FFB: THE GRIFTERS, Jim Thompson

 

I've been told for years if I like Charles Willeford, I would like Jim Thompson. Well, I liked this book a lot, but there is not an ounce of humor in it unlike the Hoke Mosley books. The writing is terrific and what a trio inhabits these pages. It begins with Roy Dillon getting clubbed in the stomach. He is a grifter, a man of mostly small cons. His mother and girlfriend form the trio and it's hard to say whose the most noirish but I am betting on Lilly, his mother. This has so much atmosphere, and good settings and great dialog, you can hardly turn the pages fast enough. La Jolla never seemed so dark to me. Like a play almost, each of these characters has their own little story and the other back away and let them tell it. 

Short Story Wednesday: MUTTER, Esther Yi from the New Yorker

 

A mother has traveled from Korea to visit her daughter who lives in the US. now. She works in a zoo and takes her mother along with her one day. They are especially interested in Zelzah, the last California Condor who lives in the zoo. The animals are now arranged by how endangered their species is. She encourages her mother to walk the length of the zoo while she does her job in security. Later they have dinner and the mother combs the daughter's hair. She then tells her daughter that she has come to tell her daughter she's been diagnosed with dementia. The daughter tells her that she will care for her but the mother refuses it. "Understand that your human mother has gone away. Don't try to find her in what I've become. Only then is there a chance you will love me still. 
Is there any of us who doesn't have a relative or friend suffering from this? 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Monday, Monday

 

Those balloons are a major part of YIYI. You forget how much fun a kid can have with a simple thing. This was a terrific film about a year in the life of a Taiwanese family. An awful lot of screaming and angst. Not much fun. I also saw SEND HELP, which was good. It is streaming on HULU. ALSO POWER BALLAD at the theater, which was likable if not compelling. 

I am binging LANDSCAPE ARTIST OF THE YEAR (On Prime). Love seeing the amazing British countrysides.

Reading THE GRIFTERS by Jim Thompson. Excellent writing, not sure if it will get too violent for me but the signs are there.  So many writers I have never read-David Goodis among them. 

Weather is up and down, sunny and then not.  

What about you? 

FFB: A GREAT DELIVERANCE, Elizabeth George

 

A Great Deliverance is the debut novel by Elizabeth George, published in 1988, and the first in the Inspector Lynley series, introducing the aristocratic Thomas Lynley and his working-class partner, Sergeant Barbara Havers, as they investigate a brutal murder in the Yorkshire Moors where a woman confesses to beheading her father. The book won multiple awards, including the Agatha and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, and explores the complex relationship between the two detectives as they uncover dark secrets in a seemingly peaceful village. I read much of this series and enjoyed the dynamics between the very much have Lynley and the have-not Havers. It also was a wonderful TV series, perfectly cast.  At some point, I fell out of reading it. Perhaps because the books were very long. Anyway, this first one was great. 

Short Story Wednesday: "Flipflops" from HIGH INFIDELITY, Robert Boswell

 

A couple, who are both straying for the first time, go to the beach. As the man is trying to tell a joke, the woman notices someone in distress in the ocean. The man, a strong swimmer, joins the drowning man's friend, in trying to save him. They both fail. As the couple is leaving the beach he notices his purple flipflops are gone. Then he notices a woman stumbling away, wearing them. He demands she return them and then figures out she is the  wife of the drowned man. The couple is unable to consummate their afternoon and go home. This was a successful short story for me. Well- written and had a point. 

 

George Kelley 

Monda, Monday

 Got home in time to say Stratford's version of GUYS AND DOLLS was amazing. What a great musical it is to-not a bad song in it. I saw the Nathan Lane version in the nineties on Broadway and since the staging has become more sophisticated in those years, this was even more thrilling. Such a huge cast. 

We also saw THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, which was about as good as that play can be. So many of the Stratford actors have been in plays for thirty or more years there so you watch them age from playing Juliet to the elderly women in EARNEST. Lots of good food too. So nice to spend time with Kevin especially. He has to decide on a major by December and still hasn't decided. Between plays we played a game called SPLENDOR which was really difficult to understand. Board games have gotten more difficult since even my kids' times. 

Great weather on the whole. Reading a Japanese novel that takes place on a subway line. I haven't unpacked yet so I can't tell you the title. Perhaps Tracy knows. I am betting she recommended it.  

What about you?