THE FERAL DETECTIVE by Jonathan Lethem

 I received the book from Amazon on Su 4/18/21 and finished the novel on Tu 5/25/21.

I bought the book because I loved 'MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN', but this novel was not as good.

I wonder why Lethem made the choice to use a female point of view. Phoebe Siegler tells the story in first person. 

Rabbits vs. Bears: Rabbits are like hippies, largely female and vegan (Democrats?) and Bears are masculine and like Hell's Angels bikers (Republicans?)

Phoebe is trying to find, Arabella, the missing daughter of a friend. She is given the number of Charles Heist. He is a PI who specializes in getting children out of clutches of dangerous groups such as The Bears and The Rabbits. Heist is “feral” in the sense that he’s rootless, unpredictable and hairy.

The novel is set near Mt. Baldy in California and at various camps in the Mojave Desert.

The novel is set directly after the election of Donald Trump. The heroine of the story calls him the 'Beast-Elect', and never mentions him by name.

About the novel at Goodreads:

 "Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer in the desert outside of Los Angeles. She's on a quest to find her friend's missing daughter, Arabella, and hears that Heist is preternaturally good at finding people who don't want to be found. A loner who keeps his pet opossum in a desk drawer, Heist has a laconic, enigmatic nature that intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. It takes some convincing, but he agrees to help.

The unlikely pair traverse California's stunning Inland Empire, navigating the enclaves of hippies and vagabonds who aim to live off the grid. They learn that these outcasts exist in warring tribes--the Rabbits and the Bears--and that Arabella is likely caught in the middle. As Phoebe tries to delicately extricate her, she realizes that Heist has a complicated history with these strange groups and that they're all in grave danger.

Jonathan Lethem's first detective novel since Motherless Brooklyn delivers the same memorable delights: ecstatic wordplay, warm and deeply felt characters, and an offbeat sense of humor. Combined with a vision of California that is at once scruffy and magnificent, The Feral Detective emerges as a transporting, comic, and absolutely unforgettable novel." 

A line from a review in The New York Times that might sum up the heart of the novel: "You can get dizzy staring into the void where the center used to be".

I liked the novel, but I liked 'MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN' a whole lot more. 

 

THE STEPS OF THE SUN by Walter Tevis

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I ordered on the Internet in December of 2006 and finished it the first time We 12/13/06. I reread the novel again and finished We 3/9/16 and I wrote, "The book might be an elaborate fantasy about male impotence".  Refinished Fr 5/21/21.

The title is taken from William Blake's poem, Ah! Sun-flower.

From 'Goodreads'"

"It is the sixties, 2063, and things on Earth are looking grim. All energy sources have been depleted or declared unsafe. China's world dominance is growing, and America is sliding into impotence. Firewood is $7 a stick. Macy's is a giant coal storage bin. Energy laws have outlawed elevators, and skyscrapers stand empty. The U.S. is a second-rate power run by the Mafia and the Teamsters. Space travel is illegal. Worst of all, a new Ice Age is on the way.

What the world needs is a hero. A man rich enough to build his own spaceship. Brave enough to fly it. Crazy enough to want to save the world. Lucky enough to succeed. And here he comes...Ben Belson, a 21st century financier is the only man who has any hope of reversing the decline of civilization. Belson, undaunted, searches for an extraterrestrial fuel supply to reverse America's decline." 

It was kind of a shock to realize that Tevis really went out on a limb in the early 80's to guess that China would be such a world power, but it turned out to be absolutely true.

I wonder if Elon Musk has read this book? It seems like he would feel that he is the model for the protagonist, Ben Belson.  

*** Ben Belson uses a 'red computer' that seems very similar to the early Apple models. 

The story reminded me of Robert Heinlein because the hero of the story is a domineering male character who 'has all of the answers', but is seriously flawed.

This is not Tevis's best novel, but anything by this author is worth a look. He died of lung cancer in 1984 at the age of 56. 

MANHATTAN NOCTURNE by Colin Harrison

 Refinished Su 5/16/21

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I first finished Sa 6/21/97. I had written 'Excellent' on the flyleaf, and the second time through I still agree.

A really good 'Noir Thriller' set in NYC.

Porter Wren is a tabloid columnist (he works for a Rupert Murdoch publication) who is approached by a beautiful woman who wants him to clear up the mystery of an incriminating tape. She was married to a billionaire, Mr. Hobbs and this man thinks she is blackmailing him. She claims she doesn't know anything about it. Hobbs gets Porter Wren to get to the bottom of the mystery, but the biggest question is what is on the tape? 

The 'reveal' is that Caroline Crowley murdered her current husband, Simon who is a famous movie director and his body was found at a building demolition site. 

I remember seeing the movie of this book and I plan to see it again. It stars Adrien Brody.

A review from KIRKUS:

"Porter Wren, a tabloid columnist specializing in the human face of death, has climbed to success in part by subverting a real talent for exposing corruption in the city. He has two precious kids, and is married to one of New York's best surgeons, but none of that seems to matter when a beautiful woman approaches him at a party. He finds her mesmerizing and the story she tells of her husband, an acclaimed filmmaker whose body turned up in a building being demolished and whose murder remains unsolved, fascinating. Porter wants more of the story and of her; the next day she takes him to bed, then opens a trunk of tapes her husband left behind, videos that are clandestine scenes of real life and death. Told by his publisher (a ruthless Australian with a worldwide publishing empire built on tabloids—sound familiar?) to retrieve one that he finds compromising, Porter courts disaster when he can't locate it. He does find a tape of an NYPD officer being murdered, a case also unsolved, but he no sooner informs a friend on the force about it than he's beaten and the tape stolen by the publishers' goons. When his toddler is wounded by another intruder on the Aussie's payroll, Porter retaliates, tracking down the material so feared by his boss. In the process, however, he learns his lover's secret too, with a glimpse into her black heart that both ends their affair and binds them uncomfortably together in a lethal conspiracy of silence. Sordid stuff sure to tickle any voyeur's fancy, written with skill and considerable visceral force—even if occasionally straying beyond the credible."

