Forced Myself to Finish: "The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith

Forced Myself to Finish: The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Read from an anthology I will not bother to list.

What a pile of shit. How can this be famed by so many people? I forced myself to finish this boring novel in the faint hope that some, anything, interesting would happen at the end. Nope.

I had more complaints and comments right after I finished reading this crap story but I cannot remember them, and I would just as soon not recall the damned sorry excuse for a novel either.

One reason I started the story is because it is so well known. Yet more evidence that popularity means nothing. I also picked it up because there was a recent biography of Highsmith about how she liked both the pole and hole and would chew people up and spit them out.

Read: "Fifty Grand" by Adrian McKinty

Read: Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty, 2009, 9780805089004.

This was on some best of '09 list so I reserved it. Good book.

Cuban policewoman travels to Colorado disguised as illegal immigrant from Mexico seeking revenge for her father who died in a hit-and-run.

Cuban gets job in same high-end ski town her estranged father died. Cuban follows her journalist brother's previous prep work. Cuban finds culprit. Cuban deals justice. Twists turn.

Comments
1. Looks like McKinty googled his way over here before I finished any more writing.
2. The employers of the illegals were surprisingly nice. Yeah, they were exploiting the workers but they took much better care of them than I expected from that kind of character.
3. Tom Cruise lives atop the highest hill in town. All eyes look up to Cruise as the unseen King or God of town. All the Hollywood types living in town hope for a touch of recognition from the King.
4. Brad Pitt does not rate as high as Cruise.
5. The Hollywood types are scuzzy, self-absorbed, drug taking twits.

Finished: "Inside Out" by Barry Eisler

Finished: Inside Out by Barry Eisler, 2010, 9780345505101.

I read this before Eisler arrived in Milwaukee on his book tour. Good book but not as much violence and action as in his previous novels.

Ben Treven goes to Manila after the incidents in Fault Line. Ben gets the big brush-off from his ex-wife who tells Ben his daughter does not know anything about him and considers her stepfather to be her dad. Ben is upset and brings his anger management issues with him to a bar. Ben gets in bar fight, accidentally kills someone, is sprung from jail by his Army unit's commander, Hoyt.

Ben assigned to find a guy who is blackmailing the gov. The Dude is a former member of Ben's unit (Ben never met him) who has torture and execution tapes "lost" by the CIA. Ben tracks down The Dude to Costa Rica. Ben has hot FBI agent tagging along. Ben tags hot FBI agent. Ben finds The Dude has boyfriend in Costa Rica. CIA threaten The Dude's boyfriend. The Dude gets upset kills a bunch of CIA hired Blackwater guys set-up outside the boyfriend's place. Ben kills a couple people the CIA hired to kill him and keep things quiet. Ben trades diamonds for tapes with The Dude. The Dude gets false payment and is forced to re-up with Hoyt's unit. Ben is lectured on the oligarchy of the U.S. government by Hoyt. Novel ends with the promise of meeting between John Rain and Treven in next novel.

Comments:
1. A good novel and fast moving read.
2. Lots of discussion over torture and how the government works and does not work.
3. Nice job by Eisler.
4. Gratuitous HK love.
5. Gratuitous iPhone love.
6. Anal love.
7. Man on man love.
8. Restaurant love.
9. Gratuitous Glock love.

Read: "Nature Noir" by Jordan Fisher Smith

Read: Nature Noir: a park ranger's patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher Smith, 2006, 9780618711956.

Great writing by Smith covering nature, politics of conservation vs. development, man vs. wild, man reintroduced to wild, and rural crime.

Smith was a summertime park ranger for several years while bopping around during winters as ski guy or other outdoor work. After a few years Smith applied and was hired as a state ranger in Northern CA along the American River.

Smith got into the work because he loved the outdoors. He then discovered that the jerks and crooks in urban life bring that same behavior into the wild. Smith got himself educated and trained as a cop - he became his stations defensive tactics instructor - and continued in the work where others dropped out after realizing they needed to be cops as much as nature guides.

Smith covers a couple stories from his time covering a presumed murdered woman of a local deputy, a drowning victim's mourning family, politics over gold prospectors, politics over building a damn across the American, rural crime of local lowlifes visiting or squatting in park's land.

His stories are not so much about man versus nature but, instead, are more of man reintroduced to nature. The story of the jogger killed by a mountain lion is a great example. Mountain lion habitats are shrinking while the suburbs are growing outward. Lion attacks are rare but draw BIG press and fear.

Smith had a neat comment on newly built and the very isolated houses out in the mountains. Remote homes like that are not new but this is the first time ever that the owners are not self-sufficient. Instead, everything is resupplied from the nearest town and supermarket.

Smith is well educated about parks and the land he worked and his knowledge includes a great historical perspective.

Read: "Dark Crimes" edited by Ed Gorman

Read: Dark Crimes: great noir fiction from the '40s to the '90s edited by Ed Gorman, 1991, 0881846996.

