DISEASE AND HISTORY by Frederick F. Cartwright in collaboration with Michael D. Biddiss

 Finished Mo 12/27/21 during the Covid Pandemic of 2021

This is one of my ancient hardback books that I had never read, but purchased at Barnes and Noble on Friday,  7/23/93.

Cartwright is a medical historian and Biddiss is a professor of history at Cambridge University.

The first 'big plague' was Black Death which occurred mid 14th century.

Malaria might have been more catastrophic for the Roman Empire than the attacks of the Goths and the vandals.

Black Death definitely hastened the end of feudalism.

Syphilis had an impact on the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

Did disease have a more powerful impact on indigenous South Americans than Cortez and his army?

Did hemophilia contribute to the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917?

Romans fresh water system was unrivaled until the 20th century.

Measles is a sub-set of small pox.

The authors treated mental illness also.

A reader on Amazon:

"It’s hard to say what I liked best about the book, since it was all very compelling. The chapter on the evolution of syphilis and its impact on some important historical figures, such as Henry VIII, however, was of particular interest. The same can be said for the pages dealing with England’s King George III’s suffering and death from porphyria, how typhus decimated Napoleon’s Grand Army leading to his defeat at Moscow, and how his later defeat at Waterloo was largely due to his being ill at the time. But most interestingly, at least to me, was the indirect manner in which England’s Queen Victoria, through her progeny, contributed greatly to the downfall of Russia’s Romanoff Dynasty and the rise of the Soviet Union. And, let’s not forget the chapter on the bubonic plague or the book’s final chapter, which describes how man’s efforts to overcome the diseases which have plagued mankind throughout history, may, if not controlled, lead to mankind’s ultimate demise."

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM by Chester Himes

Refinished Th 12/23/21

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I bought at The Book Barn on Su 10/17/99. According to the flyleaf "I read about 1/2 and then skimmed to the end on Thanksgiving, 11/25 at The Club. 

I think I enjoyed the novel more on the second time around. I liked the writing and I'll keep my eye out for more novels by Chester Himes.

 Part of the journal entry for Th 12/23/21:

"I finished reading 'COTTON COMES TO HARLEM' by Chester Himes on the couch. The adventures of GRAVEYARD JONES and COFFIN ED JOHNSON. The ' Back To Africa Movement' clashes with the 'Back To The South' movement, and $87,000 is concealed in a bale of cotton. In the end, an old black homeless man had the money all along and escaped to Africa and lived happily ever after."

The book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Comes_to_Harlem_(novel)

The plot was fairly complex and the 'Plot' at Wikipedia was helpful.

THE BLUE AFTERNOON by William Boyd

Finished Sa 12/18/21

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I first completed in two days over the Labor Day weekend, Tu 9/3/96. 

Set in Los Angeles, 1936; and on Luzon (largest island of the Philippines), Manila (capitol city), 1902. 

An elderly man contacts a woman in Los Angeles. He tells her that he is her 'real' father. This occurs in 1936.

Then the story switches to the Philippines in 1902 and tells the story of his love affair and professional tribulations.  

From a review on Goodreads:

" The themes covered here are the occupation of the Philippines by America, the birth of aviation, the improvement of the surgical science at the beginning of the 1900s. And love. Physical attraction, love between couples, love between parents and offspring, and relationships without love. Rather than providing a list of correct historical details you get a feel for the era. It is not the details but rather a sense of what conditions were like. In this book you are confronted with the filth of earlier surgical practices; you are confronted with the atrocities committed during America's occupation; the exhilaration of flying for the first time. What you get is more an emotional understanding than a mental learning of historical facts. I want to feel myself in another person's skin. I am less interested in the historical details. I will soon forget the historical details if I don't feel an emotional empathy for those who lived through those times.

This is a mystery story too. There are murders. I personally think the ending is clear, at least we know how Kay Fischer interprets the events. What is not conclusively known is not that important, and this is an important message of the book."

From the review at Publishers Weekly:

"in 1936, Los Angeles architect Kay Fisher is approached by elderly Salvadore Carriscant, who tells her he's her father and whisks her off on an improbable journey to Lisbon. Despite that unconvincing framing section, a fascinating love story-cum-murder mystery occupies the heart of the narrative, which flashes back to 1902 Manila. There, the young Carriscant, a brilliant surgeon, falls in love with Daphne Sieverance, the wife of an American colonel whose troops are stationed in the Philippines to quell a bloody insurrection. When two American soldiers are murdered by someone who eviscerates their internal organs, Carriscant helps the chief of the constabulary, the improbably named Paton Bobby, to locate the killer, whom Carriscant suspects but cannot accuse. In this middle section of the novel Boyd suspensefully orchestrates some diabolically clever events, including a fatal air crash, a scene reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet and a shocking climax that will send readers reeling."

I enjoyed the book and would read more by William Boyd. I'll check him out on Amazon Books.   

PROPHET OF DEATH by Pete Earley

Finished Mo 12/14/21

This is one of my ancient hardbacks and I first completed it 'early morning' on Thanksgiving, 1997.

The story of Jeffrey Lundgren, a preacher and self proclaimed prophet in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He believed that he was called by god to murder a husband, wife, and their three children. 

Lundgren was able to convince his wife and several church members that this was what god wanted.

For his whole life this guy thought nothing of the law or what other people thought. He would constantly steal and then coverup his crimes.

He was also a sexual freak and was attracted to coprophilia- sexual arousal and pleasure from feces. 

His wife, Alice believed, even as a teenager that she would marry a man who was destined for spiritual greatness.

An interesting take-away: "For two hundred thousand devout adherents, the spiritual center of world Mormonism is not Salt Lake City but independence, Missouri." Lundgren got his start there, but the killings occured in Kirtland, Ohio which is where Joseph Smith, Jrl, established his ministry and built the first Mormon temple. This antique temple is where Lundgren gathered a circle of followers who fell under the spell of his oratory and his 'reform movement'. Part of the church wanted to allow women to become priests, but Lundgren and the conservatives felt that this was against god's law. 

I thought that I had thrown away all of my True Crime books, but I'm glad I got a chance to reread this interesting non-fiction book. 

Jeffery Lundgren was executed in Ohio in 2006 and his wife got five life sentences.

Lundgren's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lundgren

CHILDWOLD by Joyce Carol Oates

 I read to p. 139 (half of the book) by Fr 12/3/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and no record of when I bought it and this was my first attempt.

It's the story of a fourteen year old girl who has an affair with man nearly forty.

He's a rich man from a prominent family and she is from a poor family of many children.

The story unfolds with several different points of view.

Page-long paragraphs that went on forever.

From New York Times and posted in Goodreads:

"This is the story of an enchantment and its dramatic consequences. At the centre is the frustrated love of a man in his forties for a fourteen-year-old girl whom he meets and befriends.

Drawn into her strange family and the haunting world of Childwold, he discovers that, while others find freedom for themselves, for him there is no escape.

"A blowsy mother whose many children have many fathers; her 14-year-old daughter, Laney, and Kasch, an anguished intellectual who loves them both...The novel's tight Oedipal triangle opens into a triple alliance against age and aggression as each person tries to turn the biological clock back towards innocence. Laney's mother wants to bear children to narrow the world to a child's room. Laney starves herself to stop her menstrual cycle and prolong her childhood. Kasch in his insanity is harmless, nonsexual, helpless...Drawn by his vulnerability in the same way that Kasch was drawn by her poverty, Laney may cling to Kasch and he to her as children cling together in the dark." (New York Times, 11/28/76)" 

This was not one of Joyce Carol Oates's more well received works, but I would give her another chance if I ran across one of her novels. 

PROVINCES OF NIGHT by William Gay

Finished Mo 11/29/21 

I ordered this hardback book from Amazon and received it Tu 11/23/21.

I saw the film, 'BLOODWORTH' on Amazon Prime and wasn't wild about the movie, but thought the book would be well worth a look and I wsn't wrong. The writing is some of the best that I've seen in months. 

'BLOODWORTH' 2010 film starring Val Kilmer, Kris Kristofferson, Hilary Duff, Reece Thompson, and Dwight Yoakam. 

Set in 1952 in very rural Tennessee and concerns the men in the Bloodworth family. There are lots of brothers, cousins, fathers, and uncles and it's a little confusing, but still very interesting. 

E.F. Bloodworth is a banjo playing wandering and he has been on the road for a couple of decades and he is returning to his home town. His wife is mentally deteriorating and the family tries to keep his return a secret from her. 

The Brothers Bloodworth:

Warren- a womanizing alcoholic

Boyd- his wife left him and traveled to the big city and he's trying to get her back.

Brady- puts hexes on people that he doesn't like. He arranged for a dilapidated trailer for E.F.

Fleming- The smartest of the brothers. He likes to read and is trying to be a writer. In the movie one of the brothers referred to his typewriter as a 'girly machine'. 

The author's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gay_(author)

FUZZ by Ed McBain

 Finished Tu 11/23/21

This is a paperback that I don't know when I bought it, but this was my first time through it.

This is one of the '87th Precinct Mysteries' and was published in 1968. When I was reading the book I thought that it was one of the first in the series, but the first one was released in 1956 and 'FUZZ' is #22 in the series.

This one deals with the arch-villian, 'The Deaf Man'. This master criminal extorts the city in a very novel way. He alerts authorities that he will kill a minor government official unless he receives $5,000. They don't pay, the official is killed, and the Deaf Man asked $50,000 for the next official on his list. Again, the ransom is not paid and the man is murdered. 

