--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Vince Keenan
<vpkeenan@...> wrote:
>
> I wondered how long it would take for Random Walk
to
> come up. I've read this one more than once, and
I
> honestly don't know what to make of it. And I say
this
> as a mammoth Lawrence Block fan.
>
> A guy whose life isn't going anywhere in
particular
> decides to take a walk, triggering an entire
movement.
> He and a bunch of other like-minded individuals
are
> just going to walk the earth. You know, like Caine
in
> Kung Fu. At the same time, we also follow a guy
who
> has applied the lessons of a get-rich-quick
real
> estate seminar to serial killing. He's also
wandering
> the country. Eventually, both storylines
collide.
>
I was at a fair number of mystery conventions where Block
appeared over the years and I very well remember his RANDOM
WALK period. Block was always friendly and approachable to
convention goers but he did give the impression of going
through a New Age period. I recall him discussing how he
decided to abandon having any fixed address and simply moving
from one temporary abode to the next. The impression I had
then, which was very different from my impressions of Block
before or a couple of years later, did not encourage me to
try RANDOM WALK.
Some writers are exactly what you expect--Dennis Lynds and
William Campbell Gault are two fond memories--but others are
more problematic. Over a period of some years I attended a
fair number of panels sessions and interviews with Lawrence
Block, had several conversations with him in hotel lobbies
and autograph lines, and played poker with him once or twice.
He is a charming, friendly fellow but there was a time or two
when he had me scratching my head. I love Block's work but
there is a hazzard in meeting a writer in that he can at
times be off-putting.
Of course, my wife says the same thing about me and I still
hope to slip into bed with her in a few minutes.
Richard Moore
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