochement begins to come undone when Polly, along with her father and brother, goes to pick up her new fiancé, a soldier who’s coming to Toronto to meet the family. A train crash complicates their trip, but they return home later that night.

The next day, Lucille suddenly disappears after a visit from a strange man carrying a small wrapped box. The last that is heard from her is a scream. She is eventually run down by the Toronto police and her condition is such that she’s institutionalized. This action, mainly occurring in the Morrow household, forms the first section of the novel, which Millar labels as “The Hunt.”

The middle section, “The Fox,” details Lucille’s state of mind as she hides from an assailant, the police, or perhaps her own fears in a mental hospital. The reader is unsure which she sees as the greatest threat. Her involvement with other patients turns out badly. Much of this section of the novel describes her mental anguish, and the reader is left to ponder whether Lucille is the victim she appears to be. Who or what is after her?

The final section of this novel, “The Hounds,” details Sands’ solution to the crimes that have taken place. This section is again largely set in the Morrow household and concerns a diary newly unearthed. Giving away any more plot points would ruin the delicate nature of Millar’s story.

It’s hard to imagine this book being written today, because of its lengthy depiction of a mentally fragile woman in an institution. Today, Lucille Morrow would be prescribed an appropriate drug. Or perhaps she’d be under the daily care of a psychiatric nurse at home. Nevertheless, Millar uses the middle section of The Iron Gates to provide clues, and to do what she does best: show the unraveling of a psyche. It’s also the section of this book that makes Millar’s storytelling different. We go from the calm, if slightly hothouse, feel of the Morrow home in section one, to the agitated madhouse of section two, and then back again.

This novel was apparently purchased after World War II as a vehicle for actress Bette Davis, but was never filmed. I think she would have done justice to Lucille Morrow. However, after reading The Iron Gates, you will understand why the movie wasn’t made.

 

Short Story Wednesday; "Hills Like White Elephants" Ernest Hemingway

 

Ernest Hemingway wrote this masterpiece when he was 28 years old. It always amazes me when someone has such a great understanding of what makes a terrific story at such a young age. And short stories sometimes require more skill in this regard than novels. And this is a very short story.

A couple are at a train station in Spain, midway between Madrid and Barcelona. They are drinking a lot and gradually it emerges he is trying to talk her into have a procedure done. (Nothing specific is mentioned but what else could it be). They talk about the scenery, the hills in particular, how many alcohols taste like licorice. He talks a lot, trying to persuade her of something and she asks him (several times) to stop talking so much. We know he is an American and her name is Jig and not a lot more. We can tell they have been traveling together for some time by the stickers on their luggage. Now my interpretation may be different from yours. There are a million websites that discuss this story. Clearly Hemingway edited this down to the most minimal story he could tell. And it is great because of that.  What do you think? Who wins the struggle? 

Kevin Tipple

Jerry House 

TracyK

George Kelley 

Monday, Monday

I was surprised at how much I liked TOP GUN: MAVERICK. It is not at all my kind of movie but they did a great job of fleshing out a real story, with real characters, humor, action and excitement. I think this will be a real contender for an Oscar. 

I also watched the 1930s version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH-which was quite good until the last 15 minutes which were all a shootout. 

My street continues to be the biggest mess you've ever seen. And the rain this week has made it worse. They have fashioned various ways to navigate it on foot but they change from day to day. Coming home at 10:30 the other night, I couldn't figure it out at all until a teenager pointed the way.There are huge holes to fall into. 

Still watching THE OLD MAN but it's a struggle for me. I don't have the brain for spy drama. Instead I prefer THE BEAR. I am re-watching MAD MEN (even better than I remembered) and BETTER CALL SAUL. What will happen to Kim? 

Also struggling to find a novel. I went to the library to try to find a Peter Turnbull set in York but they only had the other series. I just can't read on a kindle. I look at all the books I have downloaded and how few I finished. I can't exactly say why. 

I am trying to get back to writing and am rejoining my old writing group, which is now on zoom because so many of them have spread out. I have 80 pages of a novel. Would be nice to finish it. 

What about you?

