The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943—1962 by David Meuel

(pb; 2015: nonfiction)

From the back cover

“Beginning in the mid-1940s, the bleak, brooding mood of film noir began seeping into that most optimistic of film genres, the western. Story lines took on a darker tone and western films adopted classic noir elements of moral ambiguity, complex anti-heroes and explicit violence.

“The noir western helped set the standard for the darker science fiction, action and superhero films of today, as well as for acclaimed TV series such as HBO Deadwood and AMC’s Breaking Bad. This book covers the stylistic shift in westerns in mid-20^th century Hollywood, offering close readings of the first noir westerns, along with revealing portraits of the eccentric and talented directors who brought the films to life.”

Review

Darkness is an excellent nonfiction read, the equivalent of a micro-course on noir westerns. A burn-through, engaging and informative book, it shines a light on lesser known and well-known directors and selected standout works they created in the titular period. These directors, writers and film technicians include: William Wellman, Raoul Walsh, André de Toth, Robert Wise, Sam Fuller, Henry King, Anthony Mann, Allan Dwan, Delmer Daves, Budd Boetticher and John Ford. These is a should-read for anyone interested in western and noir cinema, and a book worth owning.

From Dusk Till Dawn: A Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino

(pb; 1995: screenplay)

From the back cover

“You’d better hope you don’t cross paths with the infamous Gecko brothers─Richie and Seth. They’re fond of banks─robbing them, that is. They’re tough. Cool. Notorious. In From Dusk Till Dawn, we follow them as they tear a path through the heartland of America on their way to the borner. It is there, near El Paso, that they will meet up with their Mexican partners-in-crime to divvy up the loot they’ve acquired.

“Along the way, though, an innocent family will enter their lives─an ex-Baptist preacher, his teenage son, and sexy daughter. We watch as Richie and Seth enlist the family’s help in getting them safely across the border in the family’s Winnebago. When they arrive at their dreamed-about world south of the border, they are met with a terrifying twist.”

Review

Cutting to the point─there is not a lot to say about this fast-moving, character-intense heist/vampire screenplay and film, aside from: if you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, or just like the 1996 film that resulted from this screenplay, chances are you’ll enjoy reading it. If you’re not, you probably won’t. Tarantino keeps the writing lean ‘n’ mean, with no lag in action, sleaziness and sketched-out character development, creating a screenplay/film that is a modern milestone in the vampire flick genre, one that brings to mind the trashy, Americanized thrills of a 1960s/1970s Hammer film. Worth reading and owning, this, if you appreciate Tarantino and Rodriguez’s work, or the film in general.

Chumpy Walnut and Other Stories by Will Viharo

(pb; 2016: story anthology)

Overall review

This excellent story twelve-story anthology shows Viharo’s range as a writer. There’s the sweet “Chumpy Walnut,” as well as atmospheric, existential vignette-plays (“Night Notes,” “The Inbetweeners,” etc.) and straightforward horror-pulp hybrids (“People Bug Me,” “Short and Choppy,” etc.). Whether you are a longtime Viharo fan, or just coming into his prolific, penned world, this a diverse story collection worth owning.

Standout stories

“Chumpy Walnut”: A young man as tall as a ruler─the kind one measures with─goes on a wild adventure in a big city where sexy dames, gangsters, kind-hearted hustlers and musically inclined adolescents run rampant. Lots of wordplay, colorful characters and dizzying action in this ultimately warm and funny novella─this brings to mind elements and characters from Hollywood films, circa 1930s to early 1950s.

“A Wrong Turn at Albuquerque”: In this one-act play, a writer gives a beautiful hitchhiker a ride, a passenger who may change his life in ways he does not expect. Entertaining, clever-conversation and smile-inducing piece.

“Night Notes”: Mood-effective story about a hotel night clerk (who wants to be a sax player) and could-be poet in the a.m. hours. Haunting, great finish.

“Coffee Shop Goddess”: Sweet, melancholic story spanning most of the 1980s. In it, a young man befriends a funny, smart woman appropriately named Lightbulbs (for the previously stated reason). This being a Viharo story, there’s plenty of era-centric pop music and film references as well as clever banter.

