Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Comedy, Books.
I can't remember why Gavin loaned me Donald Westlake's Jimmy the Kid. He probably thought I would find it funny, but there may have been more detailed reasons. Anyway, it was hilarious, and though it's taken me a couple years to get round to reading more of the Dortmunder novels, I am now obsessive about having all of them (there are thirteen so far, plus a novella), and, ideally, reading them in order.
Unfortunately, several of the early ones are incomprehensibly out of print (including Jimmy the Kid, the third one). I gather they're popular books; five of them have been made into movies, although only one of them appears to be good (The Hot Rock, made in 1972 from the first Dortmunder novel and starring Robert Redford. Among the apparently bad ones, alas, is Jimmy the Kid, which starred Gary Coleman).
Anyway, I've now read The Hot Rock, and it was nearly as funny as Jimmy the Kid. Like many first novels in series, it deviates a bit from the model that would later be established. For one thing, Dortmunder more or less wins in the end (by implication, anyway) -- though for all I know that's turned around at the beginning of the second book, Bank Shot (which was made into a movie starring George C. Scott). I may have to skip directly to the fifth book, Why Me? (made into a movie starring Christopher Lambert and Christopher Lloyd), because at least I've been able to find that one.
They're everything-falls-apart capers, a genre I love, and the plots are funny, but the best part is the dialogue. Westlake has perfect rhythm, perfect timing. The action is funny, but the scenes between the action are funnier. Westlake even uses a narrative device I dislike, changing points of view whenever it's convenient for him, and gets away with it because each point of view is eccentric and amusing and still human.
Thanks, Gavin!
Posted on February 6th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Books.
I know a few people here have read Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, with varying reactions (hi Gavin, Ellie, Debbie). It won a World Fantasy Award when it was originally published (in the late 70s, I think), so it's not exactly obscure; but Hughart's career never progressed beyond that success, and these days I rarely hear it mentioned. It is in print (in mass market paperback).
So many modern fantasies are bloated epics. Bridge of Birds is the opposite: a compact, self-contained, perfect little gem, like Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint, Pamela Dean's The Dubious Hills, Thorne Smith's Night Life of the Gods. (Sorry, lists always start to get out of hand with me.)
Bridge of Birds has a farcical comic tone and plot, but begins with tragedy and ends with sublime transendence, and somehow makes the whole mix work. When I was reading it to Velma a few years ago, she discovered that Hughart allowed the first draft to be published on the web. I don't recommend it unless you've read the book; for one thing, the farcical tone of the book is not under control in this early draft. It's far cruder and louder and not really funny. But if you've read the book, it's fascinating to see that it grew from this. There are plot elements that never made it into Bridge of Birds that turn up in the two (sadly inferior*) sequels.
More importantly, Hughart clearly made a huge jump in his writing between this draft and the final version, and the heart of the book was completely reconstructed. In the first draft, the narrator and hero is the brilliant Li Kao, who is 19 years old, while Number Ten Ox is an incidental character, the village idiot. In the final version, Li Kao is still brilliant, still the focus of the book, but he is ancient; Number Ten Ox is the narrator, a humble young man of virtue and strength and unextraordinary brain, and the perfect Watson for Li Kao. This change, I think, allowed the book to happen as it did: a character like Li Kao needs to be presented from outside, like Jeeves.
* The first time I wrote about this, I got a comment from someone who read one of the sequels first, and prefers it to the first book. So maybe it's just the order one reads them in. It's hard for me to credit, though.
Posted on December 12th, 2006 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Untruths, Books.
We picked up Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Complete Peter Cook from the library, a marvelous collection that deserves a better post than it's going to get right now. Right now I'm just going to complain about the subtitle. "Complete" is an unambiguous word. "Collected" often gets used with deliberate ambiguity by the publishing industry -- to my mind "Collected" ought to be a definitive edition, either complete or as close to complete as the author wanted it to be, and anything less ought to be called "Selected" -- but at least when a far-from-definitive collection is called "Collected", the publisher can say that there's no lie in the word. Not so with "Complete". To begin with, this collection doesn't include Bedazzled. Okay, a whole movie script would perhaps make the book unwieldy. It must at least be a complete collection of his shorter pieces, right?
No, not close. The introductions make it clear that this is a selection: "It's a collection of Cook's finest writing . . . Of course* it's not a compendium of everything he did . . . Cook produced far more comedy than you could fit into one book. But it is a pretty comprehensive summary..." That's fine, except for the word "Complete" on the cover and spine. I don't think a blatant lie should be excused with a shrug just because it's marketing and we all know what marketing's like.
* Feh.
Posted on August 5th, 2006 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Writers, Books.
I have always kept one book unread by my favorite authors, for some time in the future when I really need it (and in some stressful times I have read a few of those saved books). I have done this since childhood; to this day I have never read one of the eight books in Enid Blyton's Adventure series (The Ship of Adventure), even though I read all the others obsessively (especially Valley and Circus and Sea). Several years back I bought the complete set for myself as a sentimental indulgence, but I've still not read Ship (and probably can't, at this point, since I can't re-read the Blyton I once enjoyed without wincing).
Some single books by authors that are saved for when I need them:
And many others that will come to mind later. I'm such a slow reader that with most authors it really isn't necessary to do this, because I will never catch up with their output, but if the author is a favorite I will reserve one anyway that won't be read.
A: Any day I wake up and look at.
Q: What has been the most valuable thing in life to you?
A: Time.