The Forged Coupon

The Forged Coupon – Leo Tolstoy

In this novella, a father’s mean decision denying an allowance pushes a teenager to commit a petty crime with a schoolmate. The effects of the theft include felony, murder, imprisonment, and suffering. Another outcome, however, is the salvation of souls. Evil begets greater evil, but redemption remains a possibility because we all have an innate goodness that we can tap if not distracted by the demands of a fickle world.

I recommend this tale to readers who would like to practice Tolstoy before they take up Anna Karenin. For one, the themes are similar because Tolstoy deals with forbearance, the ineffectiveness of passing judgment, and the futility of money and material success as keys to contentment or the genuinely Christian life. Not only are the themes gigantic, but the sweep seems to cover most of European Russia and his time scale is almost a decade in this little story. Similar is the wide array of characters. They range from schoolboys to crooked priests to officious functionaries to cops on the take to simple-hearted widows. This gives needed practice in keeping the names of the characters straight, which is a challenge when reading Tolstoy’s works.

So, read this and if you find it floats your literary boat, there’s always Anna Karenin, the greatest novel of all time up there with All the King's Men and The Tale of Genji

Mount TBR #3

I read this book for Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2019.

The Knife Slipped – Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A. A. Fair

In 1939 when Gardner submitted the second Bertha Cool – Donald Lam PI mystery, the publisher rejected it. The afterword of this 2016 Hard Case Crime edition has no speculation as to why the publisher passed. However, I imagine that the publisher thought readers would be uncomfortable with three aspects of the novel.

The character of Bertha Cool is unlikeable. She’s greedy, gluttonous, profane, and sarcastic. Gardner does something he never did anywhere else in the dozens of novels of his that I’ve read: he has a character express cynicism over the endless tolerance Americans have for the hollow clowns that lead them.

The necking scenes are steamy. All the dames that cross his path fall for Donald Lam. Our city girl in a jam, a stock character in Gardner-land, loses her heart to him for his knack for sympathetic listening and his seeming need of mending and cheering up. The necking scene in the car just before the killing is – whoosh. Gardner always kept Perry Mason and Della Street platonic and in the later Cool & Lam novels things are playfully sexy, but the boldness in this one is such that I can see why publishers may have felt nervous.

The scheme that the story turns on is all complicated up with adultery, approaching the complexity of Hammett’s Red Harvest. Gardner, ever interested in how scams ticked, examines the rigging of the Civil Service exam system and the advantages of such corruption for the police. Furthermore, the reveal of the true perp is, for me, delightfully convoluted, but readers not used to Gardnerian twists – Lam does some funny business with the murder weapon - may disagree.

After the publisher nixed this novel, Gardner put it in a drawer and forgot it. He wasn’t one to tinker with stories, he just moved on, so endless was his invention when it came to coming up with stories. The publisher Hard Case Crime is to be commended for bringing out this lost episode of the Cool & Lam saga. I highly recommend to this fans of 1930s noir (there are smoking stands galore) and of course to fans who are happy whenever Elsie Brand is in the scene.

Murder in Venice

Murder in Venice – Thomas Sterling

Victorian and Edwardian mystery writers often set stories in atmospheric Italy. John Meade Falkner set The Lost Stradivarius in the notorious city of Naples to showcase those paganistical Italians, about whose Catholic festivals an English character sniffs, “I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian people.”

In 1878 Wilkie Collins released the novel of sensation, The Haunted Hotel, A Mystery of Modern Venice. Much of the action takes place in a dilapidated palace, which is the same colorful setting as the 1955 novel on review here Murder in Venice a.k.a. The Evil of the Day.

Rich but aging Cecil Fox summons three friends from the past to his dazzling manse in Venice.  Anson Sims is a miser, Henry Voltor trades on his family name, and wealthy Mrs. Sheridan keeps anxiety at bay with constant travel and tyranny over her companion and all other service providers. All three are greedy to inherit Fox’s millions. So in true Venetian style they parry, thrust, and stab among themselves in order to get in position to scoop up the money, manse, and furnishings. Just think of how the Venetians looted the Byzantines and you’ve got it.

Fox hires a male secretary William Fieramosca to manage the party with the three greed-heads and the comely companion Celia Johns. One of Fox’s guests dies during the night. The mystery is very deep, the detecting negligible. Sterling’s description of rooms, furniture, pictures, the canals and gardens is the main attraction. The ultimate praise: The moody and distinctive ambiance made me want to visit Venice, something I’d little interest in doing before I read this novel.

Anthony Boucher, mystery writer and critic for the New York Times said in a review of this novel, "There is the opulent atmosphere of an ancient city erected upon wealth and death. There is prose as witty and subtle as it is sharp and clear. There are characters unconventionally conceived and richly bodied forth. This is, in short, a novel to be treasured." Boucher, I think, was generous in his reviews of fellow writers but he did not over-sell.