“People Bug Me”: An on-the-lam reporter interviews a small town shrink for an article after the shrink has been attacked by one of his patients─a teenage “lycanthrope,” according to the doctor. Then things get really weird. . . this quick-blast, fun and excellent story has a 1950s film feel: it’s a conjoining of two 1957 films─Sweet Smell of Success and I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

This story has been published twice before this. In March 2014, it was published in the fifth issue of Nightmares Illustrated. Its second time-around was in the Spring 2015 issue of Dark Corners magazine.

“Short and Choppy”: Grisly, sexually explicit tale about a dwarf (Cameron) whose hatred for his writing teacher (Sean) and lust for Sean’s wife (Sabrina) leads Cameron toward fantastic, violent acts. Excellent, black-hearted and pulpy laugh-out-loud piece.

This work appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of Dark Corners magazine.

“The Lost Sock”: Mood-effective desperation, dread, eroticism and surrealism highlight this pop culture-savvy and lust-crusty work about a down-on-his-luck man tried to locate a missing sock. Excellent, Twilight Zone-esque tale, this.

This story was originally published in the Winter 2014 issue of Dark Corners magazine.

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

(hb; 2019: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“On October 27, 2018, eleven Jews were gunned down as they prayed at their synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.

“For most Americans, the massacre at Tree of Life, the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bar mitzvah, came as a shock. Yet anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred, commonplace across the Middle East and on the rise for years in Europe. So that terrible morning in Pittsburgh raised a question Americans can no longer avoid. Can it happen here?

“This book is Weiss’s answer.

“Like many, Weiss long believed this country could escape the risingtide of anti-Semitism. With its promise of free speech and religion, its insistence that all people are created equal, its tolerance for difference, and its emphasis on shared ideals rather than bloodlines, America has been, even with all its flaws, a new Jerusalem for the Jewish people. But now the luckiest Jews in history are beginning to face a three-headed dragon known all to well to Jews of other times and place: the physical fear of violent assault, the moral fear of ideological vilification, and the political fear or resurgent fascism and populism.

“No longer the exclusive province of the far right, the far left, and assorted religious bigots, anti-Semitism now finds a home in identity politics as well as the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of America First isolationism and the rise of one-world fascism, and in the spread of Islamist ideas into unlikely places.”

Review

Fight is one of the best and most intense nonfiction books I’ve read this year. It is informative, disturbing, angry, pro-active─and life-changing, at least for this reader. Weiss, with her measured use of the above elements and logic, lays out how the hatred of Jews is a distinctive, constantly morphing horror, not rooted in a few main reasons but many. If you are interested in confronting racism or interested in the subject for other reasons, this is a should-read, one worth owning.

The Auctioneer by Joan Samson

(hb; 1975)

From the inside flap:

“Harlowe, New Hampshire, is a rural township still isolated from the pressures and changes of the second half of the twentieth century. It is here that John Moore works the land farmed by his family for centuries, here that he lives with his wife and daughter, and here that he expects to die when his life’s work is done. But from the moment that a magnetic stranger named Perly Dunsmore arrives in the community and begins a series of auctions to raise money for the growth of the local police force, the days of John Moore’s freedom and independence are suddenly numbered.

“Page after page, the reader is trapped with John Moore in the grip of chilling horror as he is relentlessly stripped of his possessions, his ability to resist, his courage, and his hope by the ever-growing power and demands of the auctioneer. What was initially a minor nuisance, then an infuriating intrusion, now becomes for John Moore a desperate, seemingly doomed battle against a force that has already corrupted all of Harlowe and is now systematically destroying it.”

Review

Auctioneer is a steady build, excellent and near-perfect read, a simply stated metaphor for how people will kowtow under a legalized─even if it is oppressive─system. To say I enjoyed it might be a stretch, for it is also an endurance test, frustrating given the menace displayed toward, and dignities heaped upon, some of its characters. This would be one of my all-time favorite books, were it not for its spot-it-from-miles-away, bulls**t end twist (also spoiling an otherwise effective climactic finish). I understand that Samson is following through on her people-are-cowards-until-they’re-not metaphor with this ending but maybe she should have been more concerned with wrapping up Auctioneer is a satisfying manner. 

