Friday's Forgotten Books, September 25, 2009

Reading Plato.





Stuart Neville's debut novel The Ghosts of Belfast will be published in
the USA by Soho Crime in October 2009. He will embark on a six city
American tour beginning mid October, so check www.GhostsOfBelfast.com for an
appearance near you.


Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis:

Many a fan of cinematic crime will be familiar with Get Carter, the grim and
gritty Michael Caine vehicle first released in 1971. Jack Carter, the
brutal gangland thug, is perhaps Caine's most iconic role, and the movie is
widely regarded as one of the greatest ever to emerge from Britain. Fewer
will be acquainted with the novel that inspired the film, Jack's Return Home
by Ted Lewis, first published the year before.

While the adaptation by director Mike Hodges takes some liberties with the source, like relocating the action to Newcastle rather than the Doncaster area, it remains true in spirit to Lewis's classic tale of a mob enforcer who travels from London to his home town in the northeast of England to attend his brother's funeral. When he begins to suspect that his brother's
death was not an accident, things get ugly. Very ugly.

I'd been a fan of the movie for years, and when I finally found a copy of the original novel I couldn't wait to immerse myself in this glorious murk. A few pages in, however, and I was a little taken aback. While I was not yet a writer myself, I had dabbled, and had some sense of prose style. Ted Lewis's way with words was, shall we say, distinctive. The language was
angular, lumpen, sometimes awkward in its phrasing, often ungainly as sentences ran on and on, losing shape as they went. But there was something compulsive about the first person narrative; like a car crash, you couldn't look away.

When the violence came, this seemingly clumsy prose took on the shape of the cruelty it described. The act of inflicting injury on another human being became as ugly in print as it is in real life. And that's when it clicked. Ted Lewis's words were planted so firmly in the mind of the ruthless killer through whose eyes we saw this world that everything was filtered through
his perception. The descriptions of the urban landscape, and the people inhabiting it, were hard and unyielding because that was how the protagonist saw it. Soon the jagged sentences and bludgeoning violence took on a kind of brutal poetry as the author dragged me down with him into Carter's own private hell. It's a reading experience I'll never forget, and one that has
profoundly influenced my own writing.

It's a great shame that Ted Lewis's work is now largely forgotten. He was a brilliant crime writer and stylist comparable to the best of American authors, like James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke. He created the British school of noir fiction with a string of novels in the 1970s that still stand up today, if you can find them. Billy Rags is a particularly good read, and the two Carter prequels, Jack Carter's Law, and Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon, are interesting curiosities for fans of the original, even if they do rather smack of cashing in. If not for his death at the age of 42, Ted Lewis may have become the greatest British crime writer of
his generation. Now we'll never know.

Jennie Bentley is the author of the bestselling Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime. She has been compared to Elizabeth Peters, Janet Evanovich, and—believe it or not—Agatha Christie, but never to Quentin Patrick, which seems rather a shame.


SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, Quentin Patrick

I grew up in Norway, which, as everyone knows, is part of Scandinavia. My mother was a big reader, and there were always books around the house. She was my introduction to classics like “Rebecca,” “Gone with the Wind,” and “Sweet Thursday,” all of which (and many more) she’d gotten from a book club she was a member of. I read them in Norwegian, of course. I can still see the leather bindings side by side on the shelf: black and taupe and green, with shiny metallic letters and stripes across the spine on the top and the bottom.

My favorite book club book was called “Piken og Døden,” which translates to “Death and the Maiden.” Backwards. It was originally written in 1939, by an American writer called Quentin Patrick, one of Scandinavia’s most beloved classic crime authors.

Of course I didn’t know it at the time, but Quentin Patrick is one of several pseudonyms for Richard Wilson Webb, who started writing crime novels in 1931 with Martha Mott Kelly. When Miss Kelly got married, Webb teamed up with Mary Louise Atwell for a few years, until he found his permanent writing partner in Hugh Wheeler. Their collaboration started in 1936, and for thirty years, they wrote as Quentin Patrick, Patrick Quentin, and Jonathan Stagge. At one time a relatively well-known crime ‘writer,’ Q Patrick has fallen into obscurity on this side of the Atlantic, and it’s a real shame, because many of the books are wonderful.

Much as I enjoy “Death and the Maiden,” it’s not my favorite Quentin Patrick book. That honor goes to “Suspicious Circumstances,” first published in 1957. I’m not sure why, exactly, because there’s nothing at all wrong with “Death and the Maiden.” Could be that “Suspicious Circumstances” is just damned funny, and I enjoy comedy. Could be because at that age I wanted to be a movie actress, and that’s the background for the story. Or maybe it’s just that the protagonist and narrator isn’t much older than I was when I first read it.

I was in Paris when Norma Delaney died. I had decided to write a novel, and when I told mother, she said, “A novel, my boy? Nineteen years old. Well, why not? Young eyes see everything so clearly. Go to Paris, Nickie. That’s where the best books are written.”

Two days later, Nickie is settled in Paris, in an apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens borrowed from one of his mother’s countless friends, and the next week he’s introduced to Monique at the Café Flore. And somehow the book goes on the back-burner while Nickie enjoys being nineteen and in love. But when he sees a headline saying that over-the-hill screen goddess Norma Delaney has plunged to her death in her Beverly Hills palace, Nickie fears the worst. Norma’s husband, film producer Ronnie Light, has just cast his wife in the role of the century, a blockbuster movie about French courtesan Ninon de Lenclos, an opportunity that every aging actress in Hollywood would happily kill for. Now that Norma is dead, surely Ronnie is looking for another actress to play Ninon. And who better than...?

“I can see it now,” I said. “Mother in the biggest wig since Norma Shearer played Marie Antoinette. Did Ninon de Lenclos yodel? Mother can yodel, too.”

