Trains, Jesus, and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash by Richard Beck

(hb; 2019: nonfiction)

From the back cover

“Cash sang about and for people on the margins. He famously played concerts in prisons, where he sang both murder ballads and gospel tunes in the same set. It’s this juxtaposition between light and dark, writes Richard Beck, that makes Cash one of the most authentic theologians in memory. In reflecting on Cash’s lyrics, and the passion with which he sang them, we gain a deeper understanding of the enduring faith of the Man in Black.”

Review

Trains is an okay book. When Beck focused on the titular subjects─Cash’s life and lyrics, and interpretation of those lyrics─it was a worthwhile read. When Beck slid, as Christians are wont to do, into proselytizing about Jesus (all the while patting himself on the back for resisting the urge to do so), Trains became a trick-read, a join-my-megacult wolf in pop culture clothing.

Don’t buy this okay, unfocused book, unless it’s used and cheap. Or, better yet, borrow it from the library.

Shoot It Again by Ed Lacy

(pb; 1963─original misleading title: The Sex Castle)

From the back cover

“Clayton Biner had it all─swimming pools in California, haciendas in Mexico, blue evenings on the French Riviera, all the women he could use.

“But he wanted more. And he got it when he became involved with a vicious Syndicate peddling heroin─the Big H, the white ‘Horse.’ Now he was really in the big money─a three million-dollar bundle of danger of death.”

Review

Shoot is a sleazy, fun, fast and R-rated read with a familiar-but-still-laugh-out-loud awful cad of a protagonist. It’s violent, sexist and joyously pulpy in all the trashy, right ways, with some truly hilarious and socially wrong scenes (e.g., Biner’s visit to his ex-wife, and the boy building the sandcastle at the end). This is worth an hour and half of your sleazy-minded time, a bit longer than it might take you to read it.

Demon by John Varley

(pb; 1984: third novel in the Gaea trilogy)

From the back cover

“. . . the satellite-sized alien Gaea has gone completely insane. She has trapped humans in her mind. She has transformed her love of old movies into monstrous realities. She is Marilyn Monroe. She is King Kong. And she must be destroyed.”

Review

Set thirteen years after Wizard, this third and final Gaea novel tracks Jones, her allies and her enemies as the ex-Wizard wages a guerrilla war against Gaea, whose erratic, mass-death proclivities have grown worse, speeding up a ticking-clock-to-doomsday situation. Demon, like its predecessor books, balances ongoing (and consciousness-shifting) characters, hard and soft science fiction, a love of Golden Age Hollywood, sex and realistic, sometimes dark, takes on human nature, as well as vividly described action and fantasy sequences. This trilogy, one of my all-time-favorite science fiction reads, is worth your time if you are not a prude about sex, or not open to hybrid-genre science fiction.

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By by Georges Simenon

(pb; 1938)

Review

“Kees Popinga is a solid Dutch burgher whose idea of a night on the town is a game of chess at his club. Or so it has always appeared. But one night this model husband and devoted father discovers his boss is bankrupt and that his own carefully tended life is in ruins. Before he had looked on impassively as the trains to the outside world swept by; now he catches the first train he can to Amsterdam. Not long after that, he commits murder.

“Kees Popinga is tired of being Kees Popinga. He’s going to turn over a new leaf─though there will be hell to pay.”

Review

Man is a chatty, darkly comedic and occasionally excellent crime thriller that predates and brings to mind the tone and style of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, in that Simenon’s Popinga is an inexperienced rollercoaster-emotions killer. Unlike Ripley, though, Popinga is mostly thrill and don’t-care-about-the-future─this makes sense, since Popinga is middle-aged and initially tired, unable to match Ripley’s twenty-something tumultuousness.

Popinga’s interior nattering─which takes up a significant part of Man─reveals him to be a petty, minor figure (which is Simenon’s intention). That said, this nattering runs overlong sometimes, overlapping into authorial self-indulgence. This indulgence almost compelled me to set down Man on page three (I had not read a Simenon book before) but I’m glad I stuck with it, if mostly to finish this relatively short work. This is a good read, if you have a high tolerance for tiring, character-defining pettiness. If not (but still curious), borrow Man from the library or buy it for cheap (as in: two dollars). 

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The resulting film, The Paris Express, was released stateside on June 5, 1953. Harold French directed and co-scripted it. His originally uncredited partner in writing was Paul Jarrico.

Claude Rains played Kees Popinga. Märta Torén played Michele Rozier. Herbert Lom played Julius de Koster, Jr. Anouk Aimée, billed as Anouk, played “Jeanne, the Prostitute.”

