Richler - Joshua Then And Now

Joshua Then And Now. Mordecai Richler. McClelland and Stewart. 1980. 'Joshua' was written about mid-way in Richler's career. It is one of his better books, unfortunately it is usually forgotten in favor of other 'big' books written before and after. The big three in Richler's opus, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, St. Urbain's Horseman, and Solomon Gursky Was Here, should be a big four, with Joshua Then And Now. Richler's last, lesser effort, Barney's Version, is over-praised - it was even given an award -out of respect for Richler's career rather than any merits the book might possess.

Joshua Then And Now opens with Joshua having suffered a serious injury. We are not told how or what. Almost immediately the book begins to jump back and forth through Joshua's life. We learn that his wife has had a traumatic experience, we learn something happened in Ibiza, Spain, which had a profound effect on their lives. We learn many other things, all of which are used as teasers to keep us reading for more detail. As the novel progresses we move through Joshua's entire life. Gradually more detail is provided, and other mysteries raised. For the most part this complex structure works brilliantly.

Joshua is both a mildly likeable and mildly unlikeable character, which is a Richler trademark. The mystery in Ibiza doesn't amount to very much, and so the sequences there could have been cut down drastically. We see how Joshua gradually, and unwittingly, sets himself up over many years for an eventual fall. Most of this is handled with finesse, but the LA events related to this are absurd. Otherwise, the LA scenes, and the Montreal and Paris scenes, are excellent.

There is much humor layered within the story, but at times Richler inserts an awkward 'comic scene', as though thinking random sequences of comic relief are needed to break up a story which has plenty of humor already. The mother character is prominent in the early sequences, but is used largely for comedy, and dismissed as 'loopy'. In two great scenes, we get the mother's point of view. There is excellent drama in these scenes, but their potential goes unused. She returns to brief 'comedy' references, and disappears for the last half of the book, excepting one brief mention. Also, given that Joshua is present in these dramatic scenes, it is absurd that he would, later in his life, dismiss her with the epitaph, 'my loopy mother'.

The Lake scenes, though good, sometimes try the reader's patience, largely because they are not up to the quality of the best scenes in the Montreal, Paris, and LA sequences. Toward the book's end, most remaining questions are answered, and the story finally returns to the 'present' of the opening. As the book ends, the hero, if not much wiser, is at least temporarily repentant.

Hammet - The Thin Man

The Thin Man. Dashiell Hammett. Vintage. 1933/1972. The final and perhaps best book, certainly the funniest, from Dashiel Hammet. His previous books were violent hard boiled tales, with a sprinkling of humor; this book is full-out humor with just a touch of the violence. The Thin Man takes place on Christmas, but it could as easily be New Year's Eve, as the holiday is used only to establish a party ambience. And this book is, essentially, a party. The movie, especially the first one, is as good. Picture Nick Charles laying on the couch, popping away at balloons with a pellet pistol, as Nora Charles looks on with humor and affection. That scene is from the movie. But the book also has many funny scenes, plus the characters of Nick and Nora, a supporting cast of eccentrics, and a real mystery too! The more Nick insists he is retired and not working on a case, the more everyone believes the great detective has left retirement to do exactly that. The story ends with the same sense of fun and humor that enriches the entire novel. Read the book and see the movie (or the first three).

Milne - Winnie-The-Pooh

Winnie-The-pooh. A.A. Milne. Methuen. 1926.

Review by guest poster Dorothy Parker, aka Constant Reader.

"Tonstant weader fwowed up." - Parker

Evanovich - One For The Money

One For The Money. Janet Evanovich. Scribner, 1994, & St Martin's Press. 2003. This is the first in a highly successful mystery series about Bounty Hunter Stephanie Plum. Out of work, behind in rent, with a pet Hamster named Rex to feed, Stephanie blackmails her way into a job at her cousin's bail bonding company. Stephanie is forced to learn on the job, and with wit and perseverance, and some luck, she persues her man. The book follows a main plot with it's twists and turns and unique characters, and intersects with subplots of Steph's family and other fugitives. Evanovich handles the balance of drama, action, and humor very well.

Ellroy - L.A. Confidential

L.A. Confidential. James Ellroy. Warner. 1990. Bud White, Jack Vincennes, Preston Exley. Three police detectives. Each drawn to the same case. An L.A. of the 1950's rife with corruption. A dark noir novel of stakeouts, murder, scandal. Everyone has a dirty secret, the corruption taints even the three heroes. The novel sprawls along eight years in the mid to late fifties'. For the three detectives, each discovery leads ever deeper into the noir darkness which threatens to destroy them.

MacInnes - The Salzburg Connection

The Salzburg Connection. Helen MacInnes. Fawcett. 1968. What is buried in a lake in the Austrian mountains? Are Bill Mathison and Lynn Conway in over their heads? Whose side is Felix Zauner really on? Where is Eric Yates? Why are Chinese agents in Zurich? How are the British and American agents involved? Who and what is Elissa Lang? This thriller was 10 months on the Times best seller list and maintains its page-turning power today.

Vance - The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph. Jack Vance. Daw Books. 1966, 1980. A collection of short stories, comprising the entire adventures of Magnus Ridolph, written by famed sf/fantasy/mystery writer Jack Vance. Magnus is a combination Sherlock Holmes and mercenary adventurer. He is an anti-hero, defying the expected appearance of the typical fictional adventurer, and being entirely professional, or perhaps profit-driven. Magnus will take almost any case, but expects a fee commensurate with his considerable abilities. He posesses a James-Bond level of self-assurance, and for good reason. Travelling from planet to planet, alien culture to alien culture, each of Magnus' cases are different, each presenting a new challenge for Magnus and for the reader: things are never dull in the career of Magnus Ridolph. This thin volume contains all eight of Ridolph's recorded cases. It is SF's loss that Vance did not write a hundred more.