The local library fortunately, as it turns out, had several
copies of
Haywood's _It's Not a Pretty Sight_. I say "fortunately"
because I would
have felt cheated had I spent money on this book.
No, it's not because I think it's a bad book or poorly
written. It's
pretty good hardboiled writing that clips along at an
entertaining pace.
With a couple of annoying exceptions in regard to the dialog,
it's well
written. (More on that in a minute.) Instead, the "cheat" of
the book is
the killer -- who drops out of the sky like an alien from
some unknown
planet. Just a preference here, but if I were Haywood's
publisher I'd
say to him, "Gar, you can never write another book like that
because,
you see, Gar, your readers invest their interest in all your
characters,
including the bad guys, and you have some responsibility to
deliver a
villain -- a real villain -- not some random, mindless
killing from a
nothing character. Sure, that crap happens in real life, and
it's
startling to read in the newspapers, but it make shitty
endings for
books, Gar." I thought I had the killer pegged at one point
(Wendy
Singer), not that I was looking for a "whodunit," but I felt
slightly
manipulated for paying attention to details that meant
absolutely
nothing.
As for the dialog, Haywood has the annoying habit of leaving
out the
word "if." This gimmick had me reading numerous sentences
twice. It
spoils the rhythm. I'm certainly no expert in black lingo or
speech
patterns, but the blacks I know do use the word "if." A
couple of them
are from LA/Compton, and they seem to speak OK when I'm
hanging around
just listening. [If] You read books, you expect smooth prose.
Likewise,
in Haywood's dialog, his white characters don't use "if."
Re-read
Singer's breakfast conversation with Gunner and you'll see
what I mean.
This isn't just a sometimes thing; he leaves practically all
"if's" out.
Stepping way out on the limb here:
Singer: "Why do black men do it? Hate their women, I mean.
What's the
reason for it, exactly?"
A couple of paragraphs later, Gunner: "My guess would be that
brothers
like Otha have a self-esteem problem, number one. And number
two, they
can't handle the pressure they feel black women put on them
to be
perfect. Perfect lovers, fathers, providers -- the
works."
A couple of paragraphs later, Singer: "Well, when you say
these men have
a self-esteem problem ---"
Gunner: "I mean that they feel worthless. Like they're
society's most
expendable objects. They consider themselves powerless,
incapable of
controlling the direction of their own lives, so ---"
Fleming (who thinks he's H.S on a G.P, but who's really a
C.T. on a
P.P.), out on that limb: I think what Haywood is overlooking
here, in
his simplistic, popular, unthinking way, is the Federal
government's
involvement in creating and perpetuating such devastation
among black
families and increasingly in white families. White bastardy
in the US is
now at about 25 percent, which is higher than it was among
blacks before
we began spending trillions on welfare, and now black
bastardy exceeds
80 percent in some cities. I think there's a correlation
here: The more
social workers you have, the greater the engine for evil in
destroying
families. No, I'm not talking about battered women's
shelters.
In practically every regard, once a woman enters the clutches
of the
welfare state, the man/boyfriend/husband is jettisoned in
favor of a
killing kindness. What good are you? What is your purpose,
man? What are
you doing here? We don't need you. White bastardy is rising.
Black
bastardy can't rise much higher. Which of course means there
are going
to be more and more "white" Comptons, which will make the
"black"
Comptons pale in size and consequences. The mindless violence
of _It's
Not a Pretty Sight_, which makes for an unsatisfying ending,
may be an
all-too-true beginning for a neighborhood near you
soon.
Seinfeld: Unleash the hounds!
-- Ned Fleming # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.