Felix Aylmer played Mr. Merkemans. Ferdy Mayne played Louis. Lucie Mannheim played Maria Popinga. Gibb McLaughlin played Julius de Koster, Sr. Robin Alalouf played Karl Popinga. Joan St. Clair played Frida Popinga.

Criminal: The Dying and the Dead by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: graphic – collects issues 1-3 of the comic book series Criminal Volume Two)

From the back cover

“Three stories interweave to tell a tragic tale in The Dead and the Dying. A beautiful but damaged woman returns home with nothing but vengeance on her mind, and two best friends, one of the son of the city’s crime kingpin, are caught in the crossfire in this gritty, ‘70s noir from noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.”

Review

Brubaker and Phillips shake up the structure of their previous two Criminal volumes by fracturing it into a character-sharing portmanteau work, one that serves as a prequel to Coward and Lawless. Like those books, this is hardboiled, terse, character-deep and violent, with sex and betrayal prominent in the mix.

“Second Chance in Hell” focuses on the relationship between boxer Jake “Gnarly” Brown─who will later become a bartender at the Undertown, a.k.a. the Undertow─and Sebastian Hyde, his rich son-of-a-criminal-kingpin boyhood friend. Set in 1972, Hyde’s betrayal of his girlfriend (and Brown’s crush-object), Danica Briggs, sets off a series of events that form the impetus of Dying.

“A Wolf Among Wolves”: 1972. Teeg Lawless, Vietnam vet and father of Tracy and Ricky (who are key characters in Lawless), tries to do right by his family and adjust to civilian life, but it isn’t in his nature. This tale offers a character-rich wrinkle to the memories that Tracy speaks of in Lawless, deepening the overall works.

“The Female of the Species”: Danica Briggs shows her journey from a naïve girl to a hardened hustler out for revenge and escape. Her fate, prior to “Female,” is already established in the two previous stories, making this all the more heartbreaking.

Followed by Criminal: Bad Night. 

Wizard by John Varley

(pb; 1980: second novel in the Gaea Trilogy)

From the back cover

“. . . Human minds have entered the sprawling mind of Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful. . . and definitely insane.”

Review

Set seventy-five years after the events of Titan, this second Gaea novel finds Cirocco Jones and Gaby in positions of considerable power within Gaea’s sphere, even as Jones battles alcoholism, Gaby battles her own demons, and Gaea, that mercurial alien being─cruel even when kind─creates crazy and often deadly events within her realm. Will Jones fall under the chemical yoke of Gaea’s machinations, or will her compressed apostasy finally burst into open revolt? And will new, key-to-Gaea’s-plans human arrivals try to thwart Jones’s possible rebellion?

Varley delivers on this ripe-with-promise setup in his usual excellent fashion, maintaining the all the virtues of its one-of-a-kind source novel, while expanding on the Gaea-based legends and twisted histories. Like Titan, Wizard did not disappoint this not-usually-into-hard-science-fiction, action-oriented reader. Worth owning, if you are not a prude about frank sex or not open to hybrid-genre science fiction. Followed by Demon.

In the Hat by Dannie Martin (a.k.a. Dannie M. Martin)

(hb; 1997)

From the inside flap

“Martin offers the story of Vernon Coy, a pimp and small-time bank robber who’s living the easy life with two girls and a rooster. The girls─Paula and Curly─are like family, and the rooster is not just any rooster. He fought an alligator to a standstill and he’s making Vern a fortune at the cockfights. Of course, the easy life never stays easy for long. What Vern doesn’t know is that he’s in the hat.

“There’s a little ritual unique to prison gangs. When someone crosses your gang, his name gets put in the hat with a bunch of blank slips of paper. Whoever draws the slip with the name on it is expected to make sure that this someone ends up dead before the next lockdown. Since Vern’s on the outside, killing him won’t be that simple or that quick., but if the Duboce White Boys have their way, it won’t be long before Vern is just another body with a tag on its toe.

“The only man who can warn Vern is his brother, Weldon. But Weldon’s doing twenty-five to life, and he can’t even get a word out to Vern. The result: murder, mayhem, cops, robbers and robbery. . .”

Review

Hat is a good, effective mix of relatable characters with a laidback family vibe and hardboiled crime and violence. Martin keeps the tone switches and story believable─life can turn in an instant, after all─and the pacing, characters, and everything else in Hat work, as well. This has a ‘70s neo-pulp, atypical-family vibe, with appearances by key characters from Martin’s first novel, The Dishwasher. Fans of Charles Willeford’s 1972 book Cockfighter and Edward Bunker, an ex-jailbird author like Martin, may enjoy Hat.

