FFB; A PLACE OF EXCECUTION: Val McDermid

 

As I am suffering from a stomach flu, I will just say this is the best mystery I have ever read. What is your favorite? (You only get to pick one) 

Wednesday Short Stories: The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, Harlan Ellison

 From Randy Johnnson

 Forgotten Short Stories: The Whimper of Whipped Dogs – Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison is hardly a forgotten writer, but I’m working under the assumption there are people today that haven’t read him. They should go right out and find anything by the man. He’s a writer worth reading. I’ve written about him before HERE.

My selection for the first edition of Patti Abbott’s Forgotten Short Stories is THE WHIMPER OF WHIPPED DOGS, the story of a woman brutally murdered in a courtyard while residents watched, not one responding to her cries for help, not even calling the police. The story concerns the aftermath and the decision the young woman protagonist, one of the watchers, makes at the end of the story.

It was inspired by the true life murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. A news story two weeks later reported on the non-response of neighbors to the brutalization that went on only a hundred feet from her apartment door. Stabbed twice, the attacker left, only to return ten minutes later to continue the assault.

The report may have been in error, no one knows for sure anymore. Nevertheless, it inspired a powerful story from Mr. Ellison on the general malaise enveloping people living in the city, the constant violence on TV, the mind your own business attitude of to many of us. It won the Edgar for best short story in 1974, one of the many awards(to numerous to list here) his writing has won in a long career.

It’s easily available in numerous editions.

1. Bad Moon Rising, eidted by Tom Disch: first appearance and reasonably priced with a little search
2. Deathbird Stories: good prices
3: Dreams With Sharp Teeth: omnibus containing Deathbird Stories, Shatterday, and I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream. A nice introduction to the man’s stories for anyone new to Mr. Ellison’s work
4. The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective and the expanded 50 Year Retrospective 

 Kevin Tipple

Jerry House 

TracyK 

Monday, Monday

 I have become quite fond of LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM, a reality show about people with autism trying to find love. All of them seem to have been raised to be very polite. Maybe things like manners are easier to teach than how to have a conversation. Anyway, you can't help but root for them. And their parents. 

Also watching ROOSTER, HACKS, MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES, and a show on PBS with people in the UK trying to find their parents (or children). Most of them were adopted during the time when those records were hidden. 

Reading SHE READ TO US IN THE AFTERNOON, Kathleen Hill and some short stories by James Lee Burke. 

The weather is still unpredictable.

How are things there?  

Went to an art show at Cranbrook. Cranbrook is a school, art museum and lovely grounds. We all find it hard to identify with installation art, which students mostly seem attracted to.  I know photography brought representational art to a crossroads but looking at a table full of broken pottery does not do much for me. Or the recreation of a sixties living room. 

FFB-NO RETURN ADDRESS, Anca Vlasopolos

 

Anca is a good friend of mine, but I didn't know her well when I read this wonderful, sad, intelligent book. It recounts her flight from post-war communist Romania, to France, to Belgium, and finally the U.S. It tells about the persecution and death of her father in that communist period too. It is an honest account of the good and bad she and her mother found in the Detroit area. This is an excellent text on how to write memoir. And how to tell the story beautifully even when the events are not. 

Short Story Wednesday: "No Pain Whatsoever" Richard Yates from HIGH INFIDELITY

A friend had this anthology in duplicate and gave me a copy. I don't remember seeing it before but it's from the nineties. Richard Yates was a favorite writer of mine, but I don't remember this story. Lots of the nineties most popular writers are included: Russo, Atwood, Updike, Banks, et. 
It takes place at a TB hospital. Do they exist anymore? A woman is visiting her husband who seems to have been there for a long time and through many surgeries. A friend has driven her there and she is having an affair with another passenger. This must happen often when your spouse is at a place like this for years. She has brought her husband some magazines, which he is anxious to read. She breaks down after her visit but then her lover cheers her up. What an odd story. 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

TracyK 

Todd Mason 

Monday, Monday

I went to see THE CHRISTOPHERS and could barely make out a word. I thought it was my hearing but at the end of the screening, a man rose and asked if anyone else had trouble hearing the dialog. So I guess it was not just me. Is it likely the film itself or the theater's equipment. This is not the first time this has happened. 

We still have had barely a day without rain. 

Watching HACKS, MARGO's GOT MONEY TROUBLES, THE STORE (Wiseman doc about Neiman Marcus.

About to start a new book, but what? 

What about you?