FFB: Deathtrap, Peter Turnbull

(From Richard Robinson)

 

Deathtrap by Peter Turnbull, Severn House 2000 hardcover, mystery, police procedural. 2nd in the Hennessey and Yellich series, set in York, England.

review from Kirkus Reviews:
“Yet another of the author’s absorbing procedurals, this time set in the city of York, where Detective Chief Inspector George Hennessey presides over the Micklegate Bar Police Station when local retiree John Smith, taking his usual walk on the edge of the Whickham Great Wood, comes across the body of freelance reporter Cornelius Weekes, an apparent suicide, in a closed, fume-filled car. When a painstaking autopsy by Hennessey’s close friend Dr. Louise D’Acre proves the death to be murder, Hennessey begins an exploration of Weekes’s recent movements. He soon links the case to the death 18 years ago of Donald Round, another reporter. Both men, Hennessey learns, had been examining the case of Melanie Clifford, imprisoned for the murder of her long-time lover Toby Erickson’s wealthy wife Charlotte. It’s soon clear to Hennessey that John Cross, the long-retired police detective who first headed the Erickson investigation, had deliberately ignored evidence in Melanie’s favor. Now, 18 years later, Hennessey and sidekick Detective Sergeant Yellich are convinced of Melanie’s innocence and set out to prove it.”

After reading a review of one of the books in this series — don’t recall where just now — I went looking and found an ex-lib copy, which I read just last week. I really enjoyed it, especially the characters. I’ll be looking for more of this series.

 

Short Story Wednesday: THE NEW YORKER Fiction issue

 

Four stories and four pieces titled Road Trips. I have read two of the road trip pieces so far. 

In one "In the Beforetime," the author (Yiyun Li) contrasts two trips to author's homes (Larkin and Dickinson) in two countries. A family on the train on the way to Hull (Larkin) is not abiding by the "quiet carriage" rules. The second trip never happens because life intervenes with his plan. He comes to the conclusion the family's noise was not very important given the ending of the second trip. Would this satisfy an editor looking for a short story? He (She) probably would have had a slightly more definite ending. But maybe not. I am not even totally sure this isn't a short story.

"Night Driving" (Uwem Akpan) details a Nigerian man's traffic stop outside Vegas. Of course, we are very worried about this one turning out badly too. The cop is clearly suspicious the car is stolen because it is a Saab and the plates are out of state. The Nigerian man is asked to come to the rear of the car. I will leave it there. Both stories are distinguished by the writing more than their content.

Most of the stories feature road trips or travel, which makes sense for a summer issue. 

Kevin Tipple

TracyK

George Kelley 

Monday, Monday

 

Two terrific plays in Stratford. Lovely weather. Using my ArriveCan app turned out to be easy too. Going to Canada is indeed entering another country, one that is sane and never changes very much Except they keep installing more and more roundabouts. Oh, and they have installed boardwalks along side every restaurants so pedestrians do not need their sidewalks and they can put more tables outside. Most people wore masks at the plays but not much elsewhere.

Reading SLEEPWALK by Dan Chaon. Still reading DEAR EDWARD too.

Went to see the Spanish film OFFICIAL COMPETITION which was funny but not wholly satisfying. Comedies in a foreign language work less well than dramas for me. But still a good movie. 

Watching end of Better Call Saul. And the hearings, of course. 

So much beautiful weather.
How about you?

Today I am picking out what films to see at the Traverse City Film Festival. As usual, they lean toward Michael Moore's POV. It is his party after all.

R.I.P. Rick Robinson

For anyone who has not heard this, an email from Barbara Robinson shocked and saddened.. When I began this blog I had no idea we would lose so many friends over the years. But that was partly because I never imagined my blog lasting 15 years. I think if you want to correspond with Barbara, you could leave a message on Rick's blog. So sad.

From Barbara:

As Rick said in his e-mail below that there would be updates, I am sending one on his behalf. Once I figure out how to post a brief comment on his blog, I will. He would not want to leave out any of his blog/book friends.

I am not good at sharing sad news but wanted to let you know that RicK passed away last Thursday morning in Bend, OR. He had been airlifted from the Portland hospital, as they could not locate a Neurosurgeon and ICU bed locally for him immediately. I was able to be over there with him. 

Complications from metastatic cancer was their final conclusion. We did not see this coming.

The cats and I will be fine; it is all too fresh to even process right now. I am thankful I had 16 years of life and love with that wonderful man. He’s at peace now.

Off To Stratford

 

This is the Festival Theater, one of the three lovely theaters at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. I managed to download and fill out the ARRIVECAN app and hopefully we will sail through the customs at the Blue Water Crossing in Sarnia, ON, CA. I have some trepidation since Covid numbers are on the rise. Masks are not required but encouraged and I will wear mine. 

We are seeing HAMLET (has to be my tenth time) and CHICAGO (probably seen it twice before). My friends are also seeing RICHARD III but I doubt I would get much out of seeing two plays in a day. All of these productions have gotten great reviews. 

