Sunday, October 30, 2011

MAGNA CUM MURDER is the place to be in October!


Hi folks,
I returned late last night from attending and participating in the Magna Cum Murder festival in Muncie, Indiana at Ball State University, and had an absolutely lovely time!

While there were a lot of authors there who I’ve seen at events such as Bouchercon, there was a decidedly different atmosphere. Less frenetic and a bit quieter, but very satisfying. While Bouchercon is made up more of thriller writers such as Lee Childs, Joe Finder, Anthony Neil Smith, Joe R. Lansdale and the like, Magna is home to a bigger contingent of mystery and suspense writers, although there were several thriller writers in attendance as well. Although, it turns out that many of those I’ve just named have been at this festival in the past. I think perhaps the reason it’s a bit less frenetic is that there aren’t any agents (or any that I was aware of, anyway), and most of the folks in attendance were there mostly as fans of mysteries and suspense, including the writers themselves. A place to enjoy the genres without business being conducted. And these folks were the best-informed audience I've ever seen.

My main initial motivation for attending was to meet author John Gilstrap in person. I’ve been an admirer of his thrillers for a long time and we even connected on the phone awhile back when we were introduced to each other by blog radio hostess Jennifer Wilkov after we’d both appeared on her Women’s Radio Show. One of the organizers of the MCM festival, Austin Lugar, graciously put me on a panel with John and we had a great time!

While meeting John was a decided highlight, I met and became friends with a number of other fantastic writers. Folks like Con Lehane (my new best friend…), Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jim Doherty, Mike Lawson (my smoking friend…), Deni Dietz (my other smoking friend), W.S. (Wendy) Gager, David Walker, T. Lee Harris, Marian Allen, Gwen Mayo, Maris Soule, and Cathy (Cat) Akers-Jordan (not a writer, but a teacher and knowledgeable fan, with whom I had a great conversation with her and her mom, Ginger Jordan. Got to meet Parnell Hall, an amazing writer who has had enough experiences to fill at least six memoirs.

I was on two panels. On the first, I was totally out of my element! It was a game-show panel where we debated along with the audience to figure out who the world’s best detective was. The only problem I had was I was only familiar with one of the names—Harry Bosch. I’d read novels featuring the others, but far, far back in the mists of time and didn’t recall enough about them to be able to argue their merits. In spite of that, it was fun, mostly because this is a nonjudgmental audience and nobody called me out on my ignorance. In a series of emails back and forth before the conference, between us participants and the moderator, Austin Lugar, in trying to determine the detectives we’d be debating over, I was thoroughly intimidated by one of the panelists, Ruth Dudley Edwards, and in fact, emailed Austin, telling him I was scared to death of her and asking that he sit me away from her—she terrified me! Well, as it turned out, he seated her next to me… and I’m glad he did. Turned out she’s not a bit scary, but a thoroughly delightful person. Besides having a REALLY BIG BRAIN, she's the sweetest person on earth. The others on the panel were Parnell Hall, W.S. (Wendy) Gager and Con Lehane.

What was great about this panel was that Harry Bosch won! If you’re only going to know one of the contestants, it pays to know the winner…

The second panel was the one I had really been looking forward to. It was moderated by my hero, John Gilstrap, and included my new best friend, Con Lehane, my smoking buddy, Mike Lawson, the aforementioned Ruth Dudley Edwards, and the festival guest speaker, Bob Brier (aka Mr. Mummy) who is the best-known Egyptologist and mummy expert working today. Our panel’s mandate was to discuss how our jobs have affected our writing. My “job” that I discussed mostly was my days as a criminal… When I told what my job was, half the audience on my side moved over to the other side…

I’m kidding! It was a great panel and we had a wonderful time and the audience was super.

I met so many interesting writers and I know I’ll leave somebody out. One guy who was really cool was Jim Doherty, a real-life cop who currently is the police technical expert on the Dick Tracy cartoon strip.

Deni Dietz was really cool. She’s a senior editor for Five Star Mysteries and told me to send her a query. Working on that now… She has had a fascinating life, including being a jazz singer in the French Quarter. I’m trying to remember if I’d ever seen her perform as it turns out we both lived there at the same time.

All the meals were provided for by the festival and were the best I’ve ever had at such a gathering. Simply delicious!

Alas, I had to leave early before the Saturday night banquet. I sprained my back a few months ago and it’s never recovered fully and it began acting up and put me in enough pain I had to leave for home early.