Here's where it gets interesting. The Deaf Man sends out one hundred letters asking for $5000 for each name on the list. 

Also, there is a subplot about a couple of youths who are setting homeless men on fire as they sleep. Steve Carella was posing as a bum and was burned by these guys. 

There is an excellent article on Wikipedia about all of the cops and criminals that are covered in the '87th Precinct Series'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Precinct

A review from GoodReads:

"In Fuzz, a master criminal nicknamed the Deaf Man returns to bedevil the detectives of the 87th Precinct. As is often the case in this series, the weather plays an important part in the book. It's the middle of winter; the snow is deep, and the temperatures are freezing. It's not fit weather for man or beast, but the criminals are not taking the winter off and so neither can the police.

In one particularly aggravating series of crimes, someone is pouring gasoline on sleeping homeless men and then setting them on fire. Detective Steve Carella goes under cover in order to catch the killers, but this means he's going to spend a lot of time freezing in alleys and doorways, playing bait for the attackers. It won't be any fun at all, and it's going to be a particularly frustrating assignment.

While Carella is thus occupied, someone calls the 87th Precinct and demands that he be paid $5,000 or he will shoot the Parks Commissioner. Almost everyone, including the Parks Commissioner, assumes the call is a prank. Sadly it isn't, and after the Parks Commissioner is shot and killed, the caller, who turns out to be the old nemesis of the 87th, the Deaf Man, steps up his game and puts the city in a panic."

The writing is rudimentary, but it's an entertaining read and the 'cop banter' is sharp and funny. 

Ed McBain was a pen name for Salvatore Albert Lombino. 'Ed McBain' was the most notable of his many names. Evan Hunter was second and he wrote 'BLACKBOARD JUNGLE' under this pseudonym.

THE SICILIAN by Mario Puzo

Finished Fr 11/19/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read and when I bought the book is not mentioned. 

It's 'background' on the GODFATHER films and Puzo's novels of those characters. None of 'THE SICILIAN' takes place in New York, all the action is in and around Palermo and the northwest corner of Sicily.   

The book is mostly about a Sicilian bandit named Salvatore 'Turi' Giuliano on the island of Sicily during the 1940's and early 50's.

He's a kind of 'Robin Hood' hero. A violent and cruel man that puts his men and the rural people of Sicily above his personal needs and desires. 

Turi's best friend and second in command, Gaspare 'Aspanu' Pisciotta is the downfall of the gang. Pisciotta betrays and kills Turi before he can escape to America.

These two characters are based on real Sicilian gang leaders.

The political and social situation of rural Sicily is the most interesting part of the book. The aristocrats and the mafia rule the land and the powers that be are terrified of anything that smacks of socialism. 

Legally peasants can use land unused by the aristocracy, but if they try to enforce their rights the aristocrats will have them killed. 

A link to the book's page on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sicilian

I was surprised to learn that Mario Puzo wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel. 

BRIGHT ANGEL TIME by Martha McPhee

Finished Sa 11/6/21

The title refers to layers of rock that record the earth's age. Eight year old Kate's (the novel's protagonist) father is a geologist and she wants to see the Grand Canyon and learn the secrets of the layers of rock that reveal thousdands of years of history. 

The novel is set in America in 1970. The geologist has left the family and mom has taken up with a hippie hustler named Anton. They travel from New Jersey across the country to California. Kate is the youngest and she has two older sisters, Jane and Julia.

Dad leaves the family on July 10, 1969. This is the day that American astronauts walked on the moon for the first time.

According to what I wrote on the flyleaf I purchased the book after a motorcycle ride on the VT 1100 to The Old Book Barn in Forsyth, Il on Su 8/10/03. There is no indication that I finished the book.

It's the first novel by Martha McPhee and she's gone on to create a following because she's a great writer.

The novel is a chronicle of their lives as seen through the eyes of eight year old Kate.

Some of what happens to her is pretty tragic, but it doesn't register because she's so young.

There's a possible rape scene involving Anton that's skimmed over and Kate's dropping acid isn't given the attention that it probably deserves. I guess an eight year old doesn't really have the depth to understand what is happening.

When the family was together the girls all wore matching outfits that were handmade by Eve, Kate's mother. Eve ironed the family's underware- very anal-retentive.  

From Goodreads:

"Set in the early 1970s, Bright Angel Time is a dazzling first novel about eight-year-old Kate and her two sisters, whose lives are turned upside down when their mother falls in love with Anton, a mysterious, seductive therapist with five children of his own.

'One of the most shocking and powerful books about childhood I've ever read. There is a whole generation of people waiting for this particular story to be told.'"

Someone wrote the following at Goodreads:

"Some folks should not have kids because they haven't grown up themselves, and when they do, it's a miracle any resulting children survive. The book may be set in the 70s, but some things never change!"

The Kirkus review:

"Yet another coming-of-age debut novel, this one dragging on a bit as it evokes the '60s-style wanderings of a divorced housewife and her three unhappy daughters. Until 1969, eight-year-old Kate lived in perfect contentment in a white house in rural New Jersey with her two older sisters, her geologist father, and her beautiful blond mother, a housewife named Eve. Unfortunately, that was the year that Dad elected to run off with his lover, and Eve, after a depression that kept her in bed for months, fell in love with an itinerant Gestalt therapist named Anton and allowed him to uproot their lives. Yearning to experience life truly in a way her anal-retentive husband never had, Eve follows Anton to the Esalen center in California. The couple gather up Eve's three well-brought-up daughters, put them in a camper with Anton's five hippie kids, and take off for a tour of the American West. The new, extended family wanders aimlessly through deserts and semi-abandoned towns, sneaking into unoccupied motel rooms for showers, dropping in on Indian settlements and millionaires' resorts, and absorbing various hitchhikers into their fold, while the children bicker and the adults preach free love along the way. Meanwhile, Kate tries to accustom herself to the loss of her father and happy former life, working hard (but often failing) to see the good in Anton's motherless children and to forgive her own newly liberated mom. Eve's reckless devotion to Anton has its consequences—one daughter becomes deathly ill, another runs away, and Kate herself becomes a religious fanatic for a while—and yet Eve's decision to return home at last seems motivated more by fatigue than by lessons learned, and it's unclear who, if anyone, has really come of age. McPhee's story holds interest, but much like its protagonists, it tends to wander without direction, in the end failing to provide much of a catharsis."

I really liked the book and I will read more by Martha McPhee

RABBIT REDUX by John Updike

 Refinished Mo 10/25/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and this copy of the book I had never read. Although, I've read 'RABBIT REDUX' at least one time and I've always loved this book. My fave or the trilogy....and I think I even have a copy of the fourth book- The epilogue. 

The books cover the years 1960 through 1990.

Rabbit and Janice are separated and Harry opens his home to a black radical, Skeeter, and Jill, a rich, hippy run-away from Conneticut. Nelson, Harry's son is now thirteen.

Mim- Harry's younger sister has returned for a visit. She is kind of a high-priced call girl out of Vegas.

From the book's page at Amazon:

"In this sequel to Rabbit, Run, John Updike resumes the spiritual quest of his anxious Everyman, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Ten years have passed; the impulsive former athlete has become a paunchy thirty-six-year-old conservative, and Eisenhower’s becalmed America has become 1969’s lurid turmoil of technology, fantasy, drugs, and violence. Rabbit is abandoned by his family, his home invaded by a runaway and a radical, his past reduced to a ruined inner landscape; still he clings to semblances of decency and responsibility, and yearns to belong and to believe."

I loved the book (and the character of Harry Angstrom) and I have the third book and will be reading that soon. 

OVER THE EDGE by Jonathan Kellerman

Finished Tu 10/18/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the library booksale on Fr 6/13/97 and finished on We 9/21/97.

This was the third book in the Dr. Alex Delaware series that was released in 1987.

Jamey Cadmus is a mental patient and caught red handed with a bloody knife in his hand, but did he do it?

The book contains a very interesting commentary about whether LSD or other psychedelics mirror the effects of serious mental illness such as schizophrenia.  

The link to Jonathan Kellerman's page on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Kellerman

From the books site at Amazon:

"When the phone rings in the middle of the night, child psychologist Alex Delaware does not hesitate. Driving through the dream-lit San Fernando Valley, Alex rushes to Jamey Cadmus, the patient he had failed five years before—and who now calls with a bizarre cry for help. But by the time Alex reaches Canyon Oaks Psychiatric Hospital, Jamey is gone, surfacing a day later in the hands of the police, who believe Jamey is the infamous Lavender Slasher, a psychotic serial killer. Wooed by a high-powered attorney to build a defense, Alex will get a chance to do what he couldn’t five years ago. And when he peers into a family’s troubled history and Jamey’s brilliant, tormented mind, the psychologist puts himself at the heart of a high-profile case. Because Alex knows that in a realm of money, loss, and madness, something terrible pushed Jamey over the edge—or else someone is getting away with murder." 

I would read anything by Kellerman. It's a 'beach or airport read', but always interesting. 

MAO II by Don Delillo

 Finished Mo 10/11/21

This is one of my old hardbacks and no notation when or where I got it.

This might make a good movie, but the book was slightly less than impressive. There were some very interesting scenes and ideas, but I felt it lacked a compelling storyline. 

The beginning sequence of the mass wedding by Rev. Sun Young Moon was very interesting.

"The future belongs to crowds"

A connection between novelists and terrorists. Writers have begun to lose the power to shape and influence. "Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunment have taken that territory."

