Readers CHoice Award (2014) The House of Crime and Mystery (Canada), "Brilliantly, brutally funny..." says Douglas Lindsay, author of THE LONG MIDNIGHReaders CHoice Award (2014) The House of Crime and Mystery (Canada), "Brilliantly, brutally funny..." says Douglas Lindsay, author of THE LONG MIDNIGHT OF BARNEY THOMSON...more
Anybody who can make me laugh this hard gets five stars. I dropped my Kindle and choked, 5 stars! By now I've read three or four Dorsey novels and I dAnybody who can make me laugh this hard gets five stars. I dropped my Kindle and choked, 5 stars! By now I've read three or four Dorsey novels and I don't try to follow the plot. It would slow down the joyride. The book chronicles the exploits of a manic psychopath and his drug-fueled companion anyway, so how crazy would it be to try and make sense out of what they're doing and call it a plot? Better to just read along at a breakneck pace, giggling and hooting, and enjoy the Florida scenery as it flies past. Tim Dorsey is a genre unto himself. And I love it....more
Books that I love all have one thing in common: a distinctive voice. Dutch Curridge arrested me from the first page and wouldn't let my eyes move awayBooks that I love all have one thing in common: a distinctive voice. Dutch Curridge arrested me from the first page and wouldn't let my eyes move away. I read it in one day. The next day I started reading it all over again. Author Tim Bryant has voice to burn--his words sashay along with more expressive verve and personality than Marilyn Monroe's derriere. I mention Marilyn because she was at the height of her career in 1953, the time period of DUTCH CURRIDGE. The title is a play on "Dutch Courage" which is an old timey term for taking a shot of alcohol to make you fearless.
Fort Worth in 1953 was a place where blacks and whites were still segregated. Few people had telephones, especially poor people, and a black baby could die for lack of seeing a doctor. This tragic premise starts and ends DUTCH CURRIDGE but miraculously it's never maudlin, never heavy-handed. Bryant's effervescent voice moves the story along skillfully and sensitively. Gentle humor breaks up the pathos. Bryant's characters are well-drawn and colorful. Best of all, no sentence is left unadorned. The prose dances and do-si-do's down the page. The dialogue is pure Texas poetry. Fight scenes and action sequences seem written with a lit firecracker.
In my opinion there are very few books out there this good, this original, this assured. It's almost unbelievable this is a first novel. The fact that it's self-published and has only four reviews on Amazon (one of them mine at the time of this writing) leaves me speechless. If it were not for the unsinkable Scott Montgomery, the crime curator of Mystery People/Book People out of Austin, Texas I would never have heard about it. Hopefully it's just a matter of time until the world catches on and gets to enjoy DUTCH CURRIDGE as much as I did. ...more
It won the Pulitzer Prize with a flatulent, obese anti-hero prone to compulsive lying and masturbatory excess. Uninitiated readers may scratch their hIt won the Pulitzer Prize with a flatulent, obese anti-hero prone to compulsive lying and masturbatory excess. Uninitiated readers may scratch their heads, but A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES is a wonderful, mad parade of vivacious characters, dialogue so colorful it splashes the inside of your eyeballs, and a plot that careens between the fantastic and the believable until it almost resembles real life—maybe not your life, maybe not mine, but certainly that of Ignatius J. Reilly.
Speaking of Ignatius, he's a flamboyant failure who never met a small problem he couldn't catastrophize into a disaster. He's an overeducated dolt who always, always, does the wrong thing at the right time. He's intelligence without wisdom, he's misdirected sexual energy run amok. He's laserlike attention applied to the wrong solution, at the wrong angle, to the right problem every time. He's a Titanic who brings down anyone and everyone who ventures within striking distance. In short, there's a little Ignatius J. Reilly in every one of us, and that's why he's so universally loved.
The author of A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES is the late, great John Kennedy Toole, who left us with only two novels before taking his own life in 1969 at the age of 32. He had been drinking heavily and exhibiting unusual behavior at Tulane University before his untimely death. A beloved teacher, he was mourned greatly by students who eulogized him, repeatedly citing his depth and humor as a teacher. John Kennedy Toole is gone, but his legacy and wit live on. Don't miss the crowning achievement of this literary genius. ...more
191 reviews on Amazon; Readers Choice Award (2012) from The House of Crime and Mystery (Canada); Top 5 Debut Novels of 2013 from BOOK PEOPLE, largest 191 reviews on Amazon; Readers Choice Award (2012) from The House of Crime and Mystery (Canada); Top 5 Debut Novels of 2013 from BOOK PEOPLE, largest indie book store in Texas, many "Best of" lists...more
I love Donald Maass' take on writing and what makes a good book. (I also own WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL.) Maass discourages churning out pages which mI love Donald Maass' take on writing and what makes a good book. (I also own WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL.) Maass discourages churning out pages which may result in a book, yes, but what's the quality? Like only the best editors, Maass pushes writers to push past "good" and strive for excellent. The introductory chapter with a section on "Status Seekers and Storytellers" holds up a mirror--reading it was a reality check. Maass cuts through the bulls*%!, which he describes as writers declaring, "The book wrote itself!" and gets down to the deconstruction of great stories.