Have a great weekend.

Monday, Monday

Hard to feel much like celebrating the Fourth this year. My favorite restaurant sent this email out. 

            Leon & Lulu and Three Cats

                  Closed Monday, July 4, 2022

This is not a time for the usual celebration of our country's hard won freedom and independence. In light of recent rulings, we believe it is a time to reflect and take a stand against the freedoms we have all just lost and those we stand to lose soon: as individuals, as families, women and men. For the love of our nation, we are choosing to take this day to pause from business as usual. We wish you a good holiday.     I do admire a commercial business bold enough to put this out there.   Anyone feeling celebratory this fourth?

FFB; THE MOVIEGOER, Walker Percy

 (from 2011)

The Movie-goer by Walker Percy

This book won the National Book Award in 1962. It is a brilliant exploration of a young man searching for both a way and the inclination to live a meaningful existence. Binx Bolling has returned from the war, taken up a job as a stock broker, and spends most of his spare time seducing his secretaries and attending movies. The story takes place in a New Orleans that seems totally Southern and certainly far from the New Orleans we think of today.

A lot of the book examines a certain notion of exceptionalism and honor southerners had at that time. Binx is repeatedly reminded of this by his aunt and various other characters in the book. This is the sort of book you will think about long after you close it. What Binx does to alleviate the ennui he suffers may not be persuasive as a cure, but it requires him to put himself and his narcissism aside.


I was a great Walker Percy fan once upon a time. Some of his work has fantastical or science fiction elements: The Thanatos Syndrome and Love in the Ruins being two.

Short Story Wednesday, "My Mother's Yellow Dress: Ann Packer from MENDOCINO AND OTHER STORIES

Ann Packer is known for her best seller A DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER, which came after her first collection, MENDOCINO AND OTHER STORIES. 

In "My Mother's Yellow Dress," the narrator, a gay man who has just lost his mother, remembers a party from his youth. His mother, clearly a handful but beloved by him, wears a very short and very sharply yellow dress at a party his father hosted as Head of the English Department. The marriage ends sometime after this and his father goes to California where his son rarely sees him. 

This is a coming of age story, where Buddy is watching the drunkenness and sexual behavior of adults for the first time.  He is embarrassed and perhaps titillated by what he sees.

 A homeless man, hungry, also plays a part in the day. This story could have been an episode of MAD MEN. You have to work a little to put it together, to see what the author is trying to say. It moves a bit through time too with scenes between Buddy and his adult lover who are making their way through the AIDS crisis. The writing is very good but perhaps a bit too many strands for a short story. 

I liked CLAUSEN'S PIER when I read it. An interesting premise of a woman whose fiancee is paralyzed after a dive and the dilemma of leaving a paraplegic. 

Kevin Tipple

George Kelley

Monday, Monday

Another alarming week on so many fronts, but let's not go there. 

I am looking forward to Megan's visit on 7/1-7/3. Hoping her plane is one of the few that seem to arrive on time. These very short trips don't allow much wiggle room.

I went to see Phantom of the Open because I like Mark Rylance and the reviews were good but it was truly awful. Who makes a two hour movie about a guy who plays his first round of golf at the British Open. It was a Monty Python skit at best. This is the second goofy British movie I have seen of late. Desperation prevails. Put a movie theater down the street from me and this is the result. There are so few movies for adults this summer and like climate change it will probably get worse. 

Enjoying The Bear (FX and Hulu). I always liked Lip on Shameless and he really gets to shine here. Also watching Dark Winds and rewatching Mad Men. Also The Split

Reading The Good Detective (John McMahon) and Dear Edward. 

Listening to Somewhere in Time, Richard Matheson. So much better than the movie.

So what's going on with you?

FFB. WHEN THE KILLING STARTS, Ted Wood

 (reviewed by Bill Crider in 2012)

Reid Bennett is the entire police force in tiny Murphy's Harbour, Ontario, Canada.  Of course he gets a lot of help from his German Shepherd, Sam.  While he's on vacation, he's approached by a woman who asks him to find her son, who's joined an outfit that supposedly trains mercenaries.  Bennett is a little reluctant, but he agrees.  Before long, he's on a wilderness adventure that involves lots of shooting and a serious wildfire.  He recovers the son, but that's just the beginning, as Wood starts springing the plot twists.  