"The novel used to feet our search for meaning." But our desperation has led us toward something larger and darker. So we turn to the news, which provides an unremitting mood of catastrophe. ThThis is where we find emotional experience not available elsewhere. We don't need the novel."

A 'Deaf Child' sign: "When I saw that I thought DEAF CHILD. I thought the state that erects a sign for one child can't be so awful and unfeeling."

PLOT:

A couple caters to a reclusive writer.

A female photographer visits the author to take some photos of him.

His agent cooks up a plan to have the writer switch places with a poet being held by terrorists in Beruit.

The plot summary in Wikipedia is worth looking at and more informative than the book. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_II

I didn't dislike the book and I would be willing to read another by DeLillo. 

 

THE END OF THE DREAM by Philip Wylie

 Finished We 10/6/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I've never read and there is no indication where and when I bought the book.

"An infantile majority becomes lunatic". That sounds like a quote that describes our time and tribulations. 

The book is primarily about the future (2023 is the tipping point) ecological disasters. 'Climate Change' isn't really mentioned. 

One 'disaster' concerns frozen foods that cause deadly 'exploding farts'. People and animals die when their farts explode internally. This was easily the highlight of the book.

One incident concerned deadly bees coming across the border from Mexico to Texas. It reminded me of the current controversy over Covid. Many don't believe that it is dangerous. In the novel a Texas mayor chastises the people for being overly sensitive to the threat. "The bees are, at most, a nuisance. They need to cause no deaths and no protracted prostration. Sure, they can and do hurt like hell. But the risk of having a sharp pain  is no excuse for roaring out of town by auto and getting maimed in the eight-car crash just now reported on the Pan-Texas Throughway. What's wrong with those sons and daughters of the Lone Star State, anyhow?"

Near the middle of the novel Wylie provides a long rant against The Sexual Revolution. He's not a fan. 

Some random reviews at Goodreads:

"This isn't so much a novel as a poorly-written list of a bunch of horrible ecological disasters - except rather than being horrible, so many of them are so far-fetched as to be really hysterical. There's a huge, huge, huge anti-industrial/anti-corporate feel to the book, down to frozen dinners that make people explode when they fart (I'm not kidding). I would be hard pressed to say which of the "disasters" is the funniest but boy there's a bunch of them. There's also a metric ass-ton of amateurish sociological analysis that just winds up leaving a bad taste in the mouth and a slightly sick feeling to the stomach. But no matter! We're all doomed anyways."

"It's a mess but I found myself always fascinated."

"The End of the Dream is Phillip Wylie’s pulpy tale of the end of the world. It’s his final work after a history of writing for films equally as creepy, adventurous, and campy (Island of Lost Souls, The Invisible Man) and after scathing indictments like Generation of Vipers. It reads as a compendium of newspaper clippings, editorials, letters, and classified government documents that tell of escalating catastrophes that befall the world thanks to man’s technological death march. A second narrative concerns the narrator who is a part of a global group to stem the toxic problems like London Fog-style smog in NYC, flesh-eating worms washing up out of the oceans, blighted rice crops, and energy addiction that causes the destruction of Antarctica. It’s less cerebral as PKD and less literary than JG Ballard, who are more masterful of this sort of thing, but Wylie is certainly the most blunt, leveling blow after blow about how the ignorance on the part of civilization begins to deteriorate rapidly.

Books like this are always in trouble of aging as soon as they’re published. Dream is set in 2030 and catalogs events of the previous 60 years. There was no major crop failures which saw two continents effectively turn over to cannibalism in the 2000s, for example, but Wylie is writing with an unabashed sense of his fans. His pen dips toward pulp and wonder a la HG Wells and is effectively anticipating the second wave of B-movie Natural Horror films that would come after the success of Jaws but recycles things the Cold War era radiation stuff-- think THEM.

Despite the hyperbole, Wylie bends his points around them. Much of what he has written has come in some form: perhaps mutated Brazilian bees will not pour over the Rio Grande, but the fact that the bees only kill four people and cause a panic in which thousands are trampled and squeezed to death is a good representation of things that have already happened, and had happened when Wylie wrote his book. A plane flies into a building in New York City. At points, he backs out of the pulpy punches into the book's strong miasma of malaise. The hedonic mess that people continue to march into never lets up and neither does the result. Scenes of futile washing of glaciers for freshwater and the “invisible scythe” causing the screams of thousands of New Yorkers succumbing to smog are the high points. Pair this with scientists over-explaining and pundits continuing to “monitor” the situation and the warning seems to ring quite true today." 

'The End of the Dream' was published posthumously in 1972 and foresees a dark future where America slides into ecological catastrophe.  Wylie is probably most known for his 1943 book, 'Generation of Vipers'. Here he invented a concept called 'momism' which railed against America's adoration of mothers. He felt that this was a weakness. Seems kind of strange to come out with this during the darkest days of WWII and it was very controversial. 

If alive today I would bet the farm that Philip Wylie would be a fixture on Fox News. 

FLOATING CITY by Eric Lustbader

 This was a paperback that I bought at the library booksale on Sa 4/13/19

I was surprised to learn that "Eric Van Lustbader took over the Jason Bourne series from Robert Ludlum on his death. Ludlum had just published The Bourne Identity, sharing the New York Times bestseller list with Lustbader's The Ninja and Ludlum wanted to meet his rival. The pair talked long into the night."

I read to page 200 of this 500 page novel when I finally gave up. Too many characters and almost a complete lack of focus. It was not worth the effort to finish.

"A ruthless American killing machine named Rock rules over a secret, blood-soaked empire of riches and murder: Floating City. At his command is the Torch—the tool of ultimate evil that one man can destroy: Nicholas Linnear. But only when he faces the harrowing truth about the Yakuza—the Japanese criminal underworld he despises—and about Koei, the woman he loved as no other, will he find the inner strength to annihilate Floating City and honor his family’s debt to the dead of the Yakuza, the Kaisho. While half a world away, his longtime friend and ex-NYPD detective Lew Croaker hunts the Kaisho’s would-be assassins, Linnear infiltrates a vast web of terror, crossing the line that divides good from evil, sensuality from death, and love from betrayal."

At page 200 the characters had not even reached 'The Floating City'. 

The only idea that interested me was the collusion between the American government and the Yakuza. After WWII the Americans dealt with the Yakuza to keep the new Japanese government in line. 

Too many good books, and too little time for bad. 

RABBIT, RUN by John Updike

 Finished We 9/28/21

I originally finished this on We 3/7/18 and read it again on We 9/28/21 after I unsuccessfully tried to get a Covid booster shot at the Walgreens and CVS in the neighborhood. 

26 year old Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom leaves his pregnant wife Janice and three year old son, Nelson. He becomes involved with Ruth, an unmarried woman who is not above taking a few dollars for her sexual services. Harry met this woman through his old high school basketball coach, Mr. Tethero.

Harry drops Ruth and goes back to his family for the birth of his daughter, Rebecca June. Janice's drinking is out of control and she accidently drowns the baby. Harry runs away from his family again during the funeral...."I didn't kill her, you did". 

He tries to get back with Ruth after he learns that she is also pregnant, but she's had enough.

Interesting quote:

"If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price".

The books page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit,_Run

I have always loved this novel and I have the Rabbit Trilogy in one volume and I'll soon reread the other two.

RAIN DOGS by Sean Doolittle

 Finished Tu 9/21/21

This is a paperback that I bought at Overstock Book Sale on Fr 3/28/08. I think that this was a place that sold books near the governor's mansion along 4th St. 

It's about a former reporter who inherits a ramshackle camp ground that rents canoes during the summer. There are crooked cops and a low-level meth lab operation vie for the readers' attention. 

The novel is set in The Nebraska Sandhills which is located near the Nebraska/ South Dakota border.

From Google Books:

"It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery—and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care."

I read somewhere that the book is named after the Tom Waits album 'RAIN DOGS' and according to Wikipedia the album's general theme is about 'the urban dispossessed'. I didn't see any connection. 

It's a forgettable story with too many characters.

Although I finished the novel in a few sessions, it was hardly worth the effort. 

PERSONAL FREEDOM by Arthur Deikman

 Finished Mo 9/20/21

This is an ancient hardback (pub. 1976) that I found during the 'book clean-up'. I have few 'self-help' books and I decided to give this one a shot.

Basically, he rails against 'Dependency' that he describes as a false adherence to ideas that are no longer relevent or true. Your 'parents' and 'elders' are in your head far after you become an adult and their ideas or biases form a kind of 'psychological shell' around the personality and prevent it from growing. 

A couple of user reviews at Amazon:

"In this short and inspiring book, Deikman seemingly allows his themes to emerge and wander through human emotion and spirituality, our tendency to prefer 'action' to 'receptivity', psychotherapy and meditative practices, and following a learning path. He borrows liberally from the wisdom of others though quotes, and offers a couple of simple practices to help you on your way. I found much to reflect on with every page, and yet Deikman himself describes the 'truths about the human world' that he describes as 'perishable answers' - they carry us just so far, and are not enough. Which is true."

"If you've come to a notion something like, "I think I may have been trained, taught, conditioned, socialized, habituated, accustomed and normalized to believing in all sorts of cultural beliefs, values, ideas, ideals, assumptions, convictions, rules and requirements that don't always square with the way thing really are," Deikman's little gem may be just the ticket out of his buddy, Charlie Tart's "consensus consciousness." (Or, more obtusely, "consensus trance.") Authors like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts and Eric Hoffer could see the Problem, but few before Tart and Deikman so adequately described the Solution. A solution that has since become -- in somewhat diluted (and more politically correct) form -- the bedrock of the modern mindfulness movement advanced by mass market authors like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Tara Brach, Pema Chodron and Eckhardt Tolle... as well as the modern-day giants of psychotherapy like Marsha Linehan, Mark Williams, Stanley Block and Stephen Hayes."