All-in-all, this was one of the coolest writer’s festivals I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending and honor of participating in. The folks who run it are true pros and every one a book lover and knowledgeable about the mystery and suspense genres. If you ever get a chance to go to the annual Magna Cum Murder, I recommend it heartily!

Blue skies,
Les

Bookmark their website for next year’s festival at http://www.magnacummurder.com/

Thursday, October 27, 2011

JOKES REDUX


Hi folks,

Some of this I’ve posted before and some is new. Just thought you could use a good laugh or two. Please be advised to keep this from your young kids and relatives who have a burr under their saddle over cursing and X-rated humor…
 *

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for Classmates.com! There's a reason I don't talk to people for 25 years. Because I don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn and applying fertilizer.

New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout? Luckily, it was only a finger! If it was a whole hand, Congress would have voted to keep it alive.

New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky son of a guns.

New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this shit at the supermarket - water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.

New Rule: Stop messing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time Grandpa figures out how to open it, his butt will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.

New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the idiot. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n-Low and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge idiot.

New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy. Paper, plastic? I don't have time for that. I've just been called to do a cleanup on Aisle Nine!

New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

New Rule: If your mom is still driving you to school, you’re not a “gangsta.” Pull your pants up so we don’t have to see your crack. It isn’t nearly as attractive as you might think.

New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh, wait. They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."

New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&M. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.

New Rule: If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens. Let's remember that the reason something was a television show in the first place is the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.

New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking up the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.

New Rule: and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just made it with George Michael. I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. I don't want to be on your web cam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't care in the first place.
*
JOKE
My girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year when we decided to get married. My parents helped us in every way, and my friends encouraged me. My girlfriend? She was a dream! There was only one thing bothering me.

That one thing was her younger sister.

My prospective sister-in-law was twenty years of age, wore tight miniskirts, and low cut blouses. She would regularly bend down when near me, and I got many a pleasant view of her underwear. It had to be deliberate. She never did it when she was near anyone else. One day little sister calls and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived. She whispered to me that soon I was to be married, and she had feelings and desires for me that she could not overcome and did not really want to overcome.

She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister.

I was in total shock and could not say a word. She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want to go ahead with it just come up and get me.

"I was stunned. I was frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top, she pulled down her panties and threw them down the stairs at me.

I stood there for a moment, then turned and went straight to the front door. I opened the door and stepped out of the house and walked straight toward my car. My future father-in-law was standing outside. With tears in his eyes he hugged me and said, "We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We could not ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family!"

The moral of this story is:

Always keep your condoms in your car.
*

For Those Who Take Life Too Seriously

1.) Save the whales. Collect the whole set.

2.) A day without sunshine is like, night.

3.) On the other hand, you have different fingers.

4.) I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.

5.) 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6.) 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

7.) I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe.

8.) You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

9.) I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be
without sponges.

10.) Honk if you love peace and quiet.

11.) Remember half the people you know are below
average.

12.) Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?

13.) Nothing is foolproof to a talented fool.

14.) Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

15.) He who laughs last thinks slowest.

16.) Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

17.) Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

18.) The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

19.) I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.

20.) I intend to live forever - so far so good.

21.) Borrow money from a pessimist - they don't expect it back.

22.) If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

23.) My mind is like a steel trap - rusty and illegal in 37 states.

24.) Quantum mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.

25.) The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.

26.) Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

27.) When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane and going the wrong way.

28.) If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

29.) A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

30.) Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

31.) For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism.

32.) Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

33.) Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.

34.) No one is listening until you make a mistake.

35.) Success always occurs in private and failure in full view.

36.) The colder the x-ray tables the more of your body is required on it.

37.) The hardness of butter is directly proportional to the softness of the bread.

38.) The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it.

39.) To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

40.) To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.

41.) How many of you believe in telekinesis? Raise my hand...

42.) You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.

43.) Two wrongs are only the beginning.

44.) The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

45.) The sooner you fall behind the more time you'll have to catch up.

46.) A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

47.) Change is inevitable except from vending machines.

48.) If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

49.) Always try to be modest and be proud of it!

50.) Get a new car for your wife... It'll be a great trade!
*

Thanks to a retired Air Force officer for sending this "paraphrase" of a memorable public safety announcement from Alaska Air flight attendants...

