SOUTH OF THE SUN, Wade Miller, 1953
John D. MacDonald's THE DAMNED may be the best known Gold
Medal to use the
"Grand Hotel" plot, but other GM writers used it, too. This
one by Wade Miller is firmly in that camp. It starts
out:
Once there were eight people in an
exotic city.
They were strangers to each other,
even the married ones, and they all dreamed in human ways.
But the least of these eight persons did something about his
little dream. In so doing, he bound the strangers in an
intimate circle, whether they knew it or not. He touched them
all in passing and changed their lives and dreams forever,
according to their own choices. In one turn of the earth this
happened.
It was a special day and it began
like this ...
I think that's pretty good stuff. The characterization is
good, the plot somewhat predictable but okay, and the writing
is very smooth. The authors take nearly the first half of the
book to introduce the eight main characters and fill in the
reader on their backgrounds, but while that's going on they
also slip in a few plot developments. The story takes place
in Acapulco, and while there's not a lot of detail about the
setting, there's enough so that it feels realistic. I'm not
real fond of the "bring a bunch of strangers together" plot,
but when it's well done, as it is here, it makes for an
entertaining book.
Best, James
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