My favorite quote among many: "Storytellers look not to publishers to make them successful, but to themselves. They wonder how to top themselves with each new novel. Their grumbles are not about getting toured but about getting more time to deliver. Storytellers take calculated risks with their fiction. Mostly they try to make their stories bigger."...more
When I was around ten years old, I pulled a yellowed paperback from the family bookcase called The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde written by Erle StanlWhen I was around ten years old, I pulled a yellowed paperback from the family bookcase called The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde written by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was my first introduction to lawyer Perry Mason, and the tale was lurid and politically incorrect. I loved it. Gardner died at the age of eighty-one in 1970, the author of more than seven hundred fictional works, including 127 novels, 400 articles and more than a dozen travel books. He also wrote under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray, and Robert Parr. In the mid-1960s, Gardner’s novels sold around 20,000 per day. He is considered one of the best-selling mystery writers of all time with 325 million books distributed globally. Gardner could have stepped, larger than life, from the pages of one of his own novels. He attended law school for only a month, when he got suspended for making a boxing ring in his dorm room, and a professor got knocked down during a demonstration. The school sought a warrant for his arrest and Gardner claims he “skipped town one jump ahead of the sheriff.� Gardner eventually settled in California where he studied law on his own and passed the state bar exam in 1911, qualifying him to practice law as an attorney. In 1921, a dozen years before his first Perry Mason sale, Gardner broke into print with a story he sold for fifteen dollars entitled, “Nellie’s Naughty Nighty.� His mother read the title and was so scandalized, she refused to read another word. After that first sale, Gardner faced repeated rejection. "I wrote the worst stories that ever hit New York,� he later admitted. "My stories were terrible...I didn't know how to plot [and] I had no natural aptitude as a writer." Sweet fortune smiled eventually, but Gardner had bitter criticism to face first. His novelette, The Shrieking Skeleton was under consideration at Black Mask magazine, and the circulation manager sent a scathing note to the editor, saying, "This story gives me a pain in the neck . . . it's pretty near the last word in childishness, and the plot has whiskers...� The story was "puerile, trite, obvious, and unnatural.� The note was accidently sent to Gardner, who sat down and rewrote the story over three nights, carefully fixing everything the note mentioned. He mailed it back to the embarrassed editor, who purchased it for $160. Perry Mason became arguably the most famous fictional lawyer of all time, featured in more than 80 novels and short stories. Gardner personally cast actor Raymond Burr—dark, handsome and velvet voiced—for the TV role, and episodes still run today on television all over the world. The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde is still my favorite Perry Mason, and it’s even more entertaining today because of its little political-editorial asides by Gardner, that don’t get in the way of the plot. I love this dialogue from the black-eyed heroine, has a job reading stories to a rich man, and she passes his opinions along to Perry Mason: “He claims that the great American trouble is that we are too credulous. He says our national trait is to believe everything that’s dished out to us and then, when the gilt paint wears off the gold brick, to blame everyone except ourselves.� Gardner wrote that in 1944. The more things change the more they stay the same. Of course there’s lots of derring-do, with help from trusty, recurring characters Della Street and Paul Drake. Lt. Tragg and the crusty men of his force are always hot on the trail, but they stay a step behind Perry and his sleuthing, at the best of times. Gardner had a formula for Perry Mason novels, and it made them them reliable pulp escapism. No matter how dire the situation, Perry always solved the case in court, the bad guys were vanquished and justice was served. No wonder the books are still selling, and the series is still on TV. A magnificent collection of Gardner’s manuscripts and papers reside in The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Texas, described as, “one of the most complete records of a writing career ever made.� The library features a model of his study room, on display for viewing by visitors. Finally, Gardner is the author of the best piece of writing advice ever: “It’s a damn good story. If you have any comments, write them on the back of a check.� ...more
Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins has, hands down, the most creative plot and characters I've ever read. What is there to say when a tin can, a paintSkinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins has, hands down, the most creative plot and characters I've ever read. What is there to say when a tin can, a painted stick and a dirty sock with human personalities hold you spellbound as they make a perilous journey through the streets of New York? Add to that a Jew and an Arab running a restaurant together across from the United Nations in New York, and a high-tension subplot surrounding the infamous and historic "Dance of the Seven Veils." Let's not forget the four-wheeled roast-turkey vehicle that starts everything off on the first page. If it sounds surreal it is. Skinny Legs and All is why I never did acid. Who needs acid when you have a book like this to turn your mind upsidedown? I have several copies, all dogeared. This is a book I always have in my home, no matter where I'm hanging my hat....more
When I read Bangkok 8 my world rocked. A Buddhist homicide detective with an ex-hooker mother who runs a girlie bar in the red-light district of ThailWhen I read Bangkok 8 my world rocked. A Buddhist homicide detective with an ex-hooker mother who runs a girlie bar in the red-light district of Thailand? I simply could not put the book down. Burdett's flashes of dharma and philosophy interspersed with hardboiled crime raised my blood pressure until I could not look away. 5 stars, well deserved....more
LA Outlaws is on my "top ten of all time" reading list. I've never loved a villain like Allison before and her voice is unforgettable. This is a movieLA Outlaws is on my "top ten of all time" reading list. I've never loved a villain like Allison before and her voice is unforgettable. This is a movie and I can't believe it hasn't been made yet. T. Jefferson Parker reached his zenith with Allison. He may equal the writing of this character in future, but I just don't see how it can be surpassed. ...more
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