Sarcasm notwithstanding, Nickie gets on the first plane back to Beverly Hills, and gets tangled up in a mystery ranging from California to Las Vegas and back to France, involving Anny and Ronnie, over-the-hill screen goddess Sylvia La Mann, who’s also angling for the role of Ninon; mobster Steve Adriano, who ‘owns’ Las Vegas; the secretary’s secretary, Delight Schmidt, who just happens to be a California redhead, one of Nickie’s self-professed weaknesses; and of course Frenchman Roger Renard, who was there “when Anny did it...”

It’s a wild ride of show business and dead bodies, with a couple of neat twists toward the end that I didn’t see coming, at least not at fourteen or fifteen. By now, I’ve read this book so many times that I can’t tell you whether that might have been different had I read it later in life. I think probably not.

Quentin Patrick’s books are mostly out of print these days, but they’re in libraries up and down the country—interlibrary loan is a wonderful resource if your local library doesn’t have a book you want—and you can also find copies on used book sites like Abe’s Books and possibly even on the shelves of your local used bookstore. If you happen to come across one, snatch it up. If you don’t like it, I’ll be happy to take it off your hands!

Elizabeth Spann Craig is the author of the recent Midnight Ink release, Pretty is as Pretty Dies and the upcoming Memphis Barbeque series for Berkley Prime Crime (May 2010.)

She’s the mother of two and currently lives in Matthews, North Carolina. Between juggling room mom duties, refereeing play dates, and being dragged along as chaperone/hostage on field trips, she dreams of dark and stormy nights beside stacks of intriguing mysteries with excellent opening lines.

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com and http://elizabethspanncraig.com

Some Must Watch (also known as The Spiral Staircase) by Ethel Lina White, 1933

A dark and stormy night. A ruthless killer who preys on young girls. A lonely country estate far from its nearest neighbor. It sounds, maybe, more like a plot for a scary movie. This could explain why Some Must Watch or The Spiral Staircase was made into a movie in 1946 starring Ethel Barrymore (and remade in 1975 starring Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Plummer. It was remade once more in 2000 as a television movie.) Alfred Hitchcock was also a fan of White’s work and adapted her 1938 book, The Wheel Spins, into his film, The Lady Vanishes.

White writes with great humor as she breathes life into her unusual collection of characters, which include a dried-up professor with an old maid sister, the professor’s son--insanely jealous of an affair he suspects his lascivious wife is having with the professor’s live-in pupil, two resident servants, and the professor’s wicked step-mother—Lady Warren-- who is bedridden but who may be more mobile than they all believe. White’s introduction of the step-mother: “She was the terror of the household; only yesterday, she had flung a basin of gruel at her nurse's head.” There’s also a very masculine nurse employed to keep Lady Warren in line.

The protagonist is Helen Capel who is working as a “lady help” in the household. Helen is spunky and smart, but young and possible naïve. A sense of foreboding is quickly established as various characters warn Helen to watch her back as a vicious killer roams the countryside. The weather and the remote setting combine to lend a lonely, frightening feel to the book.

The house itself is full of passages….some lit, some not. There are several staircases, a cellar, and lots of places for someone to hide. White’s descriptions are quick and punchy, the book fast-paced, and there’s both humor and fright, which she handles equally well. There are nine people in the house—at first. They’re locked inside. Not all of them may be what they seem. White builds the tension with breezy skill as she exposes her characters to a terrifying night trapped indoors with a murderer.

Ed Gorman is the author of THE MIDNIGHT ROOM, SLEEPING DOGS and the editor of forthcoming anthology BETWEEN THE DARK AND THE DAYLIGHT. Find him here

The Man With The Iron-On Badge Lee Goldberg

The Man With The Iron-On Badge isn't Forgotten, it's just been neglected because so far the only edition has been a small hardcover printing with a large print version coming soon after. This is a book that deserves a trade paperback. With all the small presses so active I'm surprised that it isn't available in a new edition.

Iron-On is a book that will keep you laughing and smiling all the way through. If you have any affection for the private eye novel, this book should be required reading because in addition to gently spoofing the form it is a story so rich in character and story twists it's truly masterful.

Say you were a lonely and somewhat overweight security guard who works the night shift at an exclusive gated community. Say that your idea of dining out was Denny's. Say that the only girl who'll have sex with you--and then only occasionally--always makes it clear that she's looking for somebody a whole lot better than you. Say that your fantasy life springs from all the private novels and TV shows you spend time with in your apartment. And say that suddenly Cyril Parkus who lives in the gated community gives you a chance to perform one of the classic jobs of a real private eye--following his beautiful wife.

This is the life of Harvey Mapes, one of my all-time favorite characters in private eye fiction. Of course Harvey takes the job and the money. Of course Harvey enjoys following a woman as beautiful and worldly as Lauren. Of course Harvey has thoughts of finally getting his life in order.

But fate--or somebody--has different ideas for Harvey.

The novel is seeded with references to private eye shows and novels. In addition it gives us a realistic look at the trapped lives of millions of working Americans who live just above the poverty line. And it also goes the standard Los Angeles crime novel one better by taking us places and showing us people we don't usually see in the LA novel.

But more than the comedy, the beautifully designed plot and the snapshots of La La Land--more than any other element in the book, it's Harvey's voice you'll remember. There's a workaday universality to it that gives the novel its wit and insight and truth.

Before a publisher comes to his senses and reprints Lee Goldberg's fine novel, you can find inexpensive copies on on line.

Some other forgotten books.

Bill Crider

James Reasoner

Kerrie Smith

Martin Edwards
George Kelley
Randy Johnson
Paul Bishop
RT
Art Taylor
James Winter
Rick Robinson
Richard Prosch
Michael Carlson
Todd Mason

THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH

Preston Sturgis reading.

I had to do a little work to get myself a copy of Dan J. Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH. I considered writing about it for Friday's but it is really not forgotten by most people reading this. But I had to talk about it because it was such a perfect gem. Wallace Stroby has a great review of it on his blog so I don't want to repeat what he has said better. Instead I just want to list what made it such a perfect book to me.