Valentine for Mary Lou Williams

A jazz critic Leonard Feather had a feature in a jazz magazine in which he’d play records for a musician and he or she would guess who was playing and give some comments. Here the musician was genius arranger and pianist Mary Lou Williams, done in the late 1940s. Artists are really tough on each other!

Benny Goodman. Blue Skies (Columbia), with Art Lund, vocal.	That clarinet’s nice. That’s the right way to play melody on a tune and still make it interesting . . . band’s smooth . . . that singer would be better on ballads. He doesn’t have the right kind of voice for improvising. I’d give the record two stars.
Johnny Guarnieri. Salute to Fats (Savoy). Guarnieri, piano; Lester Young, tenor; Billy Butterfield, trumpet; Hank d’Amico, clarinet; Cozy Cole, drums.	Piano sounds like Fats. The style’s fine, but is sounds like an imitation; I don’t care too much for imitations. But he has a wonderful technique and should use it to create his own style. Tenor sax is excellent. Trumpet not up to par; clarinet okay. Rhythm a little too stodgy. Still I like the record. Three stars.
Sir Charles (Thompson) The Street Beat (Apollo). Thompson, piano; Buck Clayton, trumpet; Charlie Parker, alto; Dexter Gordon, tenor; J. C. Heard, drums.	Alto fine - Charlie Parker, of course! Trumpet was a little sharp at first, but good. I like the beat, and it’s a nice arrangement - a little different. Pianist does a sort of Basie style solo. I like the tenor. Rhythm section good. Three stars.
Woody Herman Orchestra, Northwest Passage (Columbia). Ralph Burns, piano; Marge Hyams, vibes; Flip Phillips, tenor.	Now that’s the way I like to hear a band play! Terrific rhythm, nice balance, a great beat. Piano very good, vibes good, tenor excellent. Band is very solid on the ensembles. Arrangement not out of the ordinary, but fine. Four stars.
Art Hodes’ Jazzmen. Sugar Foot Stomp (Blue Note) Hodes, piano; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Maxie Kaminsky, trumpet; Ed Hall, clarinet; Sid Weiss, bass; Danny Alvin, drums.	Oh, don’t do that to me! . . . That’s Vic Dickenson on trombone, What’s he doing in there - he can’t play like them. It’s a shame to mix good musicians in that kind of outfit. I hardly know what to say. I just don’t like that kind of music. That’s Ed Hall. Trumpet sounds like Louis twenty years ago. Drums and bass good. I’ve heard better Dixieland piano. Don’t like the tune or the ensembles. Two stars.
Barney Bigard. Blues Before Dawn (Black and White). Bigard, clarinet; Georgie Auld, alto; Joe Thomas, trumpet.	Intro terrific. Trumpet wonderful, good taste and original ideas. Alto is good, too; sounds like Johnny Hodges. Clarinet sort of Duke style. Ending is different. Rhythm smooth. Three stars.
Jelly Roll Morton Red Hot Pepper (Victor). Morton, piano; Bass Moore, bass. (Recorded 1928)	That’s a tuba in there, isn’t it? Oh, and a slap tongue tenor solo! Ouch! I don’t recognize this, but it sounds like something from the 1920’s. Even the Dixie they’re playing now doesn’t sound like that. Solos were good for that time, I guess, but no beat at all - can’t even imagine how they danced to it . . . What does it lack? Music! No stars.
King Cole Trio. Body and Soul (Capitol). Cole, piano; Oscar Moore, guitar; Johnny Miller, bass.	King Cole; that’s great. Now here’s something that’s a good example for everyone to listen to; good taste, good balance, and the music tells a story. It’s the most perfect little outfit I’ve heard in years, and even if it weren’t King Cole I’d say the same thing. Four stars.
James P. Johnson. Blueberry Rhyme (Signature). Piano Solo.	Sounds mechanical - like one of those old player-piano rolls. Not free. As if it had all been written out. Don’t care for the composition. Who is it? No idea. Two stars.
Dizzy Gillespie Be-Bop (Manor). Gillespie, trumpet; Don Byas, tenor; Shelly Manne, drums.	Arrangement’s fine, but they’re not together on the ensembles. I think it’s pathetic to arrange a number and not play it smoothly - rather not record it at all . . . trumpet sounds like Dizzy; good . . . that’s Don Byas . . . he can play anybody’s style . . . Sounds like Max Roach on drums. I like the idea of the record better than the execution; three stars.
Boyd Raeburn Orchestra, Yerxa (Jewel). George Handy, arranger; Hal McKusick, alto.	Aren’t they out of tune in spots? You’ve got to be right in tune to play that kind of chords. Sounds a little like Duke. Why did they break into that swing part there? It breaks the story, the mood of the thing. Voicing all wrong; the arrangement sounds like an experiment. I think it’s a good idea to write two arrangements-one with experiments, and one good one. The ideas didn’t work out here. Alto good, balance not too bad. Two stars.
Harry James Orchestra, When Your Lover Has Gone (Columbia). James, trumpet; Corky Corcoran, tenor.	This is the best record I’ve heard of Harry James in a long time. Very good taste in Harry’s solo; good band and arrangement, gets a nice mood; especially that modulation by muted trombones, I think it was. Tenor was great, too. Four stars.
Bunk Johnson Band. When the Saints Go Marching In (Victor). (Recorded 1945).	I don’t know what to say. I’m prejudiced against people who are trying to take music back forty years. I think that just to make money, some people forget about music. Solos not even good for that type. Musicianship? I didn’t hear any.

