Re: RARA-AVIS: John D. MacDonald

From: David Bell ( belldj@email.uc.edu)
Date: 04 Oct 2001


I just found a copy of this in a Half-Price Books near my house. There's a cover blurb by Stephen King that says "One of the great American novels of the 20th century. It ranks with Death of a Salesman. It ranks with An American Tragedy."

PS--I know Death of a Salesman isn't a novel. I assume King knows it too.

George Upper wrote:

> I've just finished John D. MacDonald's 1960 THE END OF
> THE NIGHT. What a fantastic book. I've read a fair
> amount of MacDonald--I think I've read all the McGee
> books, plus numerous non-series novels and a short
> story or two. He is often dark, but this novel is an
> amazingly dark novel. (I'm trying to write this
> without the necessity of a spoiler alert.)
>
> The novel is also more complexly constructed than
> anything else I've read by MacDonald. Many different
> points of view, non-linear timeline, even various
> (supposed) media--some of the novel is straight
> narrative, the first chapter is a letter, and there
> are excerpts from both an "official" diary and the
> last-days memoirs of a convict on death row.
>
> I don't know how readily available this novel is. I
> stumbled onto it myself for 50 cents (U.S.) at a used
> book store while I was looking for something else.
> (Oddly enough, 50 cents was the original price in
> 1960).
>
> Anyway, while I normally recommend JDM to anyone who
> asks, I HIGHLY recommend this one.
>
> G.
>
> =====
> George C. Upper III, Editor
> The Lightning Bell Poetry Journal
> http://www.lightningbell.org/
>
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