I skimmed through the book in a couple of days. No new ground broken, but not entirely a complete waste of time. 

BODIES ELECTRIC by Colin Harrison

 Finished Fr 9/17/21 in bed. This is a hardback that I received on We 6/16/21 from Amazon. I love this author and I'd read anything he puts out.

It was published in 1993 and has a lot of speculation about the role of  'media giants' in the future. In the early 90's the internet was barely 'a thing' and it really demonstrates how little was known about what it would become. Harrison misses the whole phenomenon of  'social media', but I don't think anyone got that one right. 

A favorite passage: 

"There is something self-evidently false about focusing on particular instants of a life, as opposed to the confluence of patterns that causes events to transpire, but one must find a beginning somewhere when talking about the past.

I felt that neither the man or his lover are entirely right or wrong. Another melodramtic storyline, but the characters seemed 'true to themselves' and all of the action seemed entirely believeable.

Janny and Joe are to stop by this afternoon (Sa 9/18/21) and I want to let her read this novel and I'm rushing to get the notes in the blog.  

From the review at KIRKUS:

"Harrison (Break and Enter, 1990) returns with the story of a 35-year-old widower who takes in a fleeing wife and her four-year- old daughter—at the same time that he's fighting for survival at the top of a communications conglomerate. Jack Whitman's rise to the near-top of a Time-Warneresque corporation was swift and well-rewarded. His personal life was equally successful until his pregnant wife was shot and killed by a drug dealer aiming at nearby rivals. Alone in his big Park Slope brownstone, Whitman now nurses his reflux-ravaged esophagus through the night, and protects his career from attacks on all sides during the day. His company is poised to merge with a German-Japanese conglomerate, an alliance that may take Jack to corporate nirvana or put him on the street. Taking the subway home one night, he meets a beautiful but exhausted woman who, with her little daughter, may be homeless—and after several days, a very tentative Dolores and her much less tentative daughter Maria enter his life. Dolores, a Dominican, has fled her Puerto Rican husband—she's not looking for a relationship, she just needs to stay off the streets. But Jack is clearly and powerfully attracted to her. When the husband picks up Dolores' trail and begins to threaten Jack, Jack hides her and the girl in his house, where she begins to carve out a home for the three of them. Meanwhile, Jack's professional life gets more and more frightening. He's been assigned the suicidal task of convincing the corporation's powerful chairman of the wisdom and inevitability of the megamerger, and the chairman is quite as dangerous as the maniacally vengeful husband.... Intelligent and totally absorbing. What might have been a routine corporate-basher becomes, in the hands of the very skillful, wisely observant, and profoundly moral author, a novel to remember. Walt Whitman haunts the story throughout and to great effect." 

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy

 Mo 9/13/21

A trade paperback that I saved from 'the big blue can'. According to the flyleaf I got the book in early December, 2007 and finished it the first time Fr 12/21/07 during a five day Xmas break from work. 

McCarthy employs a spare writing style, yet very compelling. 

The story occurs in the vicinity of the Mexico–United States border in 1980 and concerns an illegal drug deal gone awry in the Texas desert back country. 

From the review in Kirkus:

"Here, the story’s set in 1980 in southern Texas near the Mexican border, where aging Sheriff Bell, a decorated WWII veteran, broods heroically over the territory he’s sworn to protect, while—in a superb, sorrowful monologue—acknowledging the omnipresence of ineradicable evil all around him. Then the focus trains itself on Vietnam vet Llewellyn Moss, a hunter who stumbles upon several dead bodies, a stash of Mexican heroin and more than $2 million in cash that he absconds with. The tale then leaps among the hunted (Moss), an escaped killer (Anton Chigurh), whose crimes include double-crossing the drug cartel from which the money was taken, the Army Special Forces freelancer (Carson Wells) hired by druglords and—in dogged pursuit of all the horrors spawned by their several interactions—the intrepid, however flawed and guilty, stoical Sheriff Bell: perhaps the most fully human and sympathetic character McCarthy has ever created. The justly praised near-biblical style, an artful fusion of brisk declarative sentences and vivid, simple images, confers horrific intensity on the escalating violence and chaos, while precisely dramatizing the sense of nemesis that pursues and punishes McCarthy’s characters (scorpions in a sealed bottle). But this eloquent melodrama is seriously weakened by its insufficiently varied reiterated message: “if you were Satan . . . tryin to bring the human race to its knees, what you would probably come up with is narcotics.”

I tried to stream the film, but according to Reelgood it's not available. I will get the Netflix disc. 

MIDNIGHT by Dean R. Koontz

 Finished Sa 9/11/21

This is an ancient hardback that I saved from 'the big blue can'. There is no indication on the flyleaf whether I had read it or when I bought the book. 

This is a great contemporary horror story that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire novel. 

Project Moonhawk evolves from a few sessions with 'Cactus Candy'

From Goodreads:

"The citizens of Moonlight Cove are changing. Some are losing touch with their deepest emotions. Others are surrendering to their wildest urges. And the few who remain unchanged are absolutely terrified—if not brutally murdered in the dead of night. Enter the shocking world of Moonlight Cove, where four unlikely survivors confront the darkest realms of human nature..." 

From a review at Publishers Weekly:

" A horror story with science fiction underpinnings, it concerns a brilliant, insane inventor, Theodore Shaddack, who uses the sleepy California town of Moonlight Cove as an outsize lab for a bizarre experiment that ultimately turns the community into a charnel house. He has devised a solution of microchips which, when injected into the (usually unwilling) subject, endows them with immense mental powers over their own bodies, leaving them, however, emotionally lobotomized. As a result, almost all the ``New People'' regress to animal form, to experience again primal sensationsand in animal form, they kill. The story is told from the points of view of four people who perceive that something horrible is happening in Moonlight Cove, and that if they do not act fast, it will happen to them. It is also related from the point of view of Sheriff Loman Watkins, himself a ``New Person,'' but who retains enough moral sense to be disturbed by what is happening around him and in him. Despite some paper-thin characterizations and a predilection for the maudlin, Koontz's sense of pace and the dramatic are sure, and there are a number of memorable moments." 

HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE by Lenny Bruce

 Finished Tu 9/7/21

This is a trade paperback that I bought in San Francisco at The City Lights Bookstore Sa 9/2/21 and I began reading it on the flight back to St. Louis on 9/3/21.

A wild read and some of it was hard to believe, but very true.

The Father Mathias Foundation

He wanted his wife, Honey to stop striping, but he needed money. He devised a scam to solicit aid for a leper colony in British Guiana. He legally chartered the name (Father Mathias befriended Babe Ruth when he was a young child) and actually paid taxes for the organization. He made $8,000 in three weeks and gave $2,500 to the leper colony and kept the rest for 'expenses'. 

Religion, Inc.

Lenny was hoping that people would begin leaving the church and go back to god. 

Clearly targeted by the authorities for the crime of using 'bad' words. Ridiculous. Thanks, American Taliban.

RISING SUN by Michael Crichton

Finished Th 9/2/21

This is one of my ancient hardbacks that I saved from 'the big blue can'. 

A murder of a high-class hooker during a gala party at a Japanese conglomerate in downtown Los Angeles requires two detectives that work as 'foreign liasons' to solve the killing. 

A fairly convoluted plot, yet lots of information about how Japanese practices are vastly different from the American way of doing business.  

The book's review at Kirkus:

"The Yellow Menace returns in Crichton's shocking, didactic, enormously clever new mystery-thriller—only now he wears a three-piece suit and aims to dominate America through force of finance, not arms. "The Japanese can be tough," says one character here. "They say 'business is war,' and they mean it." How much they mean it Lt. Peter J. Smith, LAPD, learns when he's assigned to the murder of an American call-girl at the gala opening of the L.A. high-rise headquarters of the Japanese conglomerate Nakamoto. There, Smith butts heads with men whose alien mannerisms he can't interpret and who insist on their own "private inquiry." Fortunately, he's joined by legendary Japan-savvy cop John Connor, the real hero here, a Holmes to narrator Smith's Watson. At the crime scene and thereafter, Connor, whose love/hate for the Japanese stems from years lived in their land, interprets Japanese ways to Smith: "Control your gestures. Keep your hands at your sides. The Japanese find big arm movements threatening..." Connor's commentary is always fascinating but, as the serpentine case coils on, numerous instances of Japanese financial dirty dealing are cited by characters who disparage the Japanese sufficiently ("The Japanese don't believe in fair trade at all"; "Japanese corporations in America...think they're surrounded by savages") to bathe Smith—and the novel—in xenophobic paranoia: It's not by chance that the only likable Japanese here is a crippled beauty who fled to America because "to the Japanese, deformity is shameful." Crichton's coup is to preach within a breathtakingly supple plot hinging on doctored Nakamoto security videotapes that caught the killer at work, the deciphering of which takes place in lab-set scenes as technologically riveting as the best in Jurassic Park. And as suspenseful—for as Smith closes in on the killer and the huge-money stakes behind the crime, Nakamoto agents threaten his family, his career, and his life. Brilliantly calculated Japan-bashing that's bound, for better or for worse, to attract controversy and a huge readership."