If you can accept its flawed denouement, Auctioneer is worth reading.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

(hb; 2017: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty and the wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water., the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

“Hundreds of girls paint watch faces amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these ‘shining girls’ are the luckiest alive─until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

“But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects and the women’s cries of corruption. As the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early twentieth century and a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.”

Review

Radium is an excellent, burn-through, entertaining and infuriating book about the conspiratorial, systematic poisoning of American generations by corrupt scientists, dentists and corporations, from 1914 through 1978. The writing is informative, entertaining (if often downbeat and alarming), flows like a modern-day thriller, and is one of the best nonfiction books I have read in recent years. Its theme of corporate and scientific malfeasance is as timely, educational and enduring as any other more-celebrated American elements and institutions, and serves as yet another reminder of who we need to be fighting─in other words, not each other.

Radium is worth owning.

Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg

(hb; 1976)

From the inside flap

“A scarred and crippled veteran of Vietnam, Cutter is nevertheless not one to feel sorry for. He has a beautiful and devoted Mo, who lives with him in Santa Barbara with their baby son. And he has friends, a government pension, a brilliant if mordant turn of mind. But he also has a savage and unrelenting despair, a ‘recklessness unto death,’ as his buddy Bone describes it─Bone who seems to have nothing in common with him except their friendship and their love of Mo. An ‘establishment dropout,’ Bone has left behind him a junior execution job in Milwaukee, a wife and children and a suburban home. Handsome enough to live off women, he does just that, going with the flow, going nowhere.

“Then one night, walking home, he happens upon a man disposing of a girl’s body. He catches only a glimpse of him, a silhouette in darkness. But the next day, after reading a newspaper account of the crime─LOCAL GIRL SLAIN, BODY FOUND IN TRASHCAN─Bone comes across a photograph of conglomerate tycoon J.J. Wolfe and he remarks on its similarity to the silhouette he saw.

“This is just what Cutter needed, an obsession big enough to fit his manic recklessness. He becomes convinced that Wolfe is the killer, and sets out to prove it, then to blackmail him for it. In his fervor, he drags Bone and Mo and the dead girl’s sister with him. Only after a wild cross-country drive from the Coast to the Ozarks─home base of the Wolfe empire─does Bone begin to understand the real nature of his friend’s obsession, that Cutter is not pursuing a murderer so much as the great enemy itself, them, the very demons that have dogged his life.”

Review

Thornburg’s immersive, hard-to-set-down and offbeat neo-noir novel captures well the fatalistic malaise that suffused the 1970s, with characters─some manic, others burnt out and exhausted─whose personalities and actions drive this Don Quixote-esque quest to its inevitable, appropriate Easy Rider-esque finish. This is an excellent read, its twists and turns character-centric and organic, one that─for its time─updates America’s dark legacy. This is one of my all-time favorite crime reads, one worth owning.

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The resulting and lighter-in-tone film, retitled Cutter's Way, was released stateside on February 10, 1982. Ivan Passer directed it, from a screenplay by Jeffrey Alan Fisker.

Jeff Bridges played Richard Bone. John Heard played Alex Cutter. Lisa Eichorn played “Mo.” Ann Dusenberry played Valery Duran. Arthur Rosenberg played George Swanson.

Stephen Elliott played J.J. Cord. Patricia Donahue played Mrs. Cord. Geraldine Baron played Susie Swanson.

Julia Duffy played “Young Girl.” Billy Drago played “Garbageman.” Ted White, who later played Jason in Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter [1984]─an uncredited role─played “Guard #1.” An uncredited Paul Thomas, ex-porn star, played “Man at table in dive bar.”

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

(pb; 2017: nonfiction)

From the back cover

“In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured cars and lived in mansions.

“Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed. Mollie Burkhart watched as her family became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. Other Osage were also dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who investigated the crimes were themselves murdered.

