From A PURPLE PLACE FOR DYING, the third Travis McGee book by
John D. MacDonald, one of the first three that all came out
together and introduced him to the world. Mrs. Yeoman is a
thirty-ish woman whose sixty-ish husband stole all the money
she inherited from her father, her husband's close friend.
She wants a divorce, and the money back.
| "Fine." We drank and I said, "I took this one blind because
I'm
| almost broke, Mrs. Yeoman."
| She looked concerned. "That ... isn't very
heartening."
| "Like not being successful? I'm very successful."
| "I don't understand."
| "I work when money gets low. Otherwise I enjoy my
retirement,
| Mrs. Yeoman. I'm taking it in installments, while I'm young
enough
| to enjoy it. I am commonly known as a beach bum. I live on
a
| houseboat. I live as well as I want to live, but sometimes
I have
| to go to work. Reluctantly."
That's this book's version of the standard explanation at the
start of each story about what McGee is and how he lives.
McGee appreciates honest labour--he does all the repairs on
his boat himself, and he knows what hard work is like--but
he's certainly not guided by any sort of work ethic that says
striving daily for a boss will improve him or help him get
into Heaven. Of course, how he presents himself to people,
especially haughty potential clients, isn't how he really is.
There's a good paragraph a few chapters later (after Mrs.
Yeoman has been killed and he's wondering whether he should
look into it) about hotel maids that I'll enter later. It's
one of those caustic attacks on the modern age that some
people on the list mentioned.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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