Since 1992 when the book was relesed things have changed. China is now the world power in the east and I'd like to read a novel about China's adverairial business practices.  

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove

Refinished Mo 8/30/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first finished on We 11/19/97. This was a book that was headed for the trash, but I'm sure glad I saved it. A great read, but I kind of disagreed with the premise.

Would Southern leaders drop the 'segregation' issue so easily? I doubt it, and with the way things are these days, I really doubt it. 

Premise: A rogue South African military unit from the future gives the Confederate army thousands of AK 47 to defeat the Union. When Robert E. Lee learns that these guys are coming from the future to permanently stop the liberation of Blacks, he is able to convince the more conservative elements of his government. I really doubt that this would happen because it's not believable that they would so easily give up their deep rooted predjudice. 

Link to the book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_the_South

I've ordered a couple of more books by Turtledove from Amazon.

According to the book, Lee had always sought to end the tradition of slavery. Is this true?

In the novel Nathan Bedford Forrest runs for president of the Confederacy agaisnt Lee. Forrest has a group of men called 'Forrest's Trees'. Someone in the novel says that it reminds them of Lincoln's 'Wide Awakes'. This is an actual group that followed Lincoln in his run from president in 1860. They carried torches and wore rubber ponchoes or capes.

The Rivington men name their hotel 'Notthehilton'.

'AWB'- America Will Break; the symbol for the Rivington men

LANCELOT by Walker Percy

This is one of my ancient hardbacks (pub. 1977) and there is no entry about when I finished it the first time or where I bought the book. 

Finished Sa 8/21/21

Set on a classic New Orleans house that is a local historical site. Lancelot Lamar's wife has allowed a movie crew to film on the estate. A fierce hurricane is approaching and the the house is in disarray.

The man of the house notices a form that lists his daughter's blood type. He learns that he could not be the father of his daughter. He suspects that the director of the film is actually the father. 

He is relating his story to a friend/priest/psychiatrist named Percival who never really speaks.

From NY Times review:

"In Walker Percy's fourth novel, "Lancelot," a Southern gentleman confronts the decadence of America in the 1970's and is driven nearly insane by it. "I cannot tolerate this age," rants Lancelot Andrewes Lamar from his cell in a prison hospital in New Orleans. "I won't have it. . .the great whorehouse and fagdom of America. . . . I do not propose to live in Sodom or to raise my son and daughters in Sodom. . . . Millions agree with me and know that this age is not tolerable, but no one will act except the crazies and they are part of the age. The mad Mansons are nothing more than the spasm-orgasm of a dying world. We are only here to give it the coup de grâce. We shall not wait for it to fester and rot any longer. We will kill it."

Moving Making

New Orleans history

Hurricanes

Adultery

Madness

A link to Biblioklept. A comprehensive review of the novel.

https://biblioklept.org/2020/09/12/on-walker-percys-postmodern-gothic-novel-lancelot/

This is Walker Percy's fourth novel and I will keep an eye out for more by this author. 

TWEAK (Growing Up On Methamphetamines) by Nic Sheff

 This is one of my hardbacks that I bought at the west branch for two dollars on Tu 1/6/98 and first finished on Fr 1/9/09..."before going to work to pick up pay stubs at 1700 Hazel Dell". 

Refinished on We 8/18/21

The rich and the entitled get many more chances when they fuck up. Someone without Nic Sheff's advantages might have made for a more interesting tale. The entire tone of the book could be filed under "white people's problems".  

No new ground broken, but the book gives a harrowing look at how addiction can destroy a relatively secure home. 

A wrap at Goodreads:

"Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge into the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture for us of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself. It's a harrowing portrait—but not one without hope." 

I did watch most of the movie that was based on the book. It's on Amazon Prime and stars Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet.

THE SUM OF US: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather Mcghee

 Finished Tu 8/17/21 After doctor's visit with Agnes Fenner

This is a book that I borrowed on Kindle from the library. I think that I heard the author on a podcast and I'm glad I got the book. This is one of the 'Critical Race Theory' books that has gotten the D.F.N. (Dumb Fuck Nation) in a snit. 

Zero Sum Game: Any aid given to ethnic or racial minorities subtracts from the dominant white race. "Whatever they get takes away from what we have".

The book demonstrates that although blacks are harder hit, this kind of thinking also negatively impacts white people. And there are more white people that are hurt than blacks because there are more whites in the country. 

***I was shocked (but not surprised) to learn that during the late fifties and early sixties numerous communities decided to fill in swimming pools rather than accept integration. This occurred in the south as well as the north. 

She writes of a southern pundit and author who opposed slavery because it showed that the slave states had almost no concerns for the community. Northern states had many times more public libraries and public schools than the south. The slave states didn't care because it was just the 1% running 99% of the country. The rich could easily afford what they needed and could care less about anyone else. This disparity still exists and it's very evident, but rarely mentioned so it seems like it doesn't exist.  

The policy decisions of the 40's through the 60's was specially designed to only help whites. The GI Bill didn't do much to further black's educational opportunities and in housing it specifically denied black homeowners due to 'red lining'. This was a method to deny home loans to blacks because they were located in poor areas and they were automatically rejected because they were bad risks. Nothing was ever done to prove that poor whites were a better risk than poor blacks. 

I want to read more books on 'Critical Race Theory'. 

SHARKY'S MACHINE by William Diehl

Finished Mo 8/9/21 

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first read and finished on Mo 10/4/93

"Capitalism gives all of us opportunity if we seize it with both hands and hang on to it"- AL CAPONE

Set in 70's Atlanta, Georgia. 

A corrupt Georgia congressman is trying to seek the Democratic nomination for president to run against Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter actually ran against Ford. The novel mentions Ford's 'distancing himself' from Nixon's malfeasance.  

A cop named Sharky finds an erotic tape from a high priced hooker that links the politician to her. 

***I included this kindle review from Amazon since it does a pretty good job relating the plot of this compelling novel. 

"This book is probably 3.5 stars – between “I Like It” and “It’s Okay”. It has a lot of qualities that make it an enjoyable and exciting book, and it has some qualities that make it annoying, unbelievable, and frustrating.

It opens with a scene set in WWII. A small group of American soldiers sets out on an apparently doomed mission to recover a shipment dropped from an Allied aircraft. In this scene we learn things and we meet people who are to be critical players later in the story – pay close attention.

Shortly after the war, one of the two surviving members of the group is murdered by another critical player - pay attention here, too.

Fast forward to the present time (1970’s). Sharky is a dedicated young Atlanta city cop on the narcotics squad. While setting up a drug dealer for an arrest, things go badly and he ends up chasing the dealer across town and onto a city bus, where he shoots him dead amidst a load of passengers. Despite his success, his overbearing, hardline captain is displeased and busts him into vice. Ironically, vice is full of people who are remarkably talented and aggressive, and from these people Sharky puts together his “machine”, a collection of cops with various talents who work together to pursue a case.

Sharky’s machine is investigating a high end prostitution outfit when they stumble upon a crime syndicate which reaches into the top drawer of politics and includes a senator who is going to run for president. They meet the enchantingly beautiful, captivating Domino, the prostitute who is involved (unwittingly to some degree) with the crime group. Sharky finds himself attracted to her, and strangely she begins to fall for him as well. But while Sharky is staking out her apartment, a gunman shows up and blows her away with a double barrel shotgun.

The machine continues to pursue the case, looking for Domino’s killer and piecing together seemingly unrelated clues. They use their various talents to face down resistance, deadly danger, and all sorts of characters from the criminal underworld of Atlanta. They attract the attention of the criminal group, they discover who is behind the scenes, and they hatch a plan to take out the bad guys.

At the end, the players from the very first part of the book are revealed to be the masterminds behind the criminal activity, and Sharky and his group discover that their goal is to enable their senator friend to ascend to the presidency and thus have the most powerful man in the world under their collective thumb. A shootout takes place, Sharky is reunited with a lost love, the good guys win, and the book is over.

Sharky’s Machine is quite well written by a guy who is very capable of crafting words into a tale that grabs your attention and makes you want to stay with the book to the very end. The prose is appealing, the pace is quick and exciting, and the grammar is correct. Action and surprises are on nearly every page, and the descriptions of 1970’s Atlanta and the police tactics and strategies, the criminal activity, and the jargon of the time are captured nicely. The descriptions of the sexual activity are explicit; indeed they are “unambiguous” by today’s standard, and I imagine they were scandalous at the time the book was written. (I have the feeling this is why my mom didn’t want me to watch Burt Reynolds movies.)

The book isn’t without its flaws, however. Most annoying is the failure of the author to reinforce the presence of the early characters in the reader’s mind. The prologue chapters involving the WWII plot include characters essential to the story. They appear briefly in the beginning, but they are not visited again until the end of the book when the author ties up [some] of the loose ends. I understand that it is supposed to be a surprise plot twist, discovering that the people you meet early on are alive and well and are responsible for the mayhem in the book; however, so much happens between the beginning and the end that I found myself flipping back to the beginning to figure out who the people were.

And the ending. Well. It just ends. The final scene, where everyone is shooting everyone, just isn’t terribly believable. I can’t imagine cops working that way. When Sharky walks out at the end with the girl on his arm, and walks right past his enraged boss, it is hard to imagine how he is going to get away without at least being fired, and possibly even getting arrested.

The story itself is well written and easy to read, but it is based on some goofy, unrealistic foundations. Such is the way with novels, obviously, but the book simply does not provide the closure that you would expect from something as long and as detailed as Sharky’s Machine otherwise is. Read it for nostalgia’s sake, and read it for its grit, but pay careful attention to everyone you meet.

