Reading REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong and the new Jackson Brody book by Kate Atkinson. Lots of fun. (DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK).
On TV, watching PACHINKO, SLOW HORSES, HOMICIDE, THE ENGLISH TEACHER.
We are in a drought here. The first one in a long time.
The Lions are not looking Superbowl worthy so far.
What about you?
Author
Frank Kane created P.I. Johnny Littell in a short story for the pulps
in 1944 and went on to write twenty-nine novels featuring him, plus an
unknown number of short stories. According to his granddaughter, he
claimed four hundred, though she believes that an exaggeration. And Bill
Crider said in 2000, if it’s a Frank Kane book, chances are “it’ll be a
competent straightforward P.I. story.” DUE OR DIE certainly was all
that. I quite enjoyed my first Kane book.
P.I. Johnny Liddell got the job offer from a most agreeable source. Beautiful redheaded singer Lee Loomis. Mobster “Fat Mike” Klein, who Johnny knew from the old days, needed help in Las Palmas, a small Nevada city where the gambling joints were controlled by aging mobsters, no longer the hard men they’d once been. The deal was $10,000 to find the killer, half now, half when the job was done.
They didn’t dare let New York know what had happened. The remaining five knew the vultures were already out there and they didn’t dare let anyone know that a hit had gone down without their knowledge.
But Johnny arrived too late. Fat Mike had been murdered as well, shot down in his car on the side of the road. The remaining four showed Johnny the note all had received promising each would be killed unless they ponied up a million dollars. With each death, the share went up for the others.
They wanted Johnny to simply deliver the money. The two deaths had been covered up, the first a heart attack, the body quickly cremated, and Fat Mike had committed suicide, the body to be buried as soon as possible.
Johnny didn’t like that. Fat Mike had not been a particular friend, but he’d accepted the job and he was loathe to quit before he got it done.
Tom Regan, the police chief, was as crooked as the mobsters, in their pocket, and was no help. Despite his bosses agreement, he seemed determined to impede the investigation.
Johnny plugs away, avoiding beatings, dodging frame-ups, and questioning anyone and everyone.
He thinks he has it figured out. Now all he has to do is prove it before being killed.
Enjoyed this one. Johnny Liddell appeared in 29 novels and numerous short stories(Kane claimed four hundred in a letter, though his granddaughter thought that an exaggeration).
Towles is the author of one of my favorite books, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. He also wrote THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY more recently.
This is a collection of stories and "The Ballad of Timothy Touchett" is one of them.
It can be hard to sum up a story that has a crime in it without giving too much away. Not that this story depends on its finale because it mostly relies on the characters and the writing. A young man with the desire to be a famous writer is hired to work in a small bookstore. His employer figures out how to make good use of his particular skills, and it works out for both of them for a while. The ending, handed over to the police, lacked the charm of what went before it but not enough to ruin it. There is one very nice touch before the denouement.
Pretty nice weather here. But it looks to turn hot this week.
Saw MEMPHIS today. It was a great local production: great voices, costumes, music but the plot relies on a romance to carry the second half.
I saw a great documentary on Arthur Miller (ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER) on Max, made by his daughter, Rebecca in 2017. Other than Shakespeare I have seen more of his plays than any other writer. At least ten of them and several more than once. I am sure Jeff can beat that. The doc did remind me that Miller institutionalized his Downs Syndrome son in the Sixties. It seems rather late to still be doing that. But I have come to the point where I don't judge the artist, just his work because so many of us are flawed in some way. Killers, child porn afficiandos and rapists are excepted from my tolerance though.
Also a good doc on the artist Alice Neal. Went to a lecture on the portrayal of America in art where I saw some of her work and got interested. Also went to a lecture on Mayan Civilization. What would I do without our Senior center, which has lectures, trips, music, classes, groups. etc five days a week. I am always looking to expand my network of friends as every article tells me I must do to avoid crushing loneliness. Of course, I never thought of this when I had Phil.
Watching PACHINKO, which is terrific. Also TROPPO on Prime, ENGLISH TEACHER on Hulu.
My first haibun is up in DRIFTING SANDS latest online issue. #28. I have two more accepted in other journals. There are not many outlets for haiku but the ones that exist publish a lot of writers. I am trying to work my way out of confessional work, but nature is not my strong point, having always lived in cities and visited cities. I know haiku is not my strongest suit either but I lack the focus for writing novels. I am worried I will soon lack the focus for reading them, which has happened to a few of my friends.