Decent. I did not like some of the stories and disagree with the noir status of some. But, like I've thought before, noir is in the eye of the beholder.

There were two short novels. The Red Scarf by Gil Brewer and Anatomy of a Killer by Peter Rabe. Anatomy had intros written by Gorman and Bill Crider. I skipped the intros. I read Pronzini's intro about Brewer.

Brief Read: "Pink Box" by Joan Sinclair

Brief Read: Pink Box: inside Japan's sex clubs by Joan Sinclair, 2006, 9780810992597.

I read Adelstein's book and looked for more info on Japanese crime and sex culture. Notice I did not say subculture. There does not seem to be a subculture. Everything is easily and openly available as a legal, commercial service.

This book is not what I was suspecting, I did not realize it is a photo book. I'm glad it is because the photos and their captions tell a great bit about the business.

This one paragraph from Sinclair's ending essay succinctly explains what I would have tried to record:

The clubs are a reflection of modern Japan, a literate society, where the rules are written out, prices are not negotiable, and fantasies are predetermined, pre-scripted, and prepaid. The Japanese depend on uniforms to distinguish a stranger's role in society. The sexualization of the characters of everyday life (the waitress, the schoolgirl, the commuting receptionist) and the desire to break society's rigid rules (No groping on the subway!) lead to cosplay (costume play) and elaborate playrooms. Finally, Japan is a consumer culture, with a thriving free-market economy that strives to meet demand: as a result, Japanese clubs cater to the narrowest of obsessions.

Comments:
1. How many dudes masturbated while reading this?
2. How many dudes said they did not jerk off but, instead, declared how important the book is as art in an attempt to score with some chick?
3. With those thoughts in mind, there is not much nudity. Only a handful of shots depicting sex - those were swingers clubs and not hookers and customers.
3.b. The photographs are more of an anthropological record, not erotica. Although. let's face it, throw in a couple nude chicks and people will see what they want.
4. Sinclair has a photo of a sex menu accompanied by it's English translation. Absolutely and completing fascinating and odd.
5. Sex work is mostly acceptable, but not entirely.
6. The openness and privacy of the sex clubs is often referred to. Every fetish is available - and there are many - but clubs, employees, and customers are quite secretive. Sinclair had to work hard to get access.
7. I assume Sinclair does the google. Sinclair, do you have other books planned?
8. Sexual intercourse for money is illegal - but done anyway of course. Everything else is legal.

Half Listened, Half Read: "Dark Places" by Gillian Flynn

Half Listened, Half Read: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, 2009, 9780307341563.

I downloaded this from Overdrive and was really enjoying the novel. Then my dang MP3 player had the audio input work loose and the sound would cut in and out. So, I checked out the book instead.

Libby is the last surviving member of her immediate family. Excluding her imprisoned older brother who murdered Libby's mother and two older sisters 24 years ago. Libby is a freaking mess. She is getting through life but never thinks about the night of the murder, is completely alienated from her aunt, is a kleptomaniac, tends to find places to hide her 4'11'' frame as she did the night of the murders.

Libby has been living off a trust fund started when she was orphaned but is now almost all out of cash. She gets an offer to appear at a true crime convention for $500 and takes the offer. Libby starts to wonder if maybe her brother is innocent. Told through Libby, Libby's mom, and Libby's brother Ben.

Excellent book. Flynn does a great job with her characters. She never shows through thought and action how screwed up Libby is. Great character description like how true crime guy Lyle tends to point one ear at a time to someone who is talking.

Another great description is the steakhouse meeting between Libby and her trust fun administrator. One of the death club guys with a turquoise earring described as the kind of earring that D&D guys wear. The kind of guys who think magic tricks are really cool.

For the audio version:

1. The mix of prose and Libby's narrator was mesmerizing. A great match of story and reader.
2. Blatant mispronunciation of Salina.
3. Imaginary town with an imaginary prison near it. Do I care? No. But I checked the KS map and a map of KS prisons to see if she was basing the imaginary towns off of real ones. I could not tell. The fictional town seems north to northwest of Salina.

4. The female narrator made it difficult to tell when character is speaking or just having an internal monologue.

Comments1. Flynn has great set-ups and herrings making me wonder who is guilty of the murders. I always believed Ben was guilty but had accomplices. There was no other explanation convincing enough to say otherwise. Especially the fact that he was there at the time of the killings.
2. Not too happy with the ending explanation of what happened. Flynn does allude to the killer and the circumstances earlier on but it still felt a little forced.
3. Libby's drunken father is such a scumbag. He deserves to be drowned like the rat he is.
4. Flynn tells the story back and forth from 1985 to present day. You don't see the present day version of several of those characters until late in the novel. I liked reading how those people turned out.
5. I enjoyed the KS setting.
6. Great job by Flynn in showing the teenage perspective of Ben and how he thought and why he acted how he did. The same goes for the stress that Libby's mom was under as a single mom of four kids with no money and a farm defaulting on its loans.