Like nearly every thriller lover in Atlanta at the time, I read "Sharky's Machine" when it was first published in the 1970s and have fond memories of both the book and the underrated Burt Reynolds movie of the same title. "Sharky's Machine" was the first major contemporary thriller I can recall with an Atlanta setting, and both the book and the movie captured the feel of the city at that time. When it was recently offered for free on Amazon, I decided to reread it some 30 years later, to see if it held up. Despite some preposterous plotting (of the James Bond movie variety), it does.

Sharky, the title character, is a top Atlanta undercover cop who runs afoul of the brass when an attempted drug buy goes bad, resulting in a shootout on a crowded city bus. Even though no one but the drug dealer was hurt, the press has a field day with the event, and Sharky winds up being sent to the Vice Squad, a dumping ground for similar cops who have had a falling out with the powers that be. Sharky discovers that he's working with some good, experienced detectives who are tired of busting streetwalkers and flashers and want some real action. They soon get their wish.

"Sharky's Machine" takes place in 1975, and the major storyline revolves around a Southern politician who, like the real life Jimmy Carter at that time, is planning to run for President. He's got big bucks behind him as well, in the person of Victor DeLaroza, a shady businessman who seemed to appear from nowhere after World War II and later became a tycoon. As readers gradually learn throughout the course of the book, DeLaroza's fortune had its origins in an American gold shipment that disappeared in Italy in World War II following a botched intelligence operation. Since then, DeLaroza has been gradually eliminating anyone who might be able to tie him to the missing gold, with the help of a top notch hitman who also had ties to the gold shipment. The last potential witness is a high end call girl named Domino who has been very friendly with both Victor and the politician in the past. After one last romp in the hay with Domino, Victor dispatches the hitman to eliminate her.

Unfortunately for them, Sharky and his pals had been staking out Domino's apartment on an unrelated case and arrive on the scene just after the killer escapes. They decide to pursue the investigation into her murder on their own without involving Homicide, especially since Sharky by now has a personal motive, since he had met Domino and fallen for her hard. Thanks to some shrewd detective work (including some 1970s era forensic work by a couple of Sharky's buddies in the crime lab and M.E.'s office), they soon put the pieces together, leading to a highly suspenseful final confrontation with DeLaroza at the grand opening of a lavish indoor amusement park the businessman had recently built (based on an actual park built in Atlanta at that time).

The main action of the book, from Sharky's drug bust gone bad to the final confrontation, takes place in less than a week, and Diehl stretches credibility considerably to have so much happen in such a short period of time. However, this accelerated timeline makes for a very fast paced read, and readers will find themselves easily getting swept up in the case. Sharky and his fellow cops make for scruffy, likable underdogs, and they have a knack for astute observation and clever deduction, asking the right questions, and knowing the right people to lean on. They aren't as fully developed as they might have been, but Diehl provides as much detail as he can without harming the narrative pace. Frankly, Diehl could easily have written a long running series about these characters, gradually filling in the character details. The most interesting aspect of the investigation is the period forensics work, with modern day readers sure to get a kick out of the "primitive" methods the cops had to rely on back then.

Diehl was quite well versed on a number of topics, including Oriental culture, and, since DeLaRoza is a big admirer of that culture, Diehl could showcase his knowledge at length without really interfering with the flow of the story. He also describes in considerable detail and considerable length some rather graphic sexual scenes involving Domino and DeLaRoza. The language is quite explicit in these scenes, albeit quite erotic as well. Readers who don't care for that sort of material should be advised accordingly.

There are a few things to quibble about in "Sharky's Machine," including some rather incredible coincidences that move the plot along. Similarly, Diehl finds the "mystery" of DeLaroza's origins and how they tie into the missing gold shipment far more interesting than I did. Some judicious editing of this material would have allowed more time with Sharky and the cops. However, there's no denying that the book has everything you'd want in a thriller: often clever dialogue, a major plot twist, a couple of exciting action set pieces, and a suspenseful finale. If anything, the story's more entertaining today than when it was written because of the historical perspective we now have of what was then contemporary. "Sharky's Machine" remains what it was then: a fast paced thrill ride with an authentic Atlanta setting. I'd rate it 4 1/2 stars, rounded up to five based on the setting (I've always got a soft spot for local literature)."

William Diehl is a great writer and I'll keep my eyes open for more by this author. 

 

ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GOING TO BE STRANGERS by Larry McMurtry

Refinished Tu 8/3/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I found while moving the books back into the remolded area downstairs. According to the flyleaf I started and finished the book in one day- Sa 3/13/94. 

A young man lands a book deal while still in college.

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Ranging from Texas to California on a young writer's journey in a car he calls El Chevy, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is one of Larry McMurtry's most vital and entertaining novels.

Danny Deck is on the verge of success as an author when he flees Houston and hurtles unexpectedly into the hearts of three women: a girlfriend who makes him happy but who won't stay, a neighbor as generous as she is lusty, and his pal Emma Horton. It's a wild ride toward literary fame and an uncharted country...beyond everyone he deeply loves. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is a wonderful display of Larry McMurtry's unique gift: his ability to re-create the subtle textures of feelings, the claims of passing time and familiar place, and the rich interlocking swirl of people's lives."

I loved the colorful characters and the 60's vibe. The ease with which Danny flows from one sexual relationship to another seemed to be almost an unconscious nod to 'the free love' generation. 

After reading the book I learned on Wikipedia that 'ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GOING TO BE STRANGERS' was the second book in the 'Houston Series' that featured characters living in the Houston, Texas area. 

Also, in 2011 McMurtry married Norma Faye Kesey, the widow of writer Ken Kesey. McMurtry died on March 25, 2021 died at his home in Archer City, Texas. He was 84 years old.

 

UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT by James W. Hall

 Finished Th 7/29/21

This is one of my paperbacks that I never read, but purchased at the library book sale on Fr 6/7/19.

This was an enjoyable 'beach' or 'airport' read, but no new ground broken.

James W. Hall is a writer who centers his books in Florida and this one mostly occurred in the Florida Keys- especially Key West. I didn't realize that this book was the first in a series until I finished reading it. At Wikipedia it shows that this book was released in 1987 and now there are 15 novels in this series. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"The first Thorn mystery from Edgar Award–winning author James W. Hall: a story of revenge in the Florida Keys that “starts good and stays good, right to the end” (Chicago Tribune).

Thorn’s parents died the day he was born, run off the road by a drunk driver on their way back from the hospital. The baby lived, the offender beat the rap, and both went on with their lives—until nineteen years later, when Thorn took revenge, hunting down his parents’ killer and taking his life in a vain attempt to bring back those who had been lost.

 Two decades later, Thorn remains scarred by his crime. He lives in Key West, selling fishing flies and keeping an eye on Kate Truman, the woman who adopted him. But now he has lost her, too, to a pair of brutal murderers whom the police have no hope of tracking down. Thorn knows the Keys, and he will find them—but before he can take revenge, he must confront the horror of the first time he killed.

 The first in the series featuring Thorn, who “may remind you of John D. MacDonald’s immortal Travis McGee . . . or perhaps Lee Child’s Jack Reacher” (TheWashington Post Book World), this intense thriller is filled with both danger and emotional depth. Elmore Leonard has called James W. Hall’s debut novel “a beauty.”

More or less it is a 'revenge book' about a man who gets even for the senseless deaths of his parents by a drunk driver. The 'avenging' happens in the first scenes of the novel. 

A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe

 Finished Sa 7/17/21

This is a very large hardback that I've owned for many years, but had not read. It sat on the living room shelf and I saw it, but thought it was a copy of 'BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES'.  I'm glad I finally opened it because it was a great read. Almost as good as 'BONFIRE'. 

Set in Atlanta, Georgia and Oakland, California.

It is Tom Wolfe's second novel and was published in 1998

Charlie Croker is a very wealthy real estate developer who is just about tapped out. There are a myriad of characters, but the basic story is about this man. 

I loved Wolfe's writing style and I should read more by this author. 

From The New York Times:

"The protagonist, Charlie Croker, is a megalomaniacal white Atlanta real estate developer whose empire, along with his identity, is hurtling toward bankruptcy. Meanwhile, a black football star at Georgia Tech, Fareek (the Canon) Fanon, is accused of raping the daughter of a prominent white Atlanta businessman. The two events converge like a pair of churning rivers, and all of Atlanta is swept away in the deluge. Charlie's wives, his bank officers, his white business friends, his black legal adversaries, his former employees -- all these characters find themselves in their own peculiar jams. (All Wolfe's characters seem to start out in trouble on their way to even bigger troubles.) Nevertheless, each finds time to visit misery upon Charlie Croker."

The link to the book's page on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_in_Full

The Conrad character becomes enamored with the philosophy of the STOICS through a philosopher named EPICTETUS.

Quotes:

***Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

***Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

***If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

 

THE TIMOTHY FILES by Lawrence Sanders

THE TIMOTHY FILES is a trilogy that contains 3 novellas; 'THE WALL STREET DICKS', 'THE WHIRLIGIG ACTION', and 'A COVEY OF COUSINS'.

I finished 'A COVEY OF COUSINS'  early July, 2021.

From Thriftbooks.com:

"The Timothy Files presents the likable Timothy Cone as a corporate intelligence specialist (he hates the term "private detective"), who works for Haldering and Co. Haldering and Co. investigates potential suitors for mergers and takeovers. This benign milieu provides the backdrops for some intriguing mysteries." 

