Semicoincidentally, I took out two other Blue-titled books at
the same time as Bluebottle: Bad Eye Blues by Neal Barrett,
Jr., and Leavin' Trunk Blues by Ace Atkins.
Barrett is an extremely prolific writer in several genres.
This novel (like his others with Blues in the title, I
suppose), features Wiley Moss, Smithsonian "bug
artist."
This picaresque mystery is violent enough to be hardboiled.
Moss is kidnapped with aim of having him paint portraits of a
bunch of prostitutes on a "ranch." Organized crime, large
amounts of money, beautiful women throwing themselves at him,
quite a lot of gory deaths -- the plot is wildly improbable,
with a large case of cartoonish characters, and the whole
thing is designed for laughs. Could be a lot worse. In other
words, I enjoyed it, but it is anything but noir. Not too
bluesy, either, come to think of it.
You can find a review with a pretty thorough plot summary
here:
http://weeklywire.com/ww/12-01-97/austin_books_feature1_side2.html
Leavin' Trunk Blues is another story altogether. Mark
Sullivan has mentioned it a number of times. Ruby Walker,
serving life in prison for killing Billy Lyons, asks Nick
Travers, a blues tracker -- a university professor who hunts
down old songs and musicians and writes about them -- to
clear her name. At first he doesn't really believe she is
innocent, but then events lend credence to her claim.
An unusual thing about this story is not just that it is
based on a well-known song about a murder, which tells us
whodunnit right off the bat, but that virtually all the
characters are either from songs or are actual historical
figures. At the same time, I was reading the companion book
to the PBS blues series produced by Martin Scorscese, and the
same names kept cropping up. I wondered how their descendents
feel about having them portrayed as they are in the
story.
The historical background was interesting and there was a lot
of action. It was good, but not great. I think I'll try to
read his Crossroad Blues, about the death of Robert Johnson,
which most people seemed to agree was better.
Karin
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