Mount TBR #2

I read this book for Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2019.

Tales for a Winter’s Night – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This is a collection of eight short stories first published in the Strand Magazine in 1898-99. None of them feature the world’s most famous consulting detective, though one features a character using the logical methods and cool tone of Sherlock Holmes. Another story features the voice if not character of the delightful if clueless Brigadier Gerard. Conan Doyle was more craftsman than artist so the standard specs of the stories become obvious if the reader reads the stories close together instead over a couple months. There are surprises galore with evil twins, greedy relatives, and regular-guy narrators suddenly out of their depth. I liked the stories for their lightness and escapism but then I like non-Holmes Conan Doyle. See The Lost World, The Mystery of Cloomber, The Poison Belt, The Tragedy of the Korosko, and The Exploits of Brigadier of Gerard.

European RC #2

I read this book for the European Reading Challenge 2019.

The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914- Philipp Blom

Blom’s thesis is the familiar idea that the 20th century started with WWI is wrong. While the war brought forward many phenomena we associate with our clamorous, roiled 20^th century, important elements were in fact at play before the war started in 1914. For instance, anxiety about sex, gender roles, neurasthenia, the militarization and industrialization of society, and the sense that the old traditions were being discarded with nothing to take their place – all these topics made people, especially thinking ones like us hardcore readers, nervous about themselves, their own, and the world.

Blom’s method is to examine the first ten years of the 20^th century without reference to WWI. The main attraction of this book are the mini-biographies of figures in literature, journalism, the arts, and fringe belief systems. They didn’t know the war was coming, nor did they know how destructive to life and property the war would be. His method really brings out how important women’s activism was in getting the vote, their growing expectations about working outside their homes, not to mention the generally sad reaction of males – such as militarism and ridicule of the women’s movement.

The first three-quarters of the book employ an excellent narrative, though the last quarter has a more serious tone and is thus a little less readable. However, the treatment of eugenics is extremely informative. Basically, this is the kind of book that adds to cultural literacy, for readers who’ve heard of but don’t know much about Father Gapon, Madam Blavatsky, or Arthur Schnitzler. Readers looking for background to the Tietjens Saga (here and here) would enjoy this book.

Back to the Classics #2

I read this book for the 2019 Back to the Classics Reading Challenge

19^th Century Classic. I think sometimes it’s good to read memoirs and stories by people are not writers. Think Fields of Fire by James Webb, a fictionalized memoir of his tour of duty in Vietnam in the Marine infantry.

The Private Journal of William Reynolds: United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

I’ve been reading first-person narratives of sea voyages from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1840) when I was a kid to The Sea and the Jungle by H. M. Tomlinson (1912) as an adult. I would recommend this book as a military service memoir and a study in the extension of power by technologically advanced foreigners over people who are basically minding their own business in places where they were born.

Reynolds was in his early twenties when the US Navy assigned him to the group of ships on the United States Exploring Expedition. Their mission was to circumnavigate the world and survey the South Sea from 1838 to 1842. The basic goal was to understand the Pacific Ocean for sake of safe passage of ships and the nation's maritime commerce. Highly educated for the time (Reynolds was from Pennsylvania), our author used the cartographic process to create nautical charts.

Being very young, he writes enthusiastically which gives his writing presence.

That great Ocean, whose bounds are not known, the Icy barriers of which have never been passed, lay beneath us stretching away in the distance until it met the Sky, for once undisturbed, almost unruffled by the light breeze that kissed its Surface--But there was no sail to be seen on the watery waste, the vast expanse of sea upheld no moving or living thing--though, starting from our feet, there was the bold & terrible promontory, Cape Horn, thrusting its rugged form far into the Ocean, the last, lingering point of the great Western World.

Immediacy, no literary pretensions, as in Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of an American Sailor by James J Fahey.

As is the sailor’s habit, Reynolds complains about his captain and his toadies. He writes about exciting storms and terrible beachings. It’s fun and instructive until our sailors kill about 100 Fijians in retaliation of two US sailors being robbed and killed. Though early in the memoirs Reynolds is of two minds about the influence of western culture on the locals, of the reprisal he writes, “It was bloody work, but all the lives in Fegee would not pay for the two we lost.”