“As the death toll rose, the case was taken up by the newly formed FBI and its young, secretive director, J. Edgar Hoover. Struggling to crack the mystery, Hoover turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent. They infiltrated this last remnant of the Wild West, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.”

Review

Killers is an excellent nonfiction book that masterfully mixes reportage of an egregious, real-life criminal conspiracy with the cinematic-vivid draw of a mystery and thriller. It is a sad, horrifying and oh-so-American read but its horrors are balanced by Grann’s superb  writing and characterizations. This is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction reads, one that I intend to keep on my bookshelf (I rarely keep books due to lack of space).

Doom Patrol, Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris by Grant Morrison, Doug Braithwaite, Richard Case, Scott Hanna, John Nyberg and Carlos Garzón

(2016: graphic novel, collects issues 35-50 of the rebooted-in-1989 comic book series)

From the back cover

“Originally conceived in the 1960s by the visionary team of writer Arnold Drakes and artist Bruno Premiani, the Doom Patrol was reborn a generation later through the singular imagination of a young Scottish author─and the result took American comics in a wholly unexpected direction.

“In forging their new path, the reborn World’s Strangest Heroes left behind almost every vestige of normality. Though they are super-powered beings, and though their foes are bent on world domination, all that is conventional ends there. Shunned as freaks and outcasts, and tempered by loss and insanity, this band of misfits faces threats so mystifying in nature and so corrupted in motive that reality itself threatens to fall apart around them─but it’s still al in a day’s work for the Doom Patrol.”

Review

Doom, with its sly humor, unique and unsettling characters and multiverses as well as its smarty pants, abstract notions/genre twists, is one of my all-time favorite comic book series. It does not hurt that the artwork is stellar, straddling the line between Golden Age and then-Modern Age illustrations and tones; it furthers my enjoyment of Doom that the storylines are unpredictable and, at times, mind-bending.

In this particular Doom volume, our unusual heroes further their acquaintance with Danny the Street. They also battle The Men From N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (fake and real), fangsome smoke dogs, and the chaotic Mr. Nobody─escaped from the “Painting That Ate Paris” he was trapped in, in Volume 1─and his new Brotherhood of Dada.

Followed by Doom Patrol, Volume 3: Down Paradise Way.

The Furies by Niven Busch

(pb; 1948)

From the back cover

“With his novel Duel in the Sun (1946) and his screenplay for Raoul Walsh’s Pursued (1947), Niven Busch brought the western into decidedly Freudian territory, marrying the genre’s rugged exteriors with equally untamed psychologies. First published in 1948, The Furies continued his revisionist steak with the thundering tale of Vane Jefford, tough right hand and hot-blooded heiress to her beloved patriarch, ruthless New Mexico cattle baron T.C. Jefford. But when her widower father brings home a new flame, Vance’s simmering jealousy threatens to shatter trust, draw blood, and bring ruin to the clan.”

Review

Furies is a cinematic-vivid, psychologically intense, epic and sometimes suspenseful Western tale of tempestuous familial struggles, betrayal, greed, murder and─for some of the characters─redemption. It gets chatty at times but not so much that it made me, a minimalist reader and writer, want to set it down. This is an ambitious, accomplished and memorable work, one that will stick with this reader for a long time to come. This is not only worth reading, it is worth owning.

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The resulting film was released stateside on August 14, 1950. It was directed by Anthony Mann, from Charles Schnee’s screenplay.

Barbara Stanwyck played Vance Jeffords. Walter Huston played T.C. Jeffords. Gilbert Roland played Juan Herrera. Wendell Corey played Rip Darrow (cinematic stand-in for the book’s Curley Darragh). Judith Anderson played Flo Burnett.

John Bromfield played Clay Jeffords. Blanche Yerka played “Herrera Mother.” Thomas Gomez played El Tigre. Wallace Ford played Scotty Hyslip. Frank Ferguson played Dr. Grieve. 