If you're looking for villainous villains, lots of action, a little sex, and a very cool dog, you've come to the right place.  There are a few plot problems, not the least of which is the faithful Indian companion deus ex machina, but Wood's writing is strong and his pacing is exemplary.  Bennett is a hero like Jack Reacher, tough, strong, and sure of himself.  I'd think Reacher's audience would like him a lot.

Ted Wood is a Canadian author who had a good bit of success in the U.S. with this series.  I believe there were ten books in all.  He wrote a couple of others as Jack Barnao, and I liked those, too.  He might not be completely forgotten, since I believe the books are available for Kindle. 

Short Story Wednesday, "Detroit Skyline, 1949" from SHILOH AND OTHER STORIES by Bobbie Ann Mason

 

Of course, it you are about to choose a story in an anthology and you see one with your hometown in the title, that is probably the one you will choose. Bobbie Ann Mason won awards for this collection of stories and the novel that followed it, IN COUNTRY. She was an especially influential writer in the eighties and was known for her use of KMART realism where she peppered her stories with specific names and titles-something wasn't done as much before her. In other words, she replaced a name like Five and Dime with Woolworth's. This can be overdone, of course, but on the whole I like specificity, do you?

"Detroit, Skyline, 1949" is the story of a visit by a mother and daughter from Kentucky to Detroit, where family members have moved for better jobs. Nine-year old, Peggy Jo (probably Bobbie Ann) is especially eager to see the sky-scrapers. It turns out the city buses are on strike and the family has no car so this dream is not realized. The differences between life in rural Kentucky and urban Detroit get a lot of attention and the TV is a new thing for Peggy Jo. A lot of the story also concerns the "red scare" going on at that time and how unions were blamed for introducing socialists into the factories. Her mother has a miscarriage during the visit and Peggy Jo is a bit overwhelmed by so many issues. Perhaps I was too. This story seemed to have one too many themes for its own good. But the writing is always great and her characters jump off the page. The title story is especially terrific in this collection. I have not read any of her more recent books, has anyone? 

Kevin Tipple

Jerry House

TracyK 

George Kelley  

Neer

Monday, Monday

 

Saw this strange movie at a theater. It's a sort of spoof about the minutes missing on Rosemary Wood's record of Nixon's conversation. It didn't work for us and we were the entire audience. Plus the sound system in this tiny theater was not good. Or maybe it's partly my making do with one hearing aid as they replace the battery. 

Went out to lunch in Metamora, a town of 600 people and maybe more horses. The White Horse Inn has been there in one form or another since 1850. This is unusual in the Midwest.

Have been watching the films referenced in YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS PODCAST on the erotic eighties. So I have watched NO WAY OUT, DIRTY DANCING and a few more. 

Also watching THE OLD MAN (Hulu), where Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow give a master class in acting. Also FOR ALL MANKIND and DARK WINDS.

Strange weather -- two cool days following two hots ones. Looks like more high heat on its way.

Reading THE PLOT (Jean Hanff Korelitz)  but slowly. THE NEW YORKER had such a great issue that has been keep me busy. 

Watching the hearings and finding it horrific.

What about you? 

 

Happy Father's Day!

 

FFB: ZIGZAG, Bill Pronzini

  Ed Gorman's last review...

ZIGZAG    

   You can’t fake it, the kind of mastery Bill Pronzini shows in all his writing, whatever the genre, whatever the length.  And his years of writing Grand Master-level material inform every single line and scene in this new collection. Included are two new novellas and two short stories well worth reprinting. 

   The novellas are equally strong. “Zigzag” demonstrates that the simplest of mishaps—a minor accident investigation—can take you places you may not want to go. Nameless really earns his private eye money on this one. 

  The melancholy truths of “Grapplin’” shows us the emotional power that underpins so much of Pronzini’s most celebrated work over the years even though it also manages to be filled with kind and gentle truths. On this one Nameless shares the spotlight with his new business partner Tamara.      

   The two short stories are strong and fresh. They illustrate that no matter what form Pronzini uses, he makes it his own.  

   My favorite here is “Revenant.” Pronzini has always done well by the supernatural even though he is certainly a skeptic.      

   What we have a here is a spin on road rage. A strange man named Antanas Vok piled his car into an embankment, blaming Peter Erskine and his wife Marian for the crash. Witnesses say otherwise. Vok’s wife dies in the accident and Vok stands there screaming threats at the Erskines. He will make sure that they will be dead, too.

     A year later, Vok is still stalking them and they are scared. The police have been no help. Lately the harassment has taken a turn into the occult.