Started THE HORSE by Willie Vlautin. I have liked all of his novels, especially LEAN ON PETE. GOD OF THE WOODS was pretty good although it seems like a few of the many, many characters were expendable. And a few less red herrings might be a good idea too.
Very worried about the election. Those of you in CA or NYC don't know what it's like in the heartland. I think Kamala needs to take more interviews and do less rallies. The people who turn up at rallies are not swing voters. She's not going to win if she doesn't answer more questions and answer them better than saying on her first day in office she will make a salad. Jeez. Her opponent is completely bonkers now. Why don't these MAGA people see it? And why doesn't Bush speak up? So much is riding on the debate. I will probably follow the NYT coverage online rather than watch it. Yes, I am a coward.
Hope the Lions did better than U of M.
What are you up to?
Donald Hamilton's DEATH OF A CITIZEN changed my life.
I was brought up to be polite and courteous, to put others first, and -- if I had nothing good to say -- to say nothing at all.
Then, as a young teen, I opened DEATH OF A CITIZEN. Read it, flipped it over, and read it again. And again.
Matt Helm was a no-nonsense protagonist who thought for himself and did what needed to be done. If he was polite and courteous, he was polite and courteous because he'd decided to be, not because someone else how told him how to behave.
Some may say I'm splitting hairs here, but DEATH OF A CITIZEN taught me not only self-awareness but self-determination.
Sure, Helm killed people, but nobody's perfect.
No book is perfect. DEATH OF A CITIZEN comes very close.
Take the following exchange. Helm and his ex-lover Tina are traveling together. Teasing has lead to a game of tag, and the longer-legged Helm eventually brings her down.
"'Old,' she jeered, still lying there. 'Old and fat and slow. Helm the human vegetable. Help me up, turnip.'"
It's funny and it's fitting and it's a damn fine piece of writing. I've read the book dozens of times and still continue to be blow away by that paragraph.
As a bit of background, Tina and Helm (or Eric, as he was known at the time) worked together during the war as government assassins. He gets out once Germany is defeated, marries, and leads a normal life until Tina reappears.
Donald Hamilton delivers on multiple levels. Not only does he create entertaining plots, and write them well, he provides a rich array of three-dimensional characters.
Take, for example, what happens when Helm borrows a car, rushing home to save his daughter who's been kidnapped by Tina and her partner Frank.
"It was the ugliest damn hunk of automotive machine I'd ever had the misfortune to be associated with...
"[The gas attendant thinks differently.] 'That's quite a car you've got there. I tell you ... when they can get something real sharp made right here in America.'
"Well, it's all a matter of taste, I guess."
Helm might be his own person, but he understands and accepts that his way is not the only way. That's as rare in books as it is in real life.
One finds murder, kidnapping, and torture within DEATH OF A CITIZEN. The disembowelment of a pet cat. And yet, one finds the following passage while Helm waits for a female guest to leave Frank's hotel room.
"...the tartier the girl, strangely enough, the longer the skirt. You'd think it would be the other way around.
"This one was pretty well hobbled."
And after the woman leaves, and Helm follows Frank out of the hotel and under a nearby bridge:
"There were a couple of cars going past overhead. It was a good a time as any. I took out the gun and shot him five times in the chest."
Only later does Helm explain that Frank was too big and unimaginative to be made to talk. Killing Frank at least took him out of the equation, freeing Helm to concentrate on Tina.
"She licked her lips. 'Better men than you have tried to make me talk, Eric.'
"I said, 'This doesn't take better men, sweetheart. This takes worse men. And at the moment, with my kid in danger, I'm just about as bad as they come."
Between 1960 (DEATH OF A CITIZEN) and 1993 (THE DAMAGERS), Matt Helm appeared in 27 books. Donald Hamilton died in late 2006. He was just about as good as they came.
A story I read in THE NEW YORKER by Sigrid Nunez also trod this ground. I would like a percentage on how many short stories have this theme. I am betting over 50% either as its main subject or as a secondary one. What do you think? Probably short stories in genres are less dependent on it.
Watched THE NARROW MARGIN (thanks, Tracy), and BURY MY ASHES AT BERGDORF GOODMANs.
Reading the short story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld, Jeff mentioned last week and also GOD OF THE WOODS (Liz Moore).
Enjoying PACHINKO and BAD MONKEY.
Beautiful day today.
What about you?