Doom Patrol, Volume 1: Crawling from the Wreckage by Grant Morrison, Doug Braithwaite, Richard Case, Scott Hanna, John Nyberg and Carlos Garzón

(2016: graphic novel, collects issues 19-34 of the rebooted-in-1989 comic book series)

From the back cover

“Originally conceived in the 1960s by the visionary team of writer Arnold Drakes and artist Bruno Premiani, the Doom Patrol was reborn a generation later through the singular imagination of a young Scottish author─and the result took American comics in a wholly unexpected direction.

“In forging their new path, the reborn World’s Strangest Heroes left behind almost every vestige of normality. Though they are super-powered beings, and though their foes are bent on world domination, all that is conventional ends there. Shunned as freaks and outcasts, and tempered by loss and insanity, this band of misfits faces threats so mystifying in nature and so corrupted in motive that reality itself threatens to fall apart around them─but it’s still al in a day’s work for the Doom Patrol.”

Review

Doom, with its sly humor, unique, unsettling and intriguing characters, and smarty pants, abstract notions/genre twists, is one of my all-time favorite comic book series. It does not hurt that the artwork is stellar, straddling the line between Golden Age and then-Modern Age illustrations and tones; it furthers my enjoyment of Doom that the storylines are unpredictable and, at times, mind-bending. Worth owning and re-reading, this. Followed by the 2016 graphic novel Doom Patrol, Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris.

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

(hb; 2018: children’s picture book)

From the inside flap

“It’s Penelope’s first day at school, and she can’t wait to meet her classmates.

“But making friends is hard to do when they’re so delicious!

“Readers will gobble up this hilarious new story from award-winning author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins.”

Review

This dark-humored children’s book hits the sweet spot between amusing-to-adults and amusing-to-appropriate-for-children. By making Penelope a sweet-natured T-Rex child─who quickly learns to not consume her classmates, a lesson without any lasting harm─and the other characters’ mild response to her actions, Eat is a perfect-for-its-genre read: it sports a simple (but not simple-minded) story arc, easy-to-spot and multilayered moral lessons, and laugh-out-loud funny, surprising moments. I especially love Walter the goldfish and the end-line of this inspired book. Eat is a charming, funny and memorable three-minute read, one worth owning (if you are into this genre and darkly funny mindset).

Gilded Needles by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1980)

From the back cover

“Welcome to the Black Triangle, New York’s decadent district of opium dens, gambling casinos, drunken sailors, gaudy hookers, and back room abortions. The queen of this unsavory neighborhood is Black Lena Shanks, whose family leads a ring of female criminals─women skilled in the art of cruelty.

“Only a few blocks away, amdist the elegant mansions and lily-white reputations of Gramercy Park and Washington Square, lives Judge James Stallworth. On a crusade to crush Lena’s evil empire, the judge has sentenced three of her family members to death. And now she wants revenge.

“One Sunday, all the Stallworths receive invitations─to their own funerals. Can even the wealth and power of the Stallworth family protect them from Lena’s lust for vengeance?”

Review

Gilded is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It is an intense, cinematic-vivid, character-rich, slow burn of a period piece thriller, one that was near-impossible to set down from its first page to its last. It is worth not only worth reading and owning.

Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster

(hb; 1994)

From the inside flap

“It is 1927, the year of Babe Ruth and Charle Lindbergh─and of Walter Claireborne Rawley, a streetwise orphan from Saint Louis who becomes ‘Walt the Wonder Boy,’ a diminutive showman famous for stunning audiences across the country with his feats of levitation.

“Walt’s teacher is Master Yehudi, a mysterious iconoclast who rescues him from poverty and instills in him the faith, fearlessness, and devotion to hard work essential to such a magnificent venture. Inevitably, Master Yehudi and Walt fall prey to the sinners, thieves, and villains in America in its pre-depression heyday, from the Kansas Klu Klux Klan to the Chicago mob, and Walt’s resilience, like that of his young nation, is over and again challenged.”

Review

Vertigo is an excellent, immediately immersive novel. Its mix of “magic,” American history, colorful characters and its from-high-to-low-situations storyline made Vertigo hard to set down, one that will likely stick in this reader’s memory for a long while. Worth owning, this.