     The black host is the Satanic version of the Roman Catholic host. When you touch it the residue sticks to both your fingers and your clothes.  Vok has sent them a black host to show them his power over them.

     Supernatural power? Erskine doesn’t believe it and neither does Nameless. Marian Erskine can’t decide what she believes.  

    Oh, and there’s one other small problem. How can Vok be sending them black hosts when he’s been dead for some time?   

    Nameless is surprised when he meets Marian who spends a good deal of her time in a gazebo-like creation that could only be found in the type of posh gated community the Erskines live in.

   Marian turns out to be substantially older than her husband and very frail. Namesless notes that in today’s one percent culture it’s all right for older women to have trophy husbands. Peter isn’t exactly a pretty boy but close. Marian’s obvious drinking problem adds just one more confusing psychological layer to the meeting. 

    The Erskines beg Nameless to take the case and ultimately he chooses to because the fee they offer him is so good and he’s just so damned curious about what’s really going on here.

    This is the way to tell a supernatural story—sardonically.  Pronzini show us that no matter how bizarre the world of the supernatural is, the human world is always stranger.

   A five star collection. Perfect for a wide range of readers.   

    

Ed Gorman

 I have been asked to write a short piece about Ed Gorman for the next NoirCon program. If any of you can add something to this, please do. Scott Cupp is doing a remembrance of Bill Crider. Thanks.

Short Story Wednesday: From The Best American Short Stories of 2021: Switzerland, Nicole Krauss

 This edition was edited by Jesmyn Ward. 

I have never read Nicole Krauss before although a friend recently passed on her novel, THE HISTORY OF LOVE. Why did I choose this story? That question interests me: how do people pick the story to start with. In this case, it was the third one I tried. As usual, the George Saunders one was hard to get into. I was tempted by two writers I did know: Kevin Wilson and C. Pam Zhang but eventually this won out. 

It's the story of a teenager who is placed in a school in Switzerland, mainly to get her out of the way while her father finishes a trauma course in medical school. Too young to board at the school, her parents find her a room in a boarding house (kind of amazing that a 13 year old would be on her own) where two other girls also board. They are older than her (18) and are toying to various degrees with their sexuality. The more interesting, Soraya, is Iranian and is having an affair with a banker but is also engaging in relationships with other men. Our narrator is fascinated by this glimpse into adult life and this has impact on how she goes on to see herself.  She sees the power Soraya can wield but also its limitations.

Soraya disappears one night and her father flies in to look into this. An engineer to the Shah, he has sent his daughter to Switzerland with its promise of safety. Soroya returns and the threesome soon is separated. Our narrator looks for her off and on but never finds her. Our narrator admires Soroya's recklessness but it doesn't suit her in the end. 

"She (Soraya) had gone further than anyone I knew in a game that was never only a game, one that was about power and fear, about the refusal to comply with the vulnerabilities one is born into." 

Jerry House

George Kelley

Monday, Monday

Had a nice trip to DC except for the two bad flights--not Delta's fault. Apparently we can expect more turbulence due to climate change. But on the flight there, the flight attendants hit the deck on a real jolt, lightning struck the gate, the airport closed for a few minutes and our luggage took two hours to unload. Delta gave us 5000 miles though. Other than that though I had great weather and a nice time. Always a great place to visit.

Rushed over to catch Benediction on my return. Sure is nice having a theater two blocks away. Although getting there with this construction is a challenge. They have marked out a path for pedestrians, but it is very muddy from the work and rain. When I complained about this the foreman said, "I can't install grab rails in the air, Lady."

Watching FOR ALL MANKIND on Apple and BORGEN on Netflix. Also started IRMA VEP.

Broke down and ordered AMC+ but it seems like I can only play the last two episodes (5 and 6) of BETTER CALL SAUL. Anyone know how to access the first four episodes of Season 6?

 

Rewatched THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, after an interview with Alan Arkin on Criterion. A real cast of character actors of that era in this film. I had forgotten half of them.

The scariest thing I've seen ever was the first night of the January 6th hearings. So glad that guy took videos from multiple angles. 

Cancelled my trip to Bouchercon. I think those days are over for me. I never found it easy to navigate once Phil wasn't with me. (Even when he was). And I can't tail Megan because it's business for her. 

I feel like reading a certain kind of mystery that I can't quite put my finger on. I was reading a journal of short stories from 1992 and I realized how much the writing style in short stories  at least has changed and how much I preferred the style back then, which was clear and straight forward. No multiple POVs. No multiple time frames. I am a simple reader, I guess.