A well written novel and I plan to see if I can get more by Colin Harrison 

RIVERS OF THE BLACK MOON by Andrew Goliszek

 Finished Tu 5/11/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read, but bought at the main branch in mid September, 1997.

A compelling medical thriller about a crooked pharmaceutical company and the mutation of the AIDS virus.  

From Google Books:

"Richard Zarnoff, the world's leading AIDS researcher, has been brutally murdered in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the eve of making a world-shattering announcement. Speculation runs rampant--what did Zarnoff know that made him a target? Somehow, it all tied in with an unannounced trip Zarnoff made to Zaire, six months ago."

The major 'dark' premise is that a major pharmaceutical company colludes with the US government to use the mutation of the AIDS virus to 'thin out' the unwanted, lower class sections of the population. The pharmaceutical company develops a 'cure' they are well aware that will only be a temporary fix because the virus mutates so quickly. 

Inspector James Macfadden of The Scotland Yard and anthropologist Maggie Kreiser join forces to find out the killer of Richard Zarnoff and what he was going to reveal at the international AIDS conference. Macfadden is on the case because Kreiser was brutally murdered in a hotel room in Scotland. His intestines were removed because the killers seemed to be looking for something.

Stanton Royce is the head of the company that developed Lyfusin, the vaccine for AIDS. The company is happy with the mutation situation because the more people are infected, the more they can sell their vaccine. The problem is that his grandson has contracted a very lethal variation of the disease. 

A weak plot point is that Stanton Royce introduces his grandson to sex on his eighteenth birthday. The hooker that he used for the boy was into very violent bondage sex and this introduction warped his mind forever. I don't think that this is how 'desire' works. 

The book would be a delightful 'beach' read and if you like medical thrillers. And it works better these days because we are in the midst of a global pandemic, COVID, and that virus is very much mutating like the AIDS virus in the novel. 

PLAYING THE DOZENS by William D. Pease

 Refinished We 5/5/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I last finished on Sa 10/12/96 at The Club during a 3 day weekend.

"Crime and Corruption on Both sides of the Law...Hard-edged, cynical and sophisticated"- New York Times. The author, William D. Pease was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., then became a partner in a Washington law firm specializing in federal white-collar crime defense litigation. 

Excellent Opening Scene: A man is drinking beer in a local tavern on a lazy afternoon. A cop walks up to him and the man at the bar turns and shots him in the face. Then he gives himself up. 

"These people terrify me, but I am one of them"- George Smiley in John Le Carre's, THE HONORABLE SCHOOLBOY.

The man will only speak to Assistant US Attorney Holden. They uncover a plot involving the mayor and a deal for two hundred kilos of heroin. And a 'grisly' alcoholic cop, Eddie Nickles is central tot he story.

***One reader commented that the author used 'grizzled'- referring to a bear instead of 'grisled'- that which inspires disgust or gray and old. I'm not that sure which one is right, but it's a heck of a stupid criticism of the book. 

Pease only wrote two more books, and I feel he really could have been a more popular writer. I thought it was a great Cop Procedural. 

Funny quote:

A woman was so dumb that she thought 'The Civil Rights Act' was a bunch of jugulars that she saw on the Ed Sullivan Show. 

THE DREAMING EARTH by John Brunner

Refinished Sa 5/1/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at The Book House in Rock Hill, Missouri on Th 10/19/95. According to the flyleaf I had read it a couple of times since then. 

The story is set in a future dystopia in which the world's population has outstripped the ability to support the needs of the people. A mysterious drug is being introduced and vast parts of the population have become addicted. Nicholas Greville is working for the UN on a narcotic task force and he is trying to locate the source of this drug called 'Happy Dreams'. 

Then it's noted that after about a hundred doses of the drug the taker disappears. Apparently they are 'shifted' into another dimension where it's almost like a new Eden. 

The big reveal is that the UN is actually behind the drug and it a allows people to leave Earth and give these people a new start and hopefully those left behind will find enough resources to keep going. 

I wish he had written a book about how this life in 'the new Eden' might have been and the outcome of those who chose to remain behind. 

From a reviewer at Amazon:

"The story takes place in the future where overpopulation and limitations of raw resources are great problems. The world is more actively run on a global level by the (much publicly hated) UN. The ever increasing problem though is with "Happy Dreams", an ultimate hallucinate drug. Despite its widespread use, the government has very little information to go on. It's always sold at a ridiculously low and fixed price, its central dealers or origins can't be determined, funding for research is low, and so little is known about the drug.

Nick Greville, a UN officer who works in the Narcotics department, looks into the happy dreams problem. Along the way he must deal with red tape, crazed users, his own marital problems at home, and all while resisting his own personal temptation to the drug.

The book keeps you reading, as questions beget more questions, until finally a climax of it all is revealed in the last two chapters. If you enjoy futuristic dystopian stories that focus more on the characters and their stories with very little description of their futuristic technology, this one's worth checking out."

I would read anything by John Brunner. The ideas are always first rate, but sometimes the storylines are not fully developed. This could have been a terrific novel, but only weighs in at slightly more than average.