Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Actually, I’m sure he’s read more than that. Frank’s a voracious reader, the kind of guy who devours books. I’ve been on a reading jag lately. I just read Mark Haddon’s glorious THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, which moved me deeply, and now that I’ve finished the HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, I’m planning to dig into some George R.R. Martin based on the repeated recommendations of so many of you guys.
Anyway... here’s Frank with a peek at some things that are hitting shelves soon:
Summer is here and so are the books. Returning like locusts to your neighborhood super stores. The Red Sox and the Yankees battle for first place and the threat of “terror” taints every waking hour. Our President, “The Dummy” sits in repose waiting for his brother to steal another election, all while he’s busy finding new and exciting ways to stick his junk in the mashed potatoes. Our country has become something completely different in the past few years; we’ve become cautiously paranoid, on a constant basis. The USA still has bragging rights the world over, but to what end? I fear for the direction our current administration is taking us, and they’re doing it at a break neck pace. If you need some distraction from the daily horrors reported to you by the media, read on, until next time…
It’s Not A Secret If I Don’t Tell Anyone
Cruisers: A Novel by Craig Nova
Shaye Areheart Books; 320 pages
As we drawn closer to summer, at least here on the East Coast, throngs of books are slated for release to fill those beach bags and occupy those long car rides. One in particular will not get adequate promotion; hopefully we’ll remedy that with this column.
Craig Nova is one of my all time favorite authors. He’s written some of the boldest literary masterpieces of the last thirty years. If you don’t believe me, the next time you see John Irving, ask him. Irving is one of Nova’s biggest fans, and most notably, he’s thrown a mountain of praise on Nova’s latest novel, ‘Cruisers’. If you’ve read Nova then this column is old news to you and you’re aware that this novel is forthcoming. For the uninitiated Craig Nova needs to be read from start to finish and if you can find a used copy of ‘Incandescence’ then start there. Follow that with ‘Trombone’, ‘Book of Dreams’, ‘Turkey Hash’, ‘The Universal Donor’, ‘Wetware’, (just to name a few of his books) the last a brilliant trip into the world of cloning. All of his books have a real sense of a true and meaningful voice. There’s clarity to his writing and at the same time an intimate nature that breeds a kinship among the people who read him. Elwood Reid author of the brilliant ‘DB’ (reviewed here last month) swears by Nova. He’s an influence on writers of my generation in a very powerful way. ‘Trombone’ was released last year with a new package and people started to discover him. I remember being thrilled and scared all at once while reading ‘Incandescence’ not because this was a horror novel, but this book was unhinged at the risky chances it took. Placing a brilliantly conceived loner on the page, dramatically, with a searing effect.
‘Cruisers’ leaves nothing to chance; Nova is at the top of his game and shows it in spades by whittling down two characters from what I’m sure was a larger assortment. He researched this book for a year and it shows. Frank Kholer and Russell Boyd are two men on the opposite sides of life; the first is a loner that is followed by a predator/cop found in Boyd. Each man is juxtaposed one chapter at time thus creating parallel lines that are never supposed to meet. Boyd is a man alone in the night moving through the detritus after his prey. Kholer is a lost man finding his only solace in self-destruction. At first Kholer seems to be climbing out of his shell, lost as a child to a mother that bedded anyone who bought her a drink. Then he marries a mail order bride and you think he’s turned the corner. He has, but waiting for him is Boyd. Their paths cross with several different effects. What’s interesting about these two men is how they’re drawn by Nova in relation to the women they surround them selves with. Boyd’s girlfriend is trying to protect him from the ills of being a cop, and Kholer’s is trying to use him for citizenship. If you’re seeing a cinematic parallel here, you’re probably drawing a straight line to Michael Mann’s epic crime drama ‘Heat’ and if you’ve read this column you know it’s atop my all time favorite’s list. Men singularly driven by inner demons or the rewards of catching the prey are Mann’s stock and trade. The similarity to how he draws man/women relationships, compared to Nova’s is scary. There is attention to detail that could have only come from tireless research. There’s a pain and purity to the ugliness portrayed in this book but at the same time it triggers an effect in the reader that involves a trip inside the minds of two men and their motivations. Craig Nova is operating at a high rate of speed, with brilliant results and he gets better with every novel.
Hot Plastic by Peter Craig
Hyperion; 341 Pages
Somehow I felt almost obliged to read ‘Hot Plastic’, with the arresting cover and the background of the “Hollywood Kid” who penned it. It seemed almost necessary. Sad but true, I was swayed by Entertainment Weekly’s two-sentence review of the book. Plus this is Sally Fields kid. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up in that family, or under the microscope of Hollywood during Mrs. Fields rein as leading actress extraordinaire. You’d have to be a gargantuan dreamer to think that she’s still relevant, even if she was working. Being someone famous is one thing, being the kid of someone famous is an entirely other bag of road apples. I’m glad he changed his name; then again I’m not his mother. I understand the need to separate, get things on your own, and be your own man. Fine. But to be a writer to boot, that’s gotta be something? Or rather, you’ve got to have some kind of talent.
I’m here to report that Peter Craig is indeed talented. Does he warrant hardcover treatment for his novel? Yes. Hyperion is operating in the deep forest of the publishing world, barely pecking out an existence, so I guess they’re trying to save money by tossing this sharp little grifter story out in trade paper. You’ll see Jim Thompson immediately in the first chapter of this book. It’s sorta like ‘Pop 1280’, and a lot like Andrew Vachss last novel, a trade paper also, whose name I won’t speak. What separates ‘Hot Plastic’ from all the gross imitators? Peter Craig and his whip smart dialogue.
“He’s done things that will give you nightmares.”
Great line. Kevin Swift and his dad Jerry are hustlers, grifter’s, running scams, long and short cons. Mid way through the first quarter of this book, Kevin starts out as a kid, ten or eleven, I think, we meet a teenage girl who becomes the women of both their dreams. I don’t like Colette, your not supposed to, but she’s good at running cons, she’s great at reading people, and Kevin has a lot of Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors to get through before he lands this vixen. This isn’t the talent I was talking about. Craig gets under the skin of the hustle. He makes the con an art. He delivers some great story, a little twist here and suddenly everyone is on the make. Elaborate. Detailed. Sharp and witty. The adventures we’re dragged through are nothing short of epic. Peter Craig has a real live wire ability to deliver the ultimate con. You’re so doused in detail that you’ve forgotten there really isn’t a through line in the plot. That’s okay. Craig takes our teenage hero to Europe where the book runs aground and comes up a little short. Kevin lives a miraculously famous life in France, and by all accounts would have ended up in jail immediately. Captured at one point by the coppers in Paris, he’s given his freedom because of the French’s hatred of America. They’d rather have an American stealing from them, than ship him home. Suspend your belief, a little? I don’t min the Jim Thompson nod of the hat, or the fact that this is a jacked up ‘Matchstick Men’, I’ll overlook the story mistake, (she’s not wearing jeans in one scene, five pages later she has them on because is got cold. She never left the scene. Who gave her pants?). Peter Craig has nice little calling card to join his Hollywood novel, ‘The Martini Shot’. His writing is seasoned and his experiences well traveled. But remember the devil is in the details. Then again, who’s perfect?
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Any book that John Irving recommends is ending up on my shelf. Hell, yeah. Thanks for the column, as always, Frank.
"Moriarty" out.
