Very interesting observations, Victoria. It is fun, isn't
it?--Karin
At 13:08 07/01/05 -0800, Victoria wrote:
>Half way thru the book I realized that I had read it
before. I find this upsetting, that nothing registered from
all those mysteries I read in the 70s. I have not read any of
Macdonald since reading the Blue Hammer when it was
published. I think I read nearly everything he had written
and now it is pretty much a blur or just
non-existent..
>
>Several points --
>
>In the early 60s the WASP community was still closed.
Only a Frenchman could penetrate it and that was cause for
notice if not alarm.
>
>Every character is miserable to some degree. All the
marriages are bad and all the children are traumatized, if
not yet (the professor's) they soon will be. Ginny begs
Archer and the doctor not to argue across her because her
parents did, and Peter says that Ginny's parents fought
openly in front of him. Peter is hexed from the day he is
born.
>
>The women are strong people tied to weak men. Martel
is the only strong husband and he is an impostor, liar, and
thief. Not one of the women has tossed the husband and gone
out on her own. The redhead is still legally married to one
weak man while taking care of an invalid who used to beat
her, as did her mother. And she agreed to being given away as
a gambling prize.
>
>Martel is a negative character while alive but
becomes increasingly sympathetic as his past is revealed. He
is dead by the time the reader feels like rooting for him.
The tragedy is that a powerful man is brought down by
inconsequence rather than the criminal element with whom he
deals.
>
>Gambling and Las Vegas are evil. Black money (money
not reported for taxes) is evil but money has nothing to do
with the case although it would seem to be the reason. The
true evil is family life.
>
>Twenty dollars will hold a hospital bed. (Not a plot
point but I could not resist.)
>
>Ginny, about whom the entire story revolves, remains
a closed and almost emotionless character. She projects much
less than the redhead or the professor's wife. She remains
composed even at the bloody end.
>
>People are so totally co-operative. Martel agrees to
answer the five questions rather than throwing the people out
of his house. Is paranoia a recent development wherein nobody
tells nobody nothing? I realize the plot requires a constant
information feed but some of those conversations really
stretch believability.
>
>All (nearly all? some?) of Macdonald's plots are
driven by one conversation/questioning after another. He runs
all over town, or several towns, seeing the next person
mentioned after the last one. Other than his own movement,
there is very little physical action. Shootings are the
exception but most of those take place off-screen.
>
>This is fun. Thanks gang,
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 09 Jan 2005 EST