The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz

(hb; 1974: prequel to The Guardian)

From the inside flap

“When Allison Parker found the old brownstone apartment it was to be a new beginning─a place where she cold forge the agony of her father’s illness and death, a place where she could quietly recover from that long ordeal. But slowly a sense of mounting terror began to take over. The neighbors─the old man and his cat, the two strange women, the blind priest─seemed to be something other than what they appeared.

“Then the headaches began. They had plagued her as she watched her father die; now they returned with an intensity that left her numb and shaken, threatening her tenuous grip on reality. And then she realized that here on  this quiet street an epic battle was being waged, a battle ordained from the beginning of time; and she was the prize.”

Review

Sentinel is an excellent, often-unnerving horror novel, with some terrifying images and action, and a pervasive sense of dread throughout its run. Its characters range from religious-iconic shallow and evil to fully realized (especially Christina and her boyfriend, Michael)─most of them work in the story. I write “most” because of the way two next-door lesbians are presented: the outsized horror and derision that is shown toward them may raise the hackles of modern-day LGBT+ supporters (Christina, in general, is horrified by them; Michael dismisses them as “vicious”).

I was initially alarmed at the venom Christina verbally and physically displays towards them (she does not just condemn them for being publicly lascivious, she condemns them for being lesbians). Then I checked myself, remembered Christina─victimized by her family and Catholic─is repressed, so any enthusiastic lustful displays are bound to offend her, especially those expressed by a group that most religions have demonized for thousands of years. Not only that, the 1970s, while progressing women’s rights (up to a point), were a period─like now─when aggressive, necessary feminism was getting a lot of scary, verbal and physical pushback not only from men, but gender-traitorous hausfrau women.

I normally would not give this much “airtime” to an issue that should be dismissed with an understanding of presentism (judge a work by the society and time period that produced it) and its protagonist’s paranoid bias. Unfortunately, a lot of knee-jerk social warriors may not take the time to check their biases while reading this hard-to-set-down, no-words-wasted suspense/horror novel, which may be a milestone for many, including myself, in the 1970s.

This vivid-enough-to be-called-cinematic book is worth owning, if you can get past its dated, egregious attitudinal flaws regarding women and LGBT+ issues. Followed by The Guardian.

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The resulting film was released stateside on January 7, 1977. Michael Winner directed and co-wrote the film. His co-screenwriter was book-source author Jeffrey Konvitz.

Christina Raines played Allison Parker. Chris Sarandon play Michael Lerman. Jeff Goldblum played Jack. Deborah Raffin played Jennifer.

Ava Gardner played Miss Logan. Eli Wallach played Detective Gatz. Christopher Walken played Detective Rizzo. 

Burgess Meredith played Charles Chazen. Sylvia Miles played Gerde. Beverly D’Angelo played Sandra. Kate Harrington played Mrs. Clark.

Martin Balsam played Professor Ruzinsky. Hank Garrett played Brenner. William Hickey played Perry.

Arthur Kennedy played Monsignor Franchino. John Carradine played Father Halliran. José Ferrer played “Robed Figure.” Jerry Orbach played “Film Director.” Tom Berrenger played “Man at end.” Nana Visitor, billed as Nana Tucker, played "Girl at end."

Vic Valentine, Private Eye: 14 Vignettes by Will Viharo

(pb; 2019: story anthology--tenth book in the Vic Valentine series)

From the back cover

“Lounge lizard. International man of misery. Space cadet. Dog walker. Lover. Loner. Fighter. Fool. Vic Valentine has been all of these things and more, and less─much less. These fourteen torrid tales of forbidden love, shameless lust, surrealistic horror, existential mystery, pointless mayhem, and just plain stupidity spanning Vic’s pathetic life collectively illuminate the darkest corners of the human condition, without revealing a single goddamn truth, other than we’re all lonely globs of ephemeral flesh wandering aimlessly around a big ball of shit hanging by a thread in a vast, apathetic world.

“Welcome to the hypnotic, erotic, neurotic world of Vic Valentine, Private Eye.”