1) the complexity of the protagonist

2) the writing-lucid, tense, succinct

3) the way Marlow integrates a necessary back story into the plot. Now a lot of writers today would say, we don't need to know all of this about him. I disagree. Without this info, he's just a psycho. Now he's a psycho, yes, but with grounding.

4) the length of the book. Truly you couldn't take much more of this degree of excitement.

5) the atmosphere, which is just exactly right for the plot, character, etc.

6) the integration of the violent aspects with the prosaic ones

7) the motivation for what happens. Because of the back story, we get it.

8) the ending.

I could go on and on. What did you like about this book if you've read it? If not, what book would you nominate for a perfect little gem?

MOVIES THAT SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER AT THE BOX OFFICE

The battle over the next book in a reading group.

I am worried that many movies enjoyed in Toronto last week will never hit the big screens. Distribution deals for movies is way off. The audience for adult movies is fading.
Bill Crider's puzzlement over why a terrific movie like "Adventureland" didn't do better sparked this. What recent movie's dismal figures surprised you? I'll choose THE MERRY GENTLEMAN with Michael Keaton this summer. It came and went over night. This was a film that should have drawn a larger if not large crowd. What else?

THE NOIR THRILLER, Lee Horsley

The Noir Thriller

This book is written by British academic, Lee Horsley, and published by Palgrave. Although it's an academic book, the selection I read is easy to understand and interesting for anyone who reads noir. She just added a chapter on 21st century noir, which includes lots of the people we are reading today.

This info via Al Guthrie.

MY TOWN MONDAY

Creperie


Park Shelton






Leopold's books









The Detroit environs is now the site of many disappearing shops. Even in Royal Oak, the hippest suburb, I counted dozens of empty store fronts yesterday.

But in the midst of all this--and in Detroit itself-- two new businesses have opened, poised between Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies. They are also across from the Art Institute. I can't tell you how much I admire these young people taking a chance on Detroit.

Leopold's Books, owned and manned by University of Chicago MA graduate, Greg Lenhoff, has the coolest assortment of books you will ever find in a small space. Their common strand is they are dark, arty, different. Lots of graphic comics, art magazines, journals, new editions of classics by Chandler et al, Michigan authors. Just the sort of place to find something for the cool guy or woman in your life. The space itself is attractive with high ceilings, dark walls, wood floors, huge window onto Woodward Avenue. Leopoldsbooks@gmail.com for more information. Or call 313-875-4677. He's open all the time. Go in and say hello.

Plopped right next door to Leopald's is GOOD GIRLS GO TO PARIS CREPES, a second location for the business in midtown Detroit. A huge selection of delicious crepes, reasonably priced and made from scratch. Also a spanking new facility. Long hours, too.

You could do worse than spend some time in these spots after a trip to the Art Museum, Historical Museum across the street, the Museum of African-American History or the Detroit Science Center.

Both of these shops are located on the street level of THE PARK SHELTON, formerly apartments and now a new condo in the area.

Both places are at 15 E. Kirby, on the Woodward side.

For more MY TOWN MONDAY POST, GO HERE WHERE CLAIR DICKSON KEEPS TRACK OF THEM.

Stealing Stories

Joan Fontaine reading.

You're at a social gathering. A woman across the room tells the story of her uncle who raised pigs in a small way. Just a few at a time. When he took the pig to the slaughterhouse," she advised us, "he drove them there in the backseat of his Mercedes. Said he wanted them to go out in style." After our skeptical pause, she added, "they were used cars, of course."

Now do you tell her you have to use this incident in a story. (I did this time). Do you feel guilty about it? I've used more than one of these sorts of tales in larger pieces.

Just the day before I heard an even better one. A husband picked up turtles from the roadside in Oxford, Mississippi and brought them home to his wife. Dozens, (well, he claimed hundreds), of them. Every day at noon, she came outside and handfed them peaches. Called them from out of their hiding places for a nice lunch.

Would you let these stories go by? Do you ever feel like you're stealing pieces of other people's lives? Is there a line you would draw?

The Summing Up. Friday, September 18, 2009

The Summing Up, Friday, September 18, 2009



Reading Lolita









Bernadette (B2) Ligny's Lake, S.H. Courtier
Paul Bishop, Two Heads Are Better, Elliot Lewis
Jeff Cohen, Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, Nan & Ivan Lyons
Bill Crider, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey]
Martin Edwards, In Stony Places, Kay Mitchell
Randy Johnson, Armageddon 2419 AD, Philip Francis Nowan
George Kelley, Plotting and Writing Suspense, Patricia Highsmith
Rob Kitchin, Rommel? Gunner Who? Spike Milligan
B.V. Lawson, Bleeding of the Innocents, Jo Bannister
Steve Lewis, The Silence of the Rain Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
Margaret, The Brading Collection, Patricia Wentworth
Todd Mason, Total Television, Alex McNeil and 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons
Eric Peterson, The Trouser Press Record Guide, Ira A Robbbins, Editor
James Reasoner, Scarlet Riders, Don Hutchinson
Rick Robinson, Case for Three Detectives, Leo Bruce
Clea Simon, Thank You for Not Reading, Dubravka Ugresic
Kerrie Smith, The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
RT, Long Time Gone, J.A. Jance
Richard Wheeler, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, A. Scott Berg

Friday's Forgotten Books, September 18, 2009

William Gay reading.

I'll be away all day today and will fix up any mistakes and add a summing up late tomorrow. Thanks to all of these wonderful contributors.

Rob Kitchin works at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and is
the author of the police procedural, The Rule Book.

‘Rommel’ ‘Gunner Who?’ is the second book in a seven book series charting the experiences of Spike Milligan during and immediately after

the Second World War.  Born in 1919 in India to an Irish father serving
in the British Indian Army and English mother, and passing away in 2002,
Milligan is widely regarded as one of Britain’s most famous and
influential comedians in the second half of the twentieth century, known
for his surrealist and off-beat sketches and wise-cracks, influencing
acts such as Monty Python, Kenny Everett and Eddie Izzard.  Prior to the
war he performed as an amateur jazz trumpeter in London, a role he
continued whilst serving in North Africa and Italy, and after being
wounded and hospitalised in Italy he ended the war as a full time
entertainer.  After being demobbed, he shot to fame as one of the
co-creators and principal writer of The Goon Show, one of the most
popular radio programmes of the 1950s.  By the late 1950s he was writing
for television and regularly appearing on the small screen.  He was also
a noted writer, poet and playwright.