"I was flying to San Francisco from Seattle this weekend, and the flight attendant reading the flight safety information had the whole plane looking at each other like 'what the heck?' (Getting Seattle people to look at each other is an accomplishment.) So once we got airborne, I took out my laptop and typed up what she said so I wouldn't forget. I've left out a few parts I'm sure, but this is most of it."

Before takeoff... Hello and welcome to Alaska Flight 438 to San Francisco. If you're going to San Francisco, you're in the right place. If you're not going to San Francisco, you're about to have a really long evening.

We'd like to tell you now about some important safety features of this aircraft. The most important safety feature we have aboard this plane is... the flight attendants. Please look at one now. There are five exits aboard this plane: two at the front, two over the wings, and one out the plane's rear end. If you're seated in one of the exit rows, please do not store your bags by your feet. That would be a really bad idea. Please take a moment and look around and find the nearest exit. Count the rows of seats between you and the exit. In the event that the need arises to find one, trust me, you'll be glad you did. (This is excellent advice, and something I always do.) We have pretty blinking lights on the floor that will blink in the direction of the exits. White ones along the normal rows, and pretty red ones at the exit rows.

In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, these baggy things will drop down over your head. You stick it over your nose and mouth like the flight attendant is doing now. The bag won't inflate, but there's oxygen there, promise. If you are sitting next to a small child, or someone who is acting like a small child, please do us all a favor and put on your mask first. If you are traveling with two or more children, please take a moment now
to decide which one is your favorite. Help that one first, and then work your way down.

In the seat pocket in front of you is a pamphlet about the safety features of this plane. I usually use it as a fan when I'm having my own personal summer. It makes a very good fan. It also has pretty pictures. Please take it out and play with it now.

Please take a moment now to make sure your seat belts are fastened low and tight about your waist. To fasten the belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle. To release, it's a pulley thing -- not a pushy thing like your car because you're in an airplane -- HELLO!!

There is no smoking in the cabin on this flight. There is also no smoking in the lavatories. If we see smoke coming from the lavatories, we will assume you are on fire and put you out. This is a free service we provide. There are two smoking sections on this flight, one outside each wing exit. We do have a movie in the smoking sections tonight ... hold on, let me check what it is .... Oh here it is; the movie tonight is Gone with the Wind.

In a moment we will be turning off the cabin lights, and it's going to get really dark, really fast. If you're afraid of the dark, now would be a good time to reach up and press the yellow button. The yellow button turns on your reading light. Please don't press the orange button unless you absolutely have to. The orange button is your seat ejection button.

We're glad to have you with us on board this flight. Thank you for choosing Alaska Air and giving us your business and your money. If there's anything we can do to make you more comfortable, please don't hesitate to ask.

If you all weren't strapped down, you would have given me a standing ovation, wouldn't you?

After landing... Welcome to the San Francisco International Airport. Sorry about the bumpy landing. It's not the captain's fault. It's not the copilot's fault. It's the Asphalt.

Please remain seated until the plane is parked at the gate. At no time in history has a passenger beaten a plane to the gate. So please don't even try.

Please be careful opening the overhead bins because "shift happens."
*

http://hsbaseballweb.com/groupee_common/platform_images/blank.gif
Posted November 21, 2007 01:03 AM November 21, 2007 01:03 AM
 woodman
i haven't heard from you in a while. thought i'd give you an update.
I'm writing this slow because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did. my wife read in the newspaper that most accidents happen within 20 minutes of your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address because the last family that lived here took the house numbers when they moved so they wouldn't have to change their address.

This place is really nice. we even has a washing machine. I'm not sure it works so well, though, Last week I put a load of clothes in and pulled the chain, we haven't seen it since.

The weather isn't bad here. It only rained twice last week; the first time for three days and the second time for four days.

About that coat you wanted me to send, the wife said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.

i locked my keys in the car yesterday. i was really worried because it took me two hours to get the wife and kids out.

my sister had a baby this morning, but I haven't found out what it is yet so I don't know if i'm an aunt or uncle. The baby looks just like my brother.

Uncle Bobby Ray fell into a whiskey vat last week. Some men tried to pull him out but he fought them off and drowned. We had him cremated; he burned for three days.

Three of my friends went off a bridge in a pickup truck. Butch was driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. my other two friends were in the back, they drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down.

hope you and the family have a good thanksgiving. if you get by the piggly wiggly save me some yoo hoo's.