Overall review

14 Vignettes is a great addendum collection of Vic Valentine works, filling in timeline gaps relating to the P.I.-turned-dog walker’s life. As is often the case with Vic, his neurotic and sexual worldview revolves around multimedia interests (especially music and movies), women, tiki bars and frelled-up, over-the-top situations. This unique, entertaining and pulpy string of stories is not a book for the prudish or the politically correct, but it should not be, because otherwise it would not be the fun, worthwhile read it is. It put me in the mindset of Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise anthology, Pieces of Modesty, the way it filled in certain gaps in her storyline. Both are worthwhile purchases.

Review, story by story

“Feet First”: Vic engages the services of a prostitute. Set during the Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me era, this story has meaningful and clever banter. I love the finish, which has wild, fresh ending like the best stories do.

“Vein Attempt”: In Seattle,Vic tries to seduce a sexy phlebotomist (Brigitte), who is a dead ringer for a French porn actress Fans of director-writer Jean Rollin may especially like this one.

“By Any Other Name”: Sex-, jazz- and CBGB-suffused microtale. This prequel to the first Vic Valentine novel  is chatty and entertaining, and ably sets up Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me.

“Doc and Me”: Vic’s final conversation with his longtime friend-landlord-bartender─they talk about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), as well as the virtues and vices of its 2003 remake (and most remakes, in general). They also converse about the therapeutic value of breasts, friendship and the beautiful diversity of the East Bay, California─especially Oakland. Warm homage to the above subjects, this, one of my favorite entries in this collection.

“Pawn of the Dead”: Vic reminisces about his brother (Johnny), who died at a young age, with whom Vic shared common passions: punk/CBGB, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and other late Seventies influences.

“Just Breathe”: Vic has a hallucinogenic slipstream of a case, involving a secretive woman (with whom he has a fling), a blood bank, and an ending that may be the beginning of something sweet or horrifying.

“Sick as a Dog”: Vic has an affair with a married woman (Katey), the owner of one of the dogs he walks. She is a woman with a secret, beyond her wielded butcher knives, pet-play and other sado/masochistic psychodramas.

“Blowing Smoke”: In high school, Vic hooks up with a classmate (Dolly), whose love of oral sex─giving and receiving─hides surprising truths she would rather not talk about. Great end-line to this one.

“Westwood Ho”: Los Angeles, late Eighties. Vic, hired to find a missing stripper (Roxi), accomplishes his mission. A brief, tender and honest friendship results. One of my favorite stories int 14 Vignettes.

“Googie Grindhouse”: Prior to the events of the “Westwood Ho,” “Feet First” and Love Stories, Vic and Valerie─later known as Rose─fly from New York to Los Angeles, where she, independent, sets the tone of their future encounters. Romantic, harsh and sometimes nightmarish work.

“Tiki Bar Bounce”: Vic gives a shout-out to his favorite, real-life tiki bars, many of them located in the East Bay-San Francisco, California region. Sexy women, mainly Monica, also get some printed love. There is also a real-life cocktail recipe! Fun, sometimes trip-out read, especially when Radon, a recurring Viharo character, appears.

“Pulp Beat”: Vic tells the story of how he became a private eye. It involves a naïve college student (Brenda), a spontaneous lie and a Berkeley-to-San Francisco BART ride. This tale takes place before Vic meets Doc and other characters, introduced in Love Stories. This is one of my favorite selections in this collection.

“Page Turner”: Vic dreams he is another man (Will Viharo), shark-fishing in Florida with actor Christian Slater. Fun meta-work.

“Illville”: A post-Vic Valentine: Space Cadet story, this. Vic details his slip-swirl days with recent movies by Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, his wife (Val), ghosts (Doc), and life in general. This is a solid, post-“Mental Case Files”* wrap-up, and satisfying bookend to this fourteen-tale anthology.