‘Stop it at once!’ said Dawson through his own laughter.  We stopped.
‘Now stop it, or I’ll kill the bloody lot of you.’  A white star shell
lit the night.

‘What’s that?’ said Ernie Hart.

‘That, Ernie, means a child has been born in Bethlehem,’ I said.

‘Well, he’s two months late and the wrong bloody map reference.’
Another two star shells.

‘She’s had triplets,’ said Ernie.  After an hour we reached the O.P. hill.

‘This way,’ said Bombardier Fuller.  Birch and I followed with reel.

‘Stop that fokin’ noise,’ hissed an angry Irish voice, ‘you’ll get us
all fokin’ mortared.’

We took the spindle from the drum and unwound by hand.  More flares,
suddenly a rapid burst of automatic fire.  It was a Spandau, a return
burst, the unmistakable chug, chug, chug of a Bren gun.  A flare
silhouetted us beautifully for the whole Afrika Korps to see.  ‘Freeze,’
hissed Fuller.  I had one leg raised when he said it.  Somewhere a
German O.P. officer was saying, ‘Himmel! zey are using one-legged
soldiers.’  The flares fade.  Fuller says, ‘I’m lost.’

‘I thought you’d never say it,’ I said.

We groped our way back to the party who were inside the Bren practising
fear and smoking.

I read the first six of the Milligan war diaries when I was a teenager
in the 1980s and I still have four of them, this one being the earliest
I have.  ‘Rommel’ ‘Gunner Who?’ focuses on Gunner Milligan’s time in
Algeria, especially on the battle for Tunis, and draws extensively from
his war time diary including sketches and photographs.  It also includes
joke pictures and little comedy scripts.  It’s probably about 25 years
since I first read the book so it was interesting to go back and take
another look.  In many ways it still holds up.  The narrative is
engaging and witty, blending in pathos in just right measure.
Milligan’s story is interesting, traversing across North Africa swapping
artillery bombardments, being mortared and shot at, witnessing death and
destruction, letting off steam in bars, and the camaraderie of young men
in engaged in a dangerous endeavour.  In other ways, it seems quite
dated, especially in relation to the politically incorrect language.
Several times, racist jokes are made at the expensive of the locals and
places are described in racist terms, for example, he calls a couple of
settlements ‘a wog village’.  In this sense it is a product of its time,
but Milligan was well aware of such racist sentiments at the time of its
writing given criticisms of some of his other works which in trying to
address racial stereotyping reproduced what it sought to counter (I’m
thinking here of the television programme Curry and Chips).  As
autobiographies go, it’s a largely enjoyable and informative read.  As I
remember it, the next two books in the series were the best ones –
Monty, His Part in My Victory and Mussolini, His Part in My Downfall.

Margaret from BooksPlease
I'm a lifelong bookaholic and I started BooksPlease in April 2007. I trained and worked for a while as a librarian in a local history library and then as a cataloguer. More recently I worked in local government.My blog is mainly about the books I’ve been reading and those I’m considering reading. Now and then I also write about places I’ve visited and personal anecdotes or thoughts. I like to read a variety of book genres and I enjoy fiction of most types (I don’t like horror) and non-fiction, mainly history, philosophy, religion, biography, diaries and letters.

I'm not sure if Patricia Wentworth's Miss Maud Silver books can really be considered as "forgotten books", especially as I found The Brading Collection on the library shelves. At any rate I wasn't familiar with her books so I thought maybe it would fit the bill.I knew nothing about Patricia Wentworth, except the little that was stated in the book itself. She was born in India in 1878 and wrote dozens of best-selling mysteries being recognised as one of the "mistresses of classic crime." She died in 1961 and was as popular in the 1940s as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. Miss Silver "was her finest creation".In The Brading Collection a worried Lewis Brading asks Miss Silver for help. He is obsessed by a feeling that something is going on behind his back, that whilst he is asleep someone is entering the annex to Warne House where he keeps his collection of jewellery, most of which has some connection with crime. Miss Silver, who has been compared by some to Miss Marple, is a former governess, now a private investigator, takes a dislike to him and refuses to take on his case. However when, a fortnight later, he is shot she helps the police to discover his murderer.As you would expect there are several suspects and the sequence of events leading up to the murder are carefully scrutinised by Miss Silver, described as a ... dowdy little governess out of a family out of a family photograph ... her hair very neat, her oldfashioned hat a little crooked, her hands in their black thread gloves folded primly upon a shabby bag with a tarnished clasp.(page 148)She looks as though she had just stepped out of a family photograph album of about forty years earlier. She is never seen without her flowered knitting bag and knits throughout the book, even when interviewing people; she quotes from Tennyson and has a razor-sharp mind. Behind her appearance, she has... an intelligence which commanded respect ... an integrity, a kindness, a sort of benign authority.(page 148)It all hinges on the timing of events, when people visited Lewis in the annex, whether the door was locked and who had a key. The suspects include Lewis’s secretary, James Moberley, reluctantly working for him under threat of exposure as a criminal, and his cousin and heir Charles Forrest, suspected by Stacy his ex-wife of stealing the Brading family necklace to fund the conversion of his family home into flats. Then there are Myra Constantine, who looks like a toad, ugly and venomous with flashing black eyes and her daughters, Milly and Hester, insignificant and bullied by her mother. Why does Hester enter the annex late at night? Is Lilias Gray, Charles’s cousin a reliable witness? It all builds up to a climax with a dramatic ending, involving a car chase, reminding me of cops and robbers films, as the culprit drives off in a police car, chased by the furious Inspector Crisp.
All in all this is a satisfying book, with believable characters and plenty of surprises, although I had worked out who did before the dénouement. I’m glad I found Patricia Wentworth and as there is a long list of her books there are plenty more to read.

