Saturday, April 04, 2015
Robert Burns Jr., R. I. P.
Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Robert Burns Jr. dies in crash, age 64: Robert Burns Jr. — drummer for the legendary Souther rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd — died on Friday night when his car left a dark road and plowed into a tree.
I Miss the Old Days
My grandmother always had irises in her yard, and there were a few around our house when I was a kid, too. They always remind me of this time of year and of my grandmother's yard. Many years ago someone gave me and Judy some bulbs that I planted in a front bed. Now and then they even produce a couple of flowers. That's all, just one or two. Sometimes nothing at all. Maybe the winters have to get cold for the bulbs to put out growth. Anyway, this year I had a couple of blooms. If I had my grandmother's green thumb, maybe I'd have a lot more.
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The Crime of Our Lives -- Lawrence Block
As I sat down to write this, it occurred to me that I've probably written more on this blog about Lawrence Block's work than about that of any other writer. I've told more than once about my discovery of his novels, so I won't repeat that story yet another time. I've also written a little bit about his nonfiction, which I first encountered in the column that he wrote for Writers Digest for a number of years. Those columns were filled with great advice for writers, and they were collected in a book called Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, which everybody should read. It's not just for writers.The Crime of Our Lives is another collection of Block's nonfiction, mostly reminiscences about authors he's known and read, but also including a good bit about himself and his career and his writing. I'd read many of these pieces before when they were published in Mystery Scene or as introductions to the work of other writers, but it's great to have them all in one place, and reading them again is just as pleasurable as reading them the first time.
Block talks about sixteen writers here, all of them now deceased. He gives his reasons for not talking about living writers, and they're good ones. He also tells why he doesn't do book reviews, and there are good reasons for that, too.
It's impossible to pick favorites from the essays here. One day I might think it's the one on Ross Thomas, and the next I might think it's the one on Robert B. Parker. And then it would be a different one next week. I have to admit that one reason I'm partial to all of these is that Block's opinions often closely mirror my own. His favorite Fredric Brown book, for example, is also my own favorite, The Wench Is Dead. In fact, I just wrote an introduction to that book, myself, a new limited edition from Centipede Press. One of his main points about Robert B. Parker is one I make almost every time I speak to a writing group. And so on. It's all great stuff. There's even a previously unpublished essay on Joseph Conrad, and it's excellent. Besides all this, the anecdotes about Block's time at the Scott Meredith Agency are pure gold.
So naturally The Crime of Our Lives is highly recommended. Essential, really, if you're interested in crime fiction or the writing life. And I can promise you one thing. After reading this book, you're never going to feel the same way again when you see a rerun of I Love Lucy.
Friday, April 03, 2015
Maybe It's Just Me, . .
Midnight Crossroad -- Charlaine Harris
At this point in her career, Charlaine Harris can write pretty much what she wants to write, however she wants to write it, which makes me suspect that this book was one that she really wanted to write and had fun writing. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. The setting is a small town named Midnight, located in West Texas. A very small town, with very few inhabitants. Some of those inhabitants might be familiar to readers of Harris's other novels, but some of them are entirely new. All of them have come to Midnight to get away from something or somewhere, and all of them have secrets. One of them is missing, and we learn later that she's been murdered.
So the book is a mystery novel. But if you're longing for the woo-woo factor, there are plenty of supernatural elements to be found. There's a vampire, a psychic, a witch, a shapeshifter, and some we can't be sure about. I have a feeling we'll find out more in the sequel, which comes out in May. There's also a cat, Mr. Snuggly. He has a secret, too.
Harris takes a leisurely approach to the story, introducing the town in a prologue, setting the stage carefully. Then we meet the residents and get to know them. As I said, all of them have secrets, and we learn a few of them but certainly not all. The personalities are distinct and, to me, fascinating. I believe I read that Midnight Crossroad was the first book of a trilogy. There's material here for a good many more books than that should Harris choose to write them.
I recall from reviews when the hardcover came out that some people were put off by the pace of this novel. Maybe they were expecting the literary equivalent of a Mad Max movie. This isn't it. This is a well-written, warm, funny, engrossing story of a quite strange community in which mysteries are uncovered and secrets are revealed carefully, layer by layer, until the final revelation at the end of the book. That's not to say there's no action and suspense. Those elements are present, too, very much so. I enjoyed every page of it.
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