(*The “Mental Case Files” are Viharo’s most recent Vic Valentine novels: Vic Valentine: International Man of Misery, Vic Valentine: Lounge Lizard for Hire and Vic Valentine: Space Cadet.)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Rattled a Terrified Nation by Joseph Lanza

(hb; 2019: nonfiction/film)

From the inside flap

“When Tobe Hooper’s low-budget slasher film, TheTexas Chain Saw Massacre, opened in theaters in 1974, it was met in equal measure with disgust and reverence. The film─in which a group of teenagers meet a gruesome fate when they stumble upon a ramshackle farmhouse of psychotic killers─was banned in several countries and was pulled from many American theaters after complaints of its violence. Despite the mixed reception from critics, it was enormously profitable at the domestic box office and has since secured its place as one of the most influential horror movies ever made. In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Rattled a Terrified Nation, cultural critic Joseph Lanza turns his attentions to the productions, reception, social climate, and impact of this controversial movie that terrified an already-rattled America.

“Joseph Lanza transports the reader back to the tumultuous era of the early-1970s, defined by political upheaval, cultural disillusionment, and the perceived decay of the nuclear family, in the wake of Watergate, the onslaught of serial killers in the US, and mounting racial and sexual tensions. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Rattled a Terrified Nation sets the themes of the film against the backdrop of America’s political and social climate to understand why the brutal slasher flick connected with so many viewers.”

Review

Texas is one of my favorite 2019 reads. It immediately absorbed me into its time early-Seventies period, with its mix of cinematic influences, intentions and reactions, as well as the often-iconic events and cultural players who were part of them. These artists, politicians, criminals, religionists, and other citizens of the milieu─as shown in Lanza’s entertaining, waste-no-time and informative book─are given their proper due, while the author keeps the pace lively, clever and worthwhile. This is a rare read for me, one that I hope to revisit again. Or, to put it another way: it is worth owning, and re-reading, whether you are interested in the 1974 film, the Vietnam era, or the early 1970s in general.

Labyrinth by Eric Mackenzie-Lamb

(pb;1979)

From the back cover

“A handsome, brilliant college professor framed by the sexual hysteria of a lovelorn student and forced to leave civilization and safety behind. . . A vicious psychopath with bizarre carnal tastes and a bestial talent for killing. . .  A lovely young heiress drawn by forbidden desire into a nightmare of her own perverse making. . . All of them deep in the heart of a vat, unmapped Okefenokee swamp, where a fabulous lost treasure baited the most hideous trap this side of hell.”

Review

Labyrinth is a great, entertaining pulp novel with vivid, simile-rich descriptions, effective and often enthralling action sequences and well-written characters whose passions, light and dark, make for heroes worth sympathizing with and rooting for, as well as villains worth hissing at. If you are looking for fast read, pre-Eighties thriller with a Southern Comfort setting,Civil War history and a violent treasure hunt thrown into the mix, this may be a book you would want to own.

Vic Valentine: Space Cadet by Will Viharo

(pb; 2018: ninth book in the Vic Valentine series)

From the back cover

“Vic Valentine is lost inside the space between his ears. His lifelong slow-burning mental meltdown, sexual obsessiveness, fatal self-absorption, and epic existential angst have resulted in a complete break from conventional reality. Now convinced this entire life is a movie, he finds himself trapped on Planet Thrillville, encountering voluptuous alien femme fatales, mutated monsters, intergalactic gangsters, his own unleashed demons, and his arch nemesis, ‘Will the Thrill,’ the evil overlord of Vic’s own alternative internal universe.”

Review

Space is my favorite entry in Viharo’s self-described “Mental Case Files,” a sub-cycle trilogy within his Vic Valentine series. While it shares the most of the same elements of its previous books (Vic Valentine: International Man of Mystery and Vic Valentine: Lounge Lizard for Hire), it is the most focused and barebones tale within this sub-cycle. The aforementioned elements of the earlier novels include: hypersexuality, brazen pop culture mentions (when Valentine speaks of films he almost always includes their release year and background information about them), over-the-top humor and violence, genre-hopping situation (which make that leap in the blink of an eye).

Space, for this reader, is the hallucinogenic-swirl-and-transition apotheosis of the “Mental Case Files,” masterful in its distillation of its previous works, especially its last two books. Like all the Vic Valentine tales, this is worth owning.