(Found a novel. The new Emma Straub. This Time Tomorrow. Yay!)

So what's up with you?

FFB: THE PLASTIC NIGHTMARE, Richard Neely

(Ed Gorman from the archives)

I've written before about Richard Neely. He wrote standalone crime novels that pretty much covered the entire range of dark suspense. I mentioned that in the best of them the weapon of choice is not poison, bullets or garrote. He always preferred sexual betrayal.

Plastic is a good example. Using amnesia as the central device, Dan Mariotte must reconstruct his life. Learning that the beautiful woman at his bedside all these months in the hospital--his wife--may have tried to kill him in a car accident is only the first of many surprises shared by Mariotte and the reader.

What gives the novel grit is Neely's take on the privileged class. He frequently wrote about very successful men (he was a very successful adverts man himself) and their women. The time was the Seventies. Private clubs, private planes, private lives. But for all the sparkle of their lives there was in Neely's people a despair that could only be assuaged (briefly) by sex. Preferably illicit sex. Betrayal sex. Men betrayed women and women betrayed men. It was Jackie Collins only for real.

Plastic is a snapshot of a certain period, the Seventies when the Fortune 500 dudes wore sideburns and faux hippie clothes and flashed the peace sign almost as often as they flashed their American Express Gold cards. Johny Carson hipsters. The counter culture co-opted by the pigs.

The end is a stunner, which is why I can say little about the plot. Neely knew what he was doing and I'm glad to see his book back in print. Watching Nerely work is always a treat. 

Short Story Wednesdays

 Kevin Tipple

Jerry House 

TracyK

George Kelley 

Monday, Monday

                      Visiting my brother, Jeff. Stay well and let me know what you are up to. ..

First Wednesday Book Review: MONTANA 1948, Larry Watson

Although I am pretty sure I reviewed this before, I could not find it on here. So since I read it again, I will review it. It is one of my favorite books, maybe my most favorite. It has no weaknesses that I can see and all of the things I like most in a novel:
 

A single narrator, a first person point of view, a small number of characters, an injustice that's addressed, a rural setting, it takes place before technology changed our lives, good characterizations, short length, great writing.

David is an only child living with his father, a sheriff, his mother, and a native American woman, Marie Little Soldier, who helps out since both his parents have day jobs. Also in the picture are grandparents and an uncle and his wife, and a deputy. The uncle is a doctor who has cared for most of the townspeople since he returned from the second world war, a hero. David's Dad had a bad leg that kept him at home. 

When Marie falls sick and they call for the doctor, David's uncle, she refuses to see him. It is soon revealed he has been abusing her as well as other Sioux women for years. His exact actions are not spelled out. 

After this the book is mostly about how the sheriff handles his brother's crime. Will he hide it? Will he prosecute? Much of the pressure to overlook it comes from the grandfather, who almost views abuse of these women as his right. The family and the white townspeople do not see the native Americans as quite equal to them and deserving of the same protection. Even David's father admits he does not like "Indians"

There are a lot of things that enrich this narrative. The problem of the son who stayed home from the war, disappointing his father. How to handle a crime in your own family if you are a law enforcement officer, what your child will take from all this. How to do the right thing and what that right thing is. Is what is right absolute or does it change over time and place.

This is a terrific book as I have said.

For more book reviews, see Barrie Summy

Short Story Wedneday:"Others of His Kind" James Sallis, PHOENIX NOIR

 What are some of the authors you go to first in an anthology? Or is it the length of the story that draws you in? Or perhaps the title? Or its placement in the collection?
With me, if I see the name James Sallis, I will go to his story early on. 

This story had an odd feel about it. Slightly unfinished, like it was part of something bigger, which it turned out to be. In lesser hands, this might have made the story suffer more than it did. But because Sallis is such a master at creating characters, situations, locations, descriptions, it only felt incomplete in a few spots.

A cop asks a woman if she might be willing to speak to an abused girl the department has found. At first she refuses. Her back story turns out to be one of abuse too, and then escape and then years of living alone in a mall and then the typical social services trauma. She eventually goes to see the girl. 

We don't know why he came to her, nor why the few things she said to the abused woman would count for much. Where are they going at the story's end?What makes the story are the details of her abduction and her time as a twelve-year old living in the mall. And the writing, which is terrific.

But because he has made his characters real to us, we don't mind too much. And I will probably look for the novella this became. Because these characters are compelling and that's the trick. 

Todd Mason

Kevin Tipple

Jerry House 

George Kelley