Richard S. Wheeler is the author of sixty-nine contracted or published novels that largely deal with the American West. These include historical novels, biographical novels, and traditional western fiction. In recent years he's been writing mysteries, including some set in the upper Midwest, under the pseudonym Axel Brand. I've also written numerous short stories. You can find Richard here.

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, by A. Scott Berg

I've finished rereading Scott Berg's great biography of Maxwell Perkins, which won the National Book Award in 1978. It is a massive book and took a week to get through. I've often wondered why it is my favorite book, and why I return to it with renewed thirst and joy, every little while.

For a long time, I thought it was because I had been a book editor and found common ground with Perkins. Or perhaps it was because my family is rooted in New England, though I grew up in the Midwest. There was something in Max Perkins' shy, awkward, introspective nature that rang bells in me.

The truth of it is that I have no idea why that book stands above all others in that place of the heart where I build altars. It is largely a description of the way Perkins, a Scribners editor, nurtured several wayward authors and the result was the most sublime period in American literary history. The list of those he encouraged and published is too long for this posting, but they include Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ring Lardner, Edmund Wilson, Erskine Caldwell, Sherwood Anderson, John P. Marquand, S. S. Van Dine, Taylor Caldwell, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Alan Paton, and James Jones. No other editor has even come close to discovering and publishing a list like that.

Scott Berg writes tenderly. He had his hands full, because of the acrimony, the disappointments, the bitterness, the craziness, the hurt, that he was chronicling. Somehow Perkins managed to nurture each of his authors, supplied the specific criticisms that lifted their books to new heights, all the while trying to remain anonymous because he felt that editors should not take credit or be known to the public. He often said that a book belongs to the author, and it is the editor's task simply to bring out the best in the author and the book.

This great work by Berg shaped me. It deeply affected how I think about literature. It changed what I aspire to in my writing. I am not the same person I was before this book entered the place of honor on my shelf. I lost my father, whom I loved and admired, when I was young. All those authors he nurtured lost a father when Max Perkins died.

Rick Robinson: Killer in the Rain

Raymond Chandler stories originally published 1934-1941collection © 1964Ballantine Books 1977 paperback mystery short story collection Contains 8 stories: “Killer in the Rain”, “The Man Who Liked Dogs”, “The Curtain”, “Try the Girl”, Mandarin’s Jade”, “Bay City Blues”, “The Lady in the Lake," “No Crime in the Mountains”.

These stories by Chandler are both less and more than they seem. Every one of them was cannibalized by him and became part of a novel. Sometimes it was a character or two who made the transition, more often it was whole pieces of plot, in some cases the entire story became a novel, with only more plot and a few name changes.
In his informative introduction, Philip Durham traces the publication and cannibalization of these eight stories, part or all of which became The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Lady in the Lake.
None of the stories in this collection appears in Chandler’s 1950 “official” short story collection The Simple Art of Murder. Once Chandler cannibalized a story he believed it should be buried, so the stories were left to fade away with the pulp magazines in which they were originally published, thus none of these stories was published by Chandler during his lifetime, though three were published in collections. “No Crime in the Mountains” appeared in Great American Detective Stories edited by Anthony Boucher (1945), “The Man Who Liked Dogs” appeared in Joseph Shaw’s The Hard Boiled Omnibus. (1946) while “Bay City Blues” appeared in Verdict (1953). Chandler maintained these stories were published by mistake and without his permission.
I bought this collection when I first discovered Chandler, and I enjoyed it greatly. It was my introduction to his writing, and I read it, Simple Art and Pickup On Noon Street before I ever got to one of his novels. When I did start on the novels – with The Big Sleep if I recall correctly - I was so enthralled I didn’t notice the pieces of these stories. Or I may hav e and just don’t remember now.
This collection is easy enough to find through the usual used book channels, and while these stories are not in the two volume Library of America set of Chandler’s works, they are to be found in the 1,300 page Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories published by Everyman’s Library, which contains all of Chandler’s short fiction, mystery and other. Whatever the source, it’s worth seeking these out. Very highly recommended.

BSquared

I am an Australian who loves to read, travel and take photographs and when I can combine all three I am in heaven. I've always had a preference for mysteries and crime but over the past couple of years seem to have read almost to the exclusion of all else.

Martin Edwards

Bill Crider
Clea Simon
Kerrie Smith
Steve Lewis
Randy Johnson
Todd Mason
James Reasoner
George Kelley
Jeff Cohen
RT
Eric Peterson
Paul Bishop
Rick Robinson
B.V. Lawson
Scott Parker

Things I Didn't Expect to See When I was Twenty

Stem to stern tattoos! What about you?

ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD

I've been honored by Bill Crider, who's passed the One Lovely Blog Award on to me. Bill's blog was one of the first I ever read and I look at it at least once a day-mostly for Texas news, which is crucial to someone in Detroit. Or alligator news-same thing. He's a fabulous writer and person. His blog is a model of positive postings and lending a hand to anyone with a story online.

It is now my pleasure to pass on this award. These are the rules for those individuals I choose. They are simple:

1) Accept the award, and don’t forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.

As Bill said, I read so many blogs every day that to mention them all would take forever. I'm passing this on to a few of them, though I could list dozens more. Sandra Seamans, Kerrie Smith, Women of Mystery, and Ed Gorman. I am counting on them to pass it on to the other people I would like to list.

Aunt Agatha's Bookstore, Ann Arbor

From Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor
(Robin and Jamie Agnew)
Plan to join us at the store on Friday, September 18 at 7:00 when authors Megan Abbott, Theresa Schwegel and Tasha Alexander join us to talk about their new books. Megan’s is Bury Me Deep, Theresa’s is Last Known Address, Tasha’s is Tears of Pearl. Please browse the website for reviews of Megan and Theresa’s latest books, with a review of Tasha’s latest added this month.

if I miss a forgotten book this week or post someone who didn't do one, I'll fix it up on Sunday. Please excuse. Or alternately, let me know today.

