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The Daily Dose/November 16, 2007
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
More notes from around the human experience, as the Writer's Shack checks in with one of its fave authors for a Capsule Book Review and finds he is as good as ever, plus we sleepwalk through On This Date, but it's not our fault History took the day off, and the Column Four Foto is Australian singer Rebecca St. James.
CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: Hundred Dollar Baby, By Robert. B Parker: For awhile now, from roughly Thin Air in 1995 through 2005's Cold Service Parker, honestly, has been mailing it in. The Spenser series was not as good as it used to be.
Which was very good, frankly. For the first 20 years or so, the Spenser series was a pleasure every time. You were treated to characters you really liked, people you enjoyed and looked forward to visiting every year or so. The dialogue was sparkling and funny and Parker produced prose that made you think and provided cogent, interesting insights into the human experience. In every way, a Spenser novel was worth the time and effort you put into reading it.
Uh-oh: Then, for some reason, that changed. The writing became formulaic; Spenser, Hawk, Susan, Belson, Quirk, et al, became shells of their former selves, imitations, really, and began going through the motions. Plots, specifically Hugger Mugger and Pot Shot became virtually interchangeable: cut and paste the big picture, throw in some new characters and locations, sprinkle it with unimaginative, stilted dialogue and then ship it off to the publisher. Spenser novels became nothing more than Spenser taking a case, making too big a deal about having no clue how to proceed and how this is the only way he knows how to do things with Susan fawning over how wonderful this makes him. Eventually he would solve the case on his terms, which may or may not be in accordance with the laws of whatever jurisdiction he's working in and would sometimes involve a broad-based coalition of gangsters put together specifically to help Spenser implement whatever form of Spenser justice Spenser felt like imposing. Spenser books were read out of habit.
Dry, Technical Matter: Spenser diving in and mixing things up and solving cases on his own terms has actually been his modus operandi from the start. You don't read Spenser for the whodunit. Spenser has always been about wading into the shallow end of a case, asking questions, annoying people and seeing what happens before diving into the deep end and solving the case as Spenser sees fit.
A Triumphant Return: This is exactly what happens in Hundred Dollar Baby. Parker brings back April Kyle, who we last saw in 1982's Ceremony, where April was turning tricks in Boston's Combat Zone as a teenager and Spenser saves her from that life by turning her over to Patricia Utley, a high class New York City madam.
April is still in the trade, though she's moved into management now and is running a high class brothel for Utley out of a mansion in Boston's Back Bay. April needs Spenser's help because some meanies are bothering her by showing up at the mansion and disrupting business.
The Plot Thickens: Of course, it isn't that simple. The hooligans are tracked down to another low-level thug soon enough, but nobody's entirely sure why they're bothering April and April and everybody else are lying to Spenser and he does a pretty good piece of detecting in finding out a New York City connection and Spenser doesn't so much solve the case and marshal it to it's conclusion.
Parker also utilizes one of his very best traits, that of bringing back characters from the past.
It was nice, as usual, checking in with Chollo, even though he had a smack down in Mexico to attend to and couldn't fly to Boston, and it was too bad Vinnie Morris was out of town but old fave Tony Marcus has a tangential hand in matters because he runs the whores in Boston and April was paying him a franchise fee. The only downside is Lt. Martin Quirk, always a personal favorite, does not make an appearance.
Standard Internet Disclaimer: Though Gaylon is better read than most, he is not Einstein for Pete's sake and is not a professional book reviewer. In fact, he makes no guarantees that the reviewed book is current, or even being read for the first time. Reviews are based on his own personal tastes, are completely subjective and not measured against established literary standards. He has a habit of re-reading selected favorites and books that were published as early as the 20th century.
We Interrupt This Program For A Word From The Ratings Department: Following Is The Official Writer's Shack Rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good; well worth your time.
AR - All Right; not completely without merit.
SP - A steaming pile, utterly without merit and not worth your time, my time or anyone else's time.
Overall Rating: VG. Parker is back in spades, friends. Hundred Dollar Baby is Parker at his very best and if it's not quite as good as the 1985 epic A Catskill Eagle, that's only because this wasn't an epic, once-in-a-lifetime story. Hundred Dollar Baby comes fully-equipped with a plot that's deep enough to keep you wondering but not bog your down, prose that is as smooth as a stripper working a brass pole and dialogue that keeps you laughing and thinking. Spenser, Susan, Hawk and Frank Belson again have the depth and substance that makes them old friends it is a pleasure to see again.
More Dry, Technical Matter: This was Parker's 34th Spenser novel. The 35th, Now And Then, was released this fall. We may get around to reviewing next year or so.We tend to read Spenser novels in the autumn.
ON THIS DATE: Nothing major really happened. It may well have been the slowest day in history. Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907 and in 1933 the US and Soviet Union established diplomatic relations, but Oklahoma is just one of 50 states and the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. Skylab was launched in 1973, but can you name any of the Skylab astronauts? We didn't think so. We couldn't, and we're bigger fans of the space program here than most.
Thanks Guys, That Was Really Satisfying: Skylab 4 was famous for the first mutiny in space. Faced with what they felt was an unreasonable, overly busy work schedule, astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Edward Gibson took an unscheduled day off, to include cutting off communications with Earth while they caught up on their rest. They also whined about the food, proclaiming it bland and announcing they would have preferred having more condiments available and they inadvertently photographed the top secret, officially doesn't exist military base known as Area 51. Not surprisingly, all three were making their final spaceflight.
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