I have a few John D Macdonald's lying around -- four, exactly
-- and thought this would be as good a time as any to read
them. If my pace stays at a steady clip, that means one a
weekend.
Anyway, THE DAMNED:
Summary -- Typical JDM plot, a bunch of people thrown
together by fate, here by a ferry stalled in the middle of
Mexico. All the representative JDM types are here: The
Successful Businessman Who's Screwed Up With a Floozie; The
Slut Well On Her Way To BecomingA Whore; The Brutally Violent
Guy With Animalistic Qualities, and, of course, a typical JDM
hero, The Unprepossessing But Still Quite Capable Masculine
Ideal Guy.A few others, too, and they all bounce about in 174
pages.
Quick Review -- There's a school of thought that JDM did his
best work in the non-McGees, but they seem pretty hit or miss
to me. THE DAMNED strikes me as
"average", with some good characters (the Mexican politician,
the ferry worker) mixing with some ridiculous ones (the small
time Burlesque refugee), some wincingly bad writing (most
everyone gets a backstory explaining their actions, and most
everyone's backstory is awful in a dated Fifties parlor
psychology kind of way)sitting cheek by jowl with some really
fine writing (one character's death sequence is as good as
anything JDM wrote).
Unexceptional, although it must've sold well -- my copy says
"Over 2 million copies of this famous book in print!" Sure
ain't no SOFT TOUCH, though
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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