MAD MEN

Eugene O'Neil reading.

Can anyone define what makes MAD MEN the best show on TV (IMHO)? Is it the enigmatic nature of the characters, the way the writers tinge each scene with what is coming soon in terms of societal change, the sadness that each character carries inside, the almost intuitive grasp of how arcs can be very small and still satisying. I especially admired the scenes with the prison guard in the waiting room, the scene with Pete Campbell interrogating the elevator operator in the elevator (loved his line about how all jobs have their ups and downs), of Betty in her twilight sleep wandering the hallways of her life, of Don making hash for his daughter. All of these were harbingers of changes to come in the next few years. Brilliant for me.

Two-Story Outhouse

Hattip to Andrea DiTomasso. The message might be anti-government but we all need a laugh sometimes. I prefer to think of it as a criticism of those pols who won't pass healthcare reform.

Say it in Blue

If you're in Detroit on Sept 17th

Please come see Megan read at the Honors College at Wayne State University this Thursday.

For those who expressed an interest, here is a nice interview done in Memphis in July.


http://www.events.wayne.edu/view/18221/date/88806/

http://wyplfmbooktalk.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-talk-podcast-megan-abbott.html

Love Story

Love Stories are pretty rare at the local cineplex. They don't pull in the big numbers. Often movies I look forward to as novels into movies--THE ENGLISH PATIENT, END OF THE AFFAIR, THE GREAT GATSBY, don't turn out to be very good at the theater. Although the film of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was better as a movie IMHO.

I just looked over the list of forthcoming movies in the NYT and once again, I thought several looked promising. I'm not talking about movies with Jennifer Anniston or Sandra Bullock though. Not romantic comedies but real, gut-wrenching, passionate, knee wobbling films. Two of the ones that had these elements of late dealt with homosexual affairs-BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and BOYS DON"T CRY. Is romance still worth exploring in alternate life style films? Is it fresh there? Has it gotten too dull in mainstream films.
What was the last film that worked for you in these terms. Or are too cynical to care about love?

Playing Hysteria

I watched CAUSE FOR ALARM last Wednesday when TCM unleashed a bunch of noirish movies. I was scrubbing the floor, a ceramic one which takes two hours to clean, soon to replaced by fake wood. But anyway, her performance was 90 minutes of pure hysteria, fascinating mostly for how she was able to sustain it yet keep our attention.

There were other actresses then able to do this in the forties and fifties without making us tear our hair out. Bette, Joan C, Joan Fontaine, Vivien Leigh and a flock of B actresses. Can anyone do this today? Is there a recent performance where an actress played hysteria for a two-hour stint. Or has this type of thing gone the way of seamed stockings? I'm not really talking abouth horror movies here--I know it goes on in them. More suspense.

Medical Alert

Nurse reading.


I recently was prescribed an antibiotic (doxycycline) after some dental surgery. The label gave me lots of directions about taking it on an empty stomach and drinking water, but none about not lying down. I took it and went to bed, only to wake in pain. This pain continued for four days since my esophagus was damaged by the pill breaking up and depositing pieces along the digestive tract before it arrived in my stomach. It could have been worse. Some people need to have the pieces surgically removed. But really, you should never lie down after taking any medication. Stay upright for thirty minutes and do drink that full glass of water. That concludes the medical portion of the day's blog.

My review of TETRO is on Crimespree Cinema. If you've seen it, tell me why I am wrong about it.

THE SUMMING UP, Friday, September 11, 2009

This post takes me over 1000 posts. Yikes. I am doing this too much.










THE SUMMING UP, Friday, Sept 11, 2009 (Includes books from the two-week hiatus)

Paul Bishop, Assignment: Maria Tirana, Edward S. Arronsi, The Chic, Chick Spy, Bob Tralins

Bill Crider, The McBain Brief, Ed McBain; Manhunt is My Mission, Stephen Marlowe. Murder in the Navy, Richard Marsten

Cullen Gallagher, Texas Wind, James Reasoner
Martin Edwards, The View from Daniel Pike, Bill Knox
Ed Gorman, The Dame, Richard Stark
Glenn Harper, The Finner Faction, Bernard Share

George Kelley, The Anthony Boucher Chronicles, 1942-1947, Anthony Boucher; Wettermark, Elliott Chaze, Planets of Adventure, Murray Leinster

Randy Johnson, The Gunfighter, Richard Matheson
B.V. Lawson, First Cases: First Appearances of Private Eyes, Robert Randisi
John Marr, Hanover Square, Patrick Hamilton
Todd Mason, The Craft of Science Fiction, edited by Reginald Bretner
Natalie, The Collector, John Fowles
Juri Nummelin, Striptease Macabre, Leonard Gribble
Scott Parker, Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Eric Peterson, You Call it Madness, Lenny Kaye
Richard Prosch, Man-Size, William MacLeod Raine
James Reasoner, The Golden Widow, Floyd Mahannah
Mike Ripley, Solomon's Vineyard, Jonathan Latimer
Rick Robinson, Three Times a Victim, F.L. Wallace; Killer in the Rain, Raymond Chandler, Night Ferry to Death, Patricia Moyes

Kieran Shea, Jack Fish, J. Milligan
Kerrie Smith, The Mind Reader, Margery Allingham
R.T. The Patriots Club, Christopher Reich

Friday's Forgotten Books, Sept 11, 2009

A bit about Natalie from Book, Line, and Sinker: An avid reader, I’ve been blogging for two years and enjoy discussing books, authors, and topics related to reading or novels

THE COLLECTOR by John Fowles

A forerunner of the psychological thriller/horror genre that made its debut in 1963, John Fowles’s The Collector tells the story of Frederick Clegg, a socially inept man with an obsession for collecting objects of beauty. Initially, Clegg’s collection is limited to butterfly specimens, but after a windfall from the British pools relieves him from financial worry, his collecting takes a diabolical turn.

