In honor of Gold Medal Month, I read John D. MacDonald's
first three novels--THE BRASS CUPCAKE, JUDGE ME NOT and
MURDER FOR THE BRIDE. The short version: all three are worth
a read.
I love the blurb on the front of CUPCAKE: "With a girl like
Letty, a guy never knew whether he was getting the brass
cupcake, the gold ring, the wooden nickel, or the lead
slug...until it was too late." This is Gold Medal
perfection--First, Letty is an exceptionally minor character
in the novel compared to Melody Chance, in fact she only
appears two times that really matter (I'm not counting a
quick cameo appearance or two). Second, the protagonist,
Cliff, never "gets" her at all in any sense of the word.
Third, whatever "brass cupcake" may have meant in 1950 slang
(and I'm not sure it meant anything), it's used in the
context of the cover blurb in a different way than JDM uses
the phrase in the novel. My copy is a reprint (of course;
like I could afford a first edition) from the mid-sixties or
so, judging from the listed "Other Gold Medal Books" by JDM,
which include, for example, only the first five McGees. It
makes me wonder whether whoever was writing the cover blurbs
in the sixties actually read the books.
I like the blurb for JUDGE ME NOT better: "Everything they
said about what she was and what she did was true." Although
the back cover material indicates that this refers to the
whore-with-a-heart-of-gold in the novel, there are at least
three other women it could be talking about. In fact, since
no one really talked about what the WWAHOG (I think I'd
better copyright that) "was" or "did," it might fit one of
the other choices better. A great book, though, with a nice
dark ending. (Again, I own a reprint. This one looks to be a
year or two later, as there are six McGees listed and the
cover price has gone up a dime to 50 cents--which is, oddly
enough, what I paid for CUPCAKE).
Finally, MURDER FOR THE BRIDE, though my edition hails from
the same period as CUPCAKE (40 cent cover price, five
McGees), has no nice blurb worth discussing. The novel is a
good read, and I could write a paper--maybe someday I
will--on the sex in it. Dillon Bryant beds three women: his
wife who is sexually adept but using him; a spy/seductress
who is sexy enough while trying to rob Bryant, then cold when
their relationship becomes more personal, then warmer as it
becomes more personal; and a reporter who is colder still (I
don't mean reluctant; I mean what used to be called
"frigid") until she's sure it's true love, and then can't
wait to jump in bed even though Dillon prefers to wait for
marriage.
And that, my friends, is the worst sentence I've ever
written.
Anyway, as I said, all worth a read. I prefer the first
two--despite MURDER being billed as a "classic novel of high
suspense," it never quite got me on the edge of my seat
wondering who would get caught for what and when. CUPCAKE is
probably the best of the three, which I find particularly
impressive in a first novel.
But I'll save the rest of my JDM collection--Gold Medals or
not--for their proper decades. With September free, I'm going
back to trying to finish all the books in the Robicheaux
series.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
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