"A Covey of Cousins, the third and final novella, pits Timothy's horsesense against a dysfunctional clan of criminals, the Laboris. Drug smuggling, money laundering are just the least of the challenges he encounters on his way to unraveling these riddles. With a superb cast of the bumbling Timothy, the overbearing Samantha, and the hideous and adorable Cleo, we are set for a thrill ride. Their relationship, as well as his exploits, satisfy an innate desire to see the underdog win. The writing is light-hearted, even when the crimes are not. Indeed, in Sanders world, light humor and dark crimes happily coexist. A good way to pass time, all readers should enjoy this flavor of Cone."

It was an easy read and I love anything set in NYC during the 70's or 80's.

I was surprised to learn that Lawrence Sanders wrote his first novel, 'THE ANDERSON TAPES', in 1970, at the age of 50.

THE FINDER by Colin Harrison

 I received this from Amazon on Mo 6/21/21 and finished on Mo 7/5/21.

This was my third novel by Colin Harrison and I love his writing.

This one addresses the problem of 'paper trails' and how major Manhattan corporations dispose of their sensitive documents.

A Chinese firm handles cleaning offices, but they also shred documents. However, this outfit searches the papers to find information that they can use.

Jin Li is a beautiful Chinese woman who handles the American side of the operation for her brother, Chen. He is a ruthless and up and coming mogul in China. They have been using discarded secrets to game the international markets for big bucks. 

When another sleazy company finds out their scheme, two young women are 'drowned in waste'. A 'honey wagon' traps the car and fills it will liquid waste. 

Jin Li was in the car, but she managed to escape and the novel is about how she manages to stay alive.

Ray Grant is her ex and he learns of her plight and tries to help.

Grant was one of the firemen that were injured in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He and a partner were crushed under the rubble. He was badly burned by a live wire and barely escaped with his life. After that incident, he traveled the world to try and help victims of natural and manmade disasters. 

I love Harrison's novels and I have one more that I got from Amazon  and I plan to get more from the library. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Harrison spins the story of a young, beautiful, secretive Chinese woman, Jin-Li, who gets involved in a brilliant scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose enormous sums of money, Jin-Li goes on the run. Meanwhile, her former lover, Ray Grant, a man who was out of the country for years but who has recently returned, is caught up in the search for her. Ray has not been forthcoming to Jin-Li about why he left New York or what he was doing overseas, but his training and strengths will be put to the ultimate test against those who are unmerciful in their desire to regain a fortune lost. Ray is going to have to find Jin-Li, and he is going to have to find her fast."

INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE by Philip Friedman

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I finished on We 8/7/96 and this time I finished it on We 6/30/21.

A real good legal thriller set in 80's NYC.

The hook is that the district attorney is re-trying a murder case and he has a strong suspicion that the state's killer was actually innocent. However, it was kind of a let down to learn that he really did do it. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"For tough New York City prosecutor Joe Estrada, the law is his life. That's why he's determined to get the goods on millionaire real-estate tycoon and community hero Roberto Morales, who is accused of raping and murdering his mistress. The more Joe investigates, however, the closer he moves to the possibility that Morales is innocent and that all he has to go on is...INADMISSABLE EVIDENCE." 

I would read more by Philip Friedman.

UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS by Daniel Woodrell

 Finished Su 6/20/21

This is part of a trilogy that I got on Amazon and received on We 6/16/21.

It's a novella of 160 pages.

"Although Woodrell might be best known for his Ozark stories, his first three published novels were pulp noir detective tales set in a fictional Louisiana river town. Those three novels - Under The Bright Lights, Muscle For The Wing, The Ones You Do - have been compiled and thankfully reissued as The Bayou Trilogy."

From the book's page at Amazon:

"First published in 1986, the author's first crime novel sends Rene Shade, a police detective in Louisiana's bayou country, to investigate a murder involving a racist hit man, a pornography merchant, shady politicians, and small-time criminals." 

Woodrell is a great writer and his novels are full of pithy dialogue and quirky characters. It sure didn't feel like a first novel and I will definitely come back and read the remaining two novels in the trilogy. 

He wrote 'WINTER'S BONE' that I ordered in German many years ago.    

THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene

 Finished Th 6/17/21

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks and there is no date of purchase.

Last week I watched a documentary about Graham Greene and I was looking for 'THE POWER AND THE GLORY', and I couldn't find that novel but located this one. 

Graham Greene actually worked for MI-6 in the 50's and his boss was the infamous, Kim Philby.

The novel is set in Vietnam of the 1950's.

Thomas Fowler- an English 'reporter, not a columnist'..."Just The Facts, No Perspectives". He is married, but has a girlfriend, Phuong who was a 'dancer' in one of the clubs. Fowler smokes opium through most of the novel, but doesn't seem impaired in any way.  

Alden Pyle is an overly eager and 'patriotic' American. He knows nothing of the real country of Vietnam, but he gets all of his information from books from a particular historian. 

It's a 'three way' love triangle set in a country that's involved in a civil war. 

It's really Terrorism before the term was invented. 

From NPR:

"The Quiet American, by Graham Greene, was written in 1955 and set in Vietnam, then the site of a rising local insurgency against French colonial rule. In its brilliant braiding together of a political and a romantic tangle, its characters serve as emblems of the American, European and Asian way, and yet ache and tremble as ordinary human beings do. It also is a typically Greenian prophecy of what would happen 10 years later when U.S. troops would arrive, determined to teach a rich and complex place the latest theories of Harvard Square. Lyrical, enchanted descriptions of rice paddies, languorous opium dens and even slightly sinister Buddhist political groups are a lantered backdrop to a tale of irony and betrayal."

I liked the book and would read more by Greene.

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE by M. William Phelps

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks and I bought it at The Book House in Rock Hill, Mo. in 2005. I used to take the motorcycle to this store on Manchester in Rock Hill.

***I just learned that this store was torn down in January of 2014. That's a damn shame, but apparently the owners opened at a new location.  

Refinished Tu 6/15/21. There is no date on the flyleaf when I bought the book, but on that day I went to see 'GRIZZLY MAN' at The Frontenac. 

The book is about Gary Evans who was a multiple murderer and master thief of antique stores in upstate New York (near Albany).

He killed two antique store owners and three of his 'partners'.

The book is about the relationship that Evans had with New York State Police Senior Investigator James Horton. Horton initially thought that Evans was a very smart young man who had a terrible upbringing and just needed a chance. He had no idea that Evans was also a killer. 

Evans never made it to trial because he busted out of a police van and jumped off a bridge. He had hidden a handcuff key in his sinuses. 

When Evans was in Sing Sing he was friends with The Son of Sam. They were both avid weight lifters.

Evans was also a dedicated camper and he could hide for long periods of time (winter or summer) in remote areas of New York. 

From Amazon:

"Con Man    

In December 1989, in upstate New York, Gary C. Evans, 35, a master of disguise and career criminal who had befriended David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, began weaving a web of deadly lies. Evans told a female friend that Damien Cuomo, the father of her child, had deserted her. Of that he could be certain, since he'd killed Cuomo, and subsequently struck up a ten-year romance with the woman while tricking her into believing Cuomo was still alive.  

Law Man 

Evans first met New York State Police Senior Investigator James Horton in 1985, when Evans fingered Michael Falco, 26, as the brains behind their theft team—yet failed to mention that he'd murdered him. Then, two local jewelry dealers were killed. In 1997 Tim Rysedorph, 39, another old friend, went missing. Was Evans responsible? Horton launched a nationwide manhunt to uncover the truth.  

End Game

For more than 13 years, Evans and Horton maintained an odd relationship—part friendship, part manipulation—with Evans serving as a snitch while the tenacious investigator searched for the answers that would put him away. After Horton used Evans as a pawn to obtain a confession from a local killer, Evans led Horton in a final game of cat-and-mouse: a battle of wits that would culminate in the most shocking death of all."

 

THE HAVANA ROOM by Colin Harrison

 I ordered this hardback from Amazon and received it on Mo 5/24/21 and finished on Fr 6/11/21. This author wrote 'MANHATTAN NOCTURNE' and I loved the movie. This novel was just as good and maybe I liked it even more.

An upper class lawyer living north of NYC comes home early from a business trip. His young son was having a sleepover to celebrate his eighth birthday. The man inadvertently gives one of the boys a glass of milk. The man had been eating Thai food and peanut oil was on his fingers and it got on the glass that he gave the boy. The boy had a severe allergy to peanuts and he dies. The boys father is very powerful and he destroys the man's life. 

This would have been more than enough for a novel, but the story begins again and he falls under the spell of a downtown NYC restaurant and what goes on in the secret 'Havana Room'.

Select members get to dine of a species of fish that is deadly poisonous, but provides a mind bending psychedelic experience. 

Harrison is a great writer and I'll read everything that I can find by him. 

From Google Books:

"Bill Wyeth is a real estate attorney in his late thirties who seems to have it all: a wonderful wife and son, a successful practice, and all the benefits wealth can bestow. Then, through a devastating twist of fate, he loses everything. Within weeks, he is unmoored and alone, drifting toward the city's darker corners. Wyeth is soon drawn to an old-time Manhattan steakhouse, where he becomes intrigued by the manager, Allison Sparks - sexy, complicated, and independent in all ways. Allison controls access to the restaurant's private bar, the Havana Room - and what goes on in there, he's told, is secret." "To impress Allison, Wyeth agrees to help her friend, Jay Rainey, conclude a last-minute midnight real estate transaction. But once he sees the players and the paperwork, Wyeth knows something is wrong. And before long, he's inextricably ensnared in Rainey's peculiar obsessions, which involve a Chilean businessman who feels he's been swindled, an old farmer frozen dead to a bulldozer, an outrageous black owner of a downtown hip-hop club, and a fourteen-year-old English girl. Only Rainey knows the connections between these people, which are revealed when Wyeth is finally admitted to the Havana Room where the survival of its occupants is most uncertain."