Miranda Grey is an art student from an upper class family who unwittingly becomes the object of Clegg’s obsession. He longs to add her to his cache, purchasing an isolated house and filling it with treasures he imagines she’ll love.

Clegg kidnaps Miranda, spiriting her away to the cottage. She fears the worst and is confused by Clegg’s extravagant gifts and promises. Miranda grows to pity Clegg and attempts to manipulate him on every level, but he proves to be a shrewd captor. She struggles to understand his motivation as her spirit withers.

Clegg is a sociopath, his perception of reality fractured, making him an unreliable narrator and character. Fowles utilizes dual narrative in the novel, Clegg telling Part I and Miranda narrating Part II, creating an connection between narrator and reader. While reading Clegg’s narrative, I felt pity for him despite his behavior. The sorrow I felt for Miranda was compounded with each failed attempt at escape.

Miranda’s desperation to leave the confines of the basement is matched only by Frederick’s obsession to keep her locked away. Will Miranda find the strength to outwit Clegg and escape, or will she remain like his treasured butterflies, pinned under glass for his viewing pleasure?

This novel was assigned as a Summer Reading book for my Senior English class back in 1991. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The dark themes and sinister storyline made it a riveting read—and how often do students say that about novels read for school? I often returned to The Collector over the years and it remains one of my favorites.

Fowles is more well-known for writing The French Lieutenant’s Woman--The Collector was his first novel. The Collector doesn’t seem to garner the attention I think it deserves and am delighted to showcase it here on Forgotten Fridays.

Ed Gorman writes crime fiction, westerns and edits anthologies. You can find him at http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com

The Dame by Richard Stark

Don Westlake used to say that he didn't like to outline, that he preferred letting the story take him where it chose to go. I suppose this was another way of saying what Theodore Sturgeon said a long time ago, that if the writer is surprised the reader will be surprised.

Well, Westlake was probably not only surprised by the various twists and turns The Dame takes, he must have been downright shocked in places.

Our old friend Alan Grofield, flush with money from a bank robbery, is intrigued by a message from a Latin American dictator whose friend needs help. Turns out the friend, the forty-something dragon lady Belle Danamato, lives in Puerto Rico and is seeking a divorce from her mobster husband. She is under the impression that he will do her violence rather than actually go through with the settlement their lawyers have come up with. She already has a bodyguard but he's too ugly to be seen with in public. Grofield hates her and her thugs and quickly departs. Only to return a bit later under duress.

All too soon--or not soon enough from Grofield's point of view--Belle Danamato is murdered. B.G. Danamato, mob boss and now widower, appears and decides that Grofield murdered her. He will be quickly tortured and then executed. But lest we forget, Grofield is a professional actor and he puts on enough of a show to plant doubt in Danamato's mind about the identity of the true killer.

For the next several chapters we have a whodunit. B.G. and Grofield interview each of the six guests, trying to see if one of them cracks or inadvertently reveals something he or she shouldn't. It's quite a crew, the most interesting being the brother and sister team Roy and Patricia Chelm. The lad is a gigolo of some kind and the sister an iron virgin of twenty-three.

But don't be misled. Sure we have a one act version of a whodunit but then we go back to some of the finest chase scenes I've read in a long time. Westlake makes the jungles menacing, fetid in heat and humidity and the decay of dead things.

As I read The Dame I thought of all the different genres of popular fiction Westlake touches on in this novel. A partial list would include screwball comedies, chase and adventure, mobsters, country manor whodunits and Agatha Christie clue planting.

One piece of business is, to me at least, unique. Grofield announces about fifteen thousand words before the end that he knows who the killer is but he won't share his surmise with anybody. Westlake uses it as a very nifty tease.

Couple things: I wouldn't say this is major Westlake but it is an example what the pro of pros could do to exalt a story even he wasn't taking too seriously. The writing is astonishingly crisp and vivid. Once a page he jars you with something, some little turn or piece of psychology that only Westlake could have come up with.

The other thing is Grofield himself. I've noticed over the years that every once in awhile Grofield comes off as a jerk. That's my reaction and maybe my reaction alone. He gets a little too full of himself and a little too coy and glib. Then he settles back down and he's an intriguing protagonist again.

I read The Dame in two sittings and enjoyed the super-charged plot and watching Westlake throw one fast ball after another straight across the plate.

Rick Robinson has written reviews and columns forThe Crime Record, Mystery News, Deadly Pleasures and other periodicals, and publishes his own commentary & review newsletter, Lethal Interjection. YOu can find him here.
http://brokenbullhorn.wordpress.com/

NIGHT FERRY TO DEATH, Patricia Moyes, 1985

I’m a Patricia Moyes fan. I’ve read them all, and for this Friday Forgotten Book it was difficult for me to choose just one of her mysteries featuring Inspector Henry Tibbett, frequently with his wife Emmy. It should make the level of my admiration clear when I tell you I once had two cats named Tibbs and Emmy. I enjoy these characters enough, and the recurring minor characters, such as Tibbett’s assistant, Inspector Derek Reynolds, reading and re-reading them is always an enjoyment.

This novel centers around a theft of diamonds from the Dutch jeweler Van Eck, which occurs while Henry and his wife Emmy are on holiday in Amsterdam. The thief takes the stones aboard the overnight ferry from The Hook to England, and is murdered on board, in the sleep- seat section. No diamonds are not found on the body. Henry and Emmy were in the sleep-seat section as well, and so at the scene of the murder. Later break-ins at their apartment convince Henry there is a connection, and when Scotland yard is called into the murder/robbery case, Henry takes it. As usual, interesting characters and the likable Tibbetts make for an enjoyable read. This is the 18th in the 20 book series, but you can’t go wrong with any of Moyes’ mysteries, which are out of print though used copies can be cheaply and easily obtained from the usual sources.

And more....