The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels by Dashiell Hammett

(pb; 1966, 1972: anthology ─ Edited and with an introduction by Lillian Hellman)

Overall review

Knockover is a mixed bag. Hellman, a close friend, writes a detailed and moving introduction about Hammett. It might well be the best piece of writing in this anthology.

Some stories and novellas worked (e.g., “The Gutting of Couffignal,” “Fly Paper” and “The Scorched Face”), others did not (“Tulip,” “$106,000 Blood Money”). Overall, I would recommend this anthology if it is bought at a discounted price or borrowed from the library.

Stories and novellas

“The Gutting of Couffignal”: An investigator for the Continental Detective Agency tries to prevent the escape of bold, explosives-using thieves after they rob the wedding of a wealthy family on a remote island. This is a fun, not-difficult-to-figure-out-who’s-who heist-adventure tale.

“Fly Paper”: A ransom payoff goes awry when the kidnappers turn out to be less than advertised, and related-to-the-case corpses are discovered─another fun, sharp-wit-dialogue and -characters tale that entertains in a major way.

“The Scorched Face”: When two sisters disappear, an investigator─hired by their father─looks for them, uncovering an unsavory blackmail racket in the process. Good, fast-moving tale, with an excellent, stunning end-line.

“This King Business”: The Continental Op[erative] from previous stories tries extricate a naïve young man and his three million dollars from a scam masquerading as a righteous revolution in a foreign country [“Stefania, capital of Muravia”]. This is a fun, twisty and less tightly edited work, with another pulp-memorable ending sentence.

“The Gatewood Caper”: Solid, if predictable and bland, tale about a young woman’s kidnapping.

“Dead Yellow Women”: This story with the un-P.C. title revolves around the mystery of a woman’s murdered house servants. These killings inspire an investigation in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where danger and shady characters lurk. This is an overlong, okay work, with an entertaining finish and great exit line.

“Corkscrew”: Light-hearted actioner about a Continental Operative cleaning up a wild Arizona town for his client. When two killings, enacted by an unknown person or persons, happen, it turns into an investigation. This is a fun, lively western mystery with lots of gunplay and brawling.

“Tulip”: Could not get into this rambling, where-the-heck-is-it-going, extended-conversation drama piece.

“The Big Knockover”: A bold multibank heist sends Continental Operatives scrambling around San Francisco to catch at least some of the robbers─the ones that aren’t being killed in large numbers. The operatives also seek to retrieve the stolen money.

This chatty, entertaining tale has a lot of colorful characters, running around and concise, slam-bang action.

“$106,000 Blood Money”: Tom-Tom Carey, brother of Paddy the Mex─killed in “The Big Knockover”─seeks his brother’s brother’s murderer, not for revenge but the titular reward. This killer (Papadopolous) is, of course, difficult to locate, resulting in another chatty, full-of-colorful-characters work. This time out, though, this just feels like a rambling, overly complex mess. It feels empty, Hammett-by-the-numbers at best.

Criminal: Lawless by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: graphic novel, collects issues 6-10 of the comic book series Criminal)

From the back cover

“Twenty years ago, Tracy Lawless escaped the crime-ridden streets of the city for a life in the military, and never look back. But not his past is dragging him home from the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, to find out who left his brother lying dead in an alley. As he digs through the wreckage of his family history, infiltrating the underworld life his brother Rick lived, the one thing Tracy has going for him is that no one knows who the hell he is anymore, and what they don’t know just might kill them. . “

Review

Lawless spiral-expands the world introduced in the first Criminal graphic novel, Coward. Like Coward, Lawless is a pulpy, terse, character-interesting and sometimes violent work that uses the Undertown bar, a.k.a. the Undertow, as its central location. Not only that, this second volume has mentions of or cameos by characters seen in the first graphic novel. This is a great expansion of Criminal, one worth reading. Followed by Criminal: The Dying and the Dead.

Titan by John Varley

(pb; 1979: first novel in the Gaea trilogy)

From the back cover

“It begins with humankind’s exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling─because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers, transforming all who enter.”

Review

Titan is a bold mix of hard and soft science fiction, sex, classic cinema, action and realistic take on human nature (in all aspects). Its distinctive and consistent characters, many of whom go through wild transitions, are memorable. Titan is a fast-paced work, one of my all-time-favorite science fiction reads (as are all three Gaea books), and one worth owning, as long as you are not a prude about frank sex or not open to hybrid-genre science fiction.

Followed by Wizard.