Jul
10
Songs of Summer
July 10, 2008 | 2 Comments
In heavy rotation this week:
“Once in a Lifetime”, the Talking Heads
“Handlebars”, the Flobots
“Logical Song”, Supertramp
“Jane Says” (Live) by Jane’s Addiction - proof if any was needed that it is a rare song that cannot be improved by the addition of steel drums
Jul
3
What I’m Reading
July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Missy is a wildly entertaining first novel by Scottish poet Chris Hannan about a worldly 19-year-old “flash-girl” (hooker) in the Old West who sets out from San Francisco for the silver rush in Nevada. Along the way, she appropriates a huge cache of opium which some nasty men are hunting for.
I don’t know how Hannan could write so colorfully or convincingly about the Wild West but it’s great fun.
BTW, I’m not a big consumer of Westerns, but my all-time polestars in the genre remain Pete Dexter’s Deadwood and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
The other book on my night table is Swan Peak by one of my favorite macho mystery writers James Lee Burke. For many years, Burke has split his time between Louisiana (where he sets his Dave Robicheaux novels) and Montana (where he sets his Billy Bob Holland novels).
This time he crosses his wires, sending Robicheaux, a recovering alcoholic and his pal Clete Purcel, definitely not recovering, on a fishing vacation to Montana. But trouble has a way of finding these guys, even in the most bucolic of settings.
This is my favorite Robicheaux outing in some time, mainly because of what I interpret as a softening in Burke’s world view. He spends less time describing nature (which he does beautifully) and more time mapping the male psyche. And for once, there seems to be the prospect of redemption for Burke’s hardcase characters. That makes Swan Peak go down quite smoothly.
By David Hiltbrand. Read my most recent newspaper articles at http:// go.philly.com/daveondemand.