John Marr
Eric Peterson
Cullen Gallagher
Bill Crider
Kerrie Smith
George Kelley
R.T.
B.V. Lawson
Scott Parker
James Reasoner
Mike Ripley
Kieran Shea
Randy Johnson
Martin Edwards
Paul Bishop
Rick Robinson
Richard Prosch
Glenn Harper
Juri Nummelin
Todd Mason



There will be a day or so delay for the summing up while I try to remember who posted what the last two weeks. If I forget, let me know.

BACKYARDS

On the train to Toronto, I noticed backyards.

There is great diversity in backyards.

1) Full of flowers, shrubs, gardens, paths
2) Completely barren, grass mostly gone
3) Full of garden decorations-like windmills, Dutch boys, animals etc
4) Full of playground equipment
5) Full of spare parts: tires, car parts, metal things
6) The remnants of an earlier garden, now dead
7)Full of various things for animals: doghouses, chicken coops, runs, etc.
8. A swimming pool that takes up most of the room.
9. A huge garage, deemed more important than the rest.
10. A place for all the things that have no other place: a hodgepodge

Fiction doesn't often describe backyards. What kind of backyard would you most likely put in your writing?

Singers

(Blogger won't allow me to upload a picture so we are pictureless today)

There are some singers you can listen to at length and other just good for a song or two. Rufus Wainwright would be an example of the second for me. His style is so unique, so unvarying that I tire of his voice very quickly. And yet I like it for a song or two.
Joni Mitchell wears well. As do the Beatles, Jo Stafford, Madeleine Peyroux.
What singer can you listen to all day? Who do you get tired of quickly?

DURHAM COUNTY on ION

Was it just me or was this one of the creepiest TV shows ever. Those Canadians may seem like a civil bunch, but they really let it fly in this one. Even my husband had to cover his eyes once or twice. Anyone else see it? If you missed it, there are reruns all week on the ION Network, which is on basic cable. Five more shows to follow if you can take it.


Here's "Bella, The Fortune Teller" in the Chick Lit Review.

TV THEME SONGS

Walt Disney reading.

THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER took a look at TV theme songs a few weeks ago.

I guess the ones we like the most accompanied the shows we liked the most. My favorites would include THE ROCKFORD FILES, CHEERS, THIRTY-SOMETHING. Want to listen to some, go here.

What's your favorite?



PS. FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN BOOKS RETURNS THIS FRIDAY. HOPE YOU HAVE A BOOK TO TALK ABOUT.

PPS If you have ION network, which is on our basic cable, DURHAM COUNTY premieres tonight. Supposed to be north country noir.

THE BELIEVER

Sara Gran and Megan Abbott, discovered a mutual teenage love of the novels of V.C. Andrews (FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC) and wrote an article for THE BELIEVER. You can sample it here.

Short Story v. Novel

It has taken me a while to figure this out, but here it goes. When writing a short story, I rely on my unconscious mind to write the story. In the editing process, I shape it into something more concrete, often editing it a dozen or more times. Every word goes under the scalpel.
You can't do this in a novel. You'd spend years writing it this way. Your unconscious is not going to come up with an entire novel. You can't edit a novel into existence.
So you have to either outline or have a pretty great memory. Thus far I haven't outlined my WIP, so I think it's still going to read too episodically. Does this happen to you and how do you deal with it? When you sit down, what percentage of what you're about to write is already in your conscious mind? How much of the time do you fly by the seat of your pants?

Book Review Club:OLIVE KITTERIDGE

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book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

Elizabeth Strout, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, tells the story of a woman's life through thirteen stories in her masterful work, Olive Kitteridge.

The story focuses on the title character, a middle-school teacher in a small Maine town. What is most amazing about this work is how, often through the eyes of others, we come to know a complex woman, and one we do not always like.

Her behavior can be destructive: her husband and son are victimized by it. But she can also be sympathetic and most of all, human. In some of these stories, Olive plays a minor role! But by the end of the book, this approach gives us a very clear picture of the life of an ordinary woman, perhaps indicative of all of us. Strout is a pleasure to read and when you finish Olive Kitteridge, try Amy and Isabelle, her first novel. I love the idea of a novel in stories. It seems to have the advantages of both forms of fiction to me.

Things that Drive You Crazy.

W.E. Dubois reading.

This is not about purses or necks.

I was reading Nora Ephron's book I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK, (which I do, too, as well as most of the stuff that sits under it). I picked it up at a garage sale for $2.

In it, she tells the reader, (after criticizing a friend out for buying a ridiculously expensive purse), that the only handbag she herself carries is a $26 dollar plastic bag in blue and yellow. Sometime easily replaced, practical, non-destructible.

Now tell me what person making less than a bazillion dollars a year, and spending a million dollars on shoes and clothes, would feel as self-righteous and immune to criticism as Ephron in revealing this. Is this supposed to make the "little people" like her?

Only a rich woman can get away with carrying such a thing. The average Joanne, the plumber, wearing $30 jeans from the Gap, white running shoes, a sweatshirt and carrying an extra 25 pounds, cannot carry such a purse. I've tried it (using the Bouchercon tote bag) and it doesn't look good with a skirt and sweater, believe me. People did not congratulate me on my thriftiness even once.

A bag like Nora's only looks good with Dior. Or with those hard-to- spell shoes Carrie Bradshaw always wore.

I can't finish the Ephron book because I've lost all respect for her as an essayist and person. My husband advises me to give her a chance--that's she just being funny. That if Meg Ryan made this statement in WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, I might have thought it cute. If Streep said it in JULIA AND JULIE, I would have been charmed. I doubt it.

Do statements like Ephron's drive you crazy? When reading a non-fiction book, does the personality of the writer sometimes get in your way? This happens to me a lot. Just like certain people would do better to stay off of talks shows, others should refrain from writing books about themselves. Be mysterious, be enigmatic, just don't open up.

I'm doing it now, aren't I? I'm one of those people who should keep her mouth closed.