I don't have my copy of RIVERTOWN RISK to refresh my memory
of the use by Joe Hensley of "the party" without referencing
which party or another party. There are, indeed, states that
are dominated by one party. More commonly, there are towns
and regions politically in the control of one party. The
amount of actual power held by a political party in a state
varies widely. In some places, it rules much of the roost. In
other places, it is where successful politicians park staff
who are too connected to be fired and too incompetent to keep
on their personal staff.
Joe lived most of his adult life in Madison, Indiana on the
Ohio River. I have no idea what party he belonged to as it
never came up in my conversations with him and has not been
mentioned in the obituaries I read.
Prior to becoming a judge, he served one term in the state
legislature and that served the basis of his novel
LEGISLATIVE BODY
(Doubleday 1972). In that book he rather neatly avoids party
labels by referring to the Majority Leader and Minority
Leader and etc. I can guess why he would do this. To label
his freshman legislator a Republican or Democrat could
transplant from many readers a host of assumptions that had
nothing to do with the story he was telling.
In the novel there are student demonstrators outside the
state capitol and Robak is clearly sympathetic to them: "They
were my kids, my constituents." The main character and his
attitudes are there for the reader without the shorthand of a
label that could distance the reader.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Raymond Tait
<raymond.tait@...> wrote:
>
> I joined this group about seven months ago and have
been lurking
> silently and enjoying the digests since
then.
>
> A couple of weeks ago I followed up some discussion
and read
Rivertown
> Risk by Joe L Hensley and then Framed in Guilt by
Day Keene
followed by
> Shake Him Till He Rattles by Malcolm Braly. The
first was
prompted by
> the notice of his death that came via Harlan
Ellison. I enjoyed
it - it
> is a murder mystery with a small town political
corruption as its
> thematic backdrop. One of the minor characters is
George Jones
who is
> known as "Half a Man" because he was born with only
one leg and
arm. He
> is a reader of books and it is noted that "he's a
completist on
Harlan
> Ellison." All through the book there is endless
stuff about "the
party"
> which I assumed to be the republican party although
it is never
named.
> There is no mention of another party giving it a
flavour of the
one
> party state - you could have been reading about the
communist
block.
> Was I reading this right and are there parts of the
USA where it
is
> virtually a one party state? I also wasn't sure
where the book
was set
> - where was Joe L Hensley from?
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