THE CITY AND THE PILLAR by Gore Vidal

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the main branch on Su 1/2/94 for fifty cents. It only took two days to read it then, and I finished it again in two days on Mo 6/7/21.

I guess the book would be considered tame by today's standards, but when it was published in 1947 it must have been a real mind blower. 

 From the internet:

"The novel begins with Jim Willard drunk in a New York City bar. From there, a flashback is cued that fills out the bulk of the novel before we return, in the final chapter, to the present. Jim is reared in a politician’s family in Virginia, and is an all-American athlete himself destined for politics. But in high school, he falls in love with a classmate named Bob and they share a tryst in an old “slave cabin” (Vidal again links instances of oppression) by the Potomac:

Now they were complete, as each became the other, as their bodies collided with a primal violence, like to like, metal to magnet, half to half and the whole restored.

Then novel’s prose will rarely be so lyrical again. After high school, Jim becomes a sailor, and then he jumps ship and becomes the kept man of a movie star named Shaw. Life with Shaw gives Jim his introduction into the queer demimonde, which Jim regards ambivalently. Like Forster’s Maurice and Baldwin’s David, Vidal’s Jim is characterized as a “normal” man but for his desire for other men. “Normal” here means “not effeminate.” This is unacceptable to us, no doubt, but these novels tend to express a horror at the feminine, wishing instead to associate male homosexuality with traditionally masculine expressions of gender. As in Giovanni’s Room, the effeminacy of the queer male world is implied to be damage done by the constraints of the closet, and also a cause of the sorrows of gay life.

The City and the Pillar certainly dwells on the sorrows, though they come across more as corruptions given the briskness of the novel’s unsentimental dialogue-heavy and generally anti-lyrical style. Vidal in his introduction says he intended “a flat gray prose reminiscent of one of James T. Farrell’s social documents,” while Brian A. Oard ingeniously compares the novel to Candide. And in Vidal’s pitilessly appraising eye, canvassing in a brief but picaresque text almost the whole of North America as well as London and the sea, there is not a little of Voltaire.

The rest of the novel’s plot is shortly told. Jim leaves Shaw to take up with the writer Sullivan, which gives Vidal a chance to satirize the literary world. After a failed love triangle in Mexico with Sullivan and a woman named Maria, Jim enters the army during World War II and experiences more romantic failure. Though he finds economic success postwar as a tennis instructor in New York, he remains unlucky in love and unsatisfied with the gay subculture, a dissatisfaction that Vidal brings out most brutally in his cruel portrayal of the fatuous and hypocritical party host Rolly: “‘You know, I loathe these screaming pansies…I mean, after all, why be a queen if you like other queens, if you follow me?'”

The novel is plainly moving toward the crisis of Jim’s reunion with Bob, his first love, now married with a child. While Bob had been a willing sexual partner in their youth and expresses ambivalence when he rejoins Jim in New York, he eventually rebuffs his old friend’s advances. Following this rejection by his Platonically ideal male lover, Jim rapes Bob and leaves him face down on a hotel room bed (and in fact, in the novel’s original 1948 version, he kills Bob). After this unforgivable violation, Jim goes to the bar where we met him in the novel’s first chapter. The despairing conclusion finds him in contemplation of the river, water being the novel’s symbol of metamorphosis from the Potomac beside which Jim and Bob make love to the ocean on which they separately set sail:

Once more he stood beside a river, aware at last that the purpose of rivers is to flow into the sea. Nothing that ever was changes. Yet nothing that is can ever be the same as what went before.

As these words imply, The City and the Pillar differs from Forster’s, Baldwin’s, and (to a lesser extent) Isherwood’s novels. The hero’s fundamental problem is not society’s ban on his love for men as it is in, say, Giovanni’s Room. Jim’s tragedy, or fortunate fall, is rather the reverse: his love for men, by freeing him from family life and respectable bourgeois society, discloses to him the essential emptiness of existence, as perceived by the godless Vidal but concealed beneath monotheistic rhetoric and the nuclear family. Like the queer theorist Lee Edelman after him, Vidal treasures queerness for its power to dissolve comforting illusions, its anti-promise of “no future.” 

Like his political essays, then, Vidal’s fiction retains a power to shock and disturb. But Vidal’s wit is better expressed in essay form, where it is wedded to the dissolutely avuncular charm of his voice, rather than to the cold eye of his novel’s third-person narrator. The novel’s grim point, too, could have been made without the climactic act of violence, whether murder or rape, which to me bespeaks a young author’s belief that shock tactics can disguise structural flaws.

The novel’s main structural flaw is Jim. He is too colorless a character, merely a passive observer, his recalcitrant lovelessness and unconvincing obsession with his youthful paramour inexplicable extremisms. (Vidal compares him to Humbert Humbert in his introduction, but where in Jim is Humbert’s idiosyncrasy and perversity?) The novel’s title allies Jim to Lot’s wife: he is destroyed for looking back. But what does Vidal give him to look forward to? I admire amoralism in a novel, but immoralism is moralism’s equal and opposite, just another version of the didactic. Oddly, Vidal’s essays feel less sermonic than this novel does.

Even so, The City and the Pillar is darkly entertaining, historically illuminating, and remorselessly intelligent. Though politics and history have left him behind, as they will leave all of us behind, Gore Vidal remains a writer to read."

PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia Butler

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks and I first completed the novel on Fr 3/10/95 and I refinished on Sa 6/5/21.

Link to an excellent review from The New Yorker:

 https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again

I really liked the novel and it reminded me of 'THE ROAD'  by Cormac McCarthy.

From Goodreads:

"In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind." 

TOMATO RED by Daniel Woodrell

 This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I ordered on the Internet in the first week of April, 2007, but I never read it.

Refinished on Tu 6/1/21

From an archived NY Times review:

"The handy rubric ''noir'' has been applied to Daniel Woodrell's five previous novels (the last was actually subtitled ''A Country Noir''), but I would classify his latest -- dealing as it does with the despair of Ozarks poverty -- as hillbilly blue. In any case, ''Tomato Red'' counters its sad themes with storytelling that is vivid, funny and full of bad attitude. Sammy Barlach, the narrator, has a voice like a switchblade, and he uses its edge to undercut the reader's expectations of country folk and of violence itself.

Barlach is also the hero of ''Tomato Red'' -- and we're talking classic, tragic-flaw hero. He is, like all good noir heroes, alienated and drawn to action of the violent variety. New on the scene in West Table, a little Missouri town, he becomes bound up (literally, in the novel's opening pages) with a weird family. Jamalee Merridew, a tiny 19-year-old with hair dyed the color of tomatoes, is trying to turn her beautiful 17-year-old brother, Jason, lusted after by the women of West Table, into a stud whose sexual services will buy the two of them their tickets out of town. However, Jason's sexual anxieties -- he thinks he might be what Ozark folks call ''country queer'' -- make him a poor provider of pleasure, despite a family interest in the trade: his and Jamalee's mother, Bev, is a lusty prostitute.

Sammy is sweet on both women, who have been assigned (in one of the novel's least original conceptions) the predictable roles of whore and unattainable goddess. Bev takes an unseemly amount of pleasure from plying her trade (if we were all this ecstatic at our jobs, we'd be a nation of happy workers). Jamalee regards sex with a complementary portion of dread. Sammy's attraction to the pair is charged by their mother-daughter friction, by his own sexual insecurity and -- in a good twist -- by his ambivalent response to Jason. Sammy experiences Jason's struggle over sexual identity as threatening, but he summons empathy for the boy's problems in a place where homosexuality is regarded as threatening to just about everybody. Woodrell uses both men's sexual fears to propel the novel toward its violent culmination.

All of Woodrell's novels are concerned with male violence, but previously he has sometimes constructed his bloody scenes in seductive ways. The violence in ''Tomato Red'' is just the opposite: it has been deromanticized, stripped of sexual allure. There are plenty of enthusiastic sex scenes in this novel, but it is ultimately sexual terror and class struggle that lead to violence. Many of the conflicts are bright, cartoonish setups -- white trash versus the country-club set -- but Sammy darkens them with reflections that make him sound like Marx on downers: ''You know, the regular well-to-do world should relax about us types. Us lower sorts. You can never mount a true war of us against the rich 'cause the rich can always hire us to kill each other. Which they and us have done plenty, and with brutal dumb glee.'' The last scene of the novel is a grim portrayal of raw violence, yet in its fulfillment of Sammy's prediction, it asserts a clear point about poverty and the preordained roles to which so many poor Americans are consigned. That clarity of vision is itself somehow hopeful.

Woodrell's storytelling is as melodic, jangly and energetic as a good banjo riff. In some of his earlier work, the country voices have been tuned too close to cute, but here all the language is sharp (''Her dress was a size low or so''), and some of it is downright unsettling. Sammy Barlach's story is a tragedy, but the telling of it is a pleasure."

I've got one of his novels in the queue at Amazon and I really should read more by this author... Snappy dialog and quirky characters.