Your Favorite websta 20dad.

Hope you enjoyed these! I’m off to the Magna cum Murder convention at Ball State University  this weekend. Hope to see some of you there.

Blue skies,
Les

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Review of Nigel Bird's novel, SMOKE


Hi folks,
What a delight Nigel Bird’s novel, Smoke was to read! Not simply because it was a crackling good story, wondrously told (which it is), but it was simply refreshing since it began with the depantsing of a young boy and then centered around a dog fight. In these days in this country (U.S.) of rampant Political Correctness gone absolutely amuck and insane—when great books such as Huckleberry Finn are sanitized to suck the very marrow out of their brilliance to satisfy some politicized bullshit group or other who aren’t satisfied to run just their lives or thoughts but want to control the rest of us, refreshing is precisely the word to describe work like Bird’s. With groups of grim-faced citizens who appear to have sphincteritis extremis along with a secret handshake and generous funding for television ads seeking to control the rest of us—it seems to be up to the Brits to show us what this freedom of speech thing that we read about in history books is all about.

Personally, I like dogs. I find most breeds to be fine eating, and, if harvested at younger ages, approaching gourmet status, particularly when sage is used judiciously and not overmuch.

This is a great piece of fiction that shows us a world many aren’t exposed to—that’s a value in itself—but more, it shows how young boys are shaped by the cruelty visited upon them. Now that is valuable. If Jimmy hadn’t been depantsed, if he hadn’t grown up in a world of gamblers and dog fights and people rendered cruel and hard by their circumstances, if he had instead received that moronic version of family life ala the Beave and his kin, then he might have turned out to be a nice man, living in the suburbs, fussing over his lawn, and looking forward to each day selling life insurance and playing golf on the weekends and wondering if his medical insurance will buy his Viagra. But, he didn’t, and neither do millions of other young boys. And, it’s a good thing when a novelist shows us these worlds we perhaps aren’t exposed to. It’s a good thing to see how life smacks down people and shapes them in ways that aren’t good. How else would we know? And if we don’t know, how  can we ever hope to change lives and conditions of living?

From billboards and bumper stickers?

Get this novel. It’s the real deal.

Blue skies,
Les

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

INTERVIEW TODAY

Hi folks,
Just a reminder--I'm getting interviewed today at 4 pm EST on Giovanni Gelati's radio show, The G-Spot. Here's the link--http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop. I'm not sure if you can hear it live or not, but if not, it should be posted on the site shortly thereafter. I'll post something after the show. I have no idea what he's going to ask so it'll be completely extemporaneous. Hope I don't insert my big foot into my equally big mouth... Ahhh... I know it's gonna happen. Tune in for the trainwreck...

On another note, there's a national news story going on today with which I have a slight connection. It's about voter registration fraud in St. Joe County (IN), where the Democratic Chairman, Butch Morgan, has resigned over the furor. Well, Butch and I are old friends, dating back to our days as classmates at Indiana University at South Bend (IUSB). He was the party co-chairman of our student party when we ran for student body offices. I ran for the president's gig and was elected. In fact, our entire slate was elected.

This past Saturday my wife Mary and I attended the wedding of Courtney Felabom, the son of a mutual friend, John and Angie Felabom. One of the reasons I was anxious to attend was that Butch Morgan was supposed to be there and would be sitting at our table. Well, he never showed up. This morning I got an email from Angie sending me the article on Butch's resignation and we figured out why ol' Butch was a no-show...

Interesting times... and more interesting friends...

Hope you catch the radio interview!

Blue skies,
Les

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

REVIEW - Luca Veste's story collection LIVERPOOL 5




REVIEW

Luca Veste’s Story Collection

LIVERPOOL 5

Trestle Press

I bought Luca Veste’s story collection and intended to read it after two other books I had on my queue but I made the mistake of looking at the first page.

There went the ol’ queue! I couldn’t put it down. The very first story, “Dreams” was spellbinding—it just pulled me in and I was caught in the undertow. It was like taking a graduate course in philosophy, except it wasn’t delivered in dry, academic tones, but with a voice that grabbed me from the first sentence when it described an old guy sitting on a bench. Who can resist an old guy sitting on a bench? Maybe you can but not me. I always sit down next to such a person in real life and begin talking—the wisdom of the world resides in such people. And, so it was with “John.” The best stories always make one think. This one did… about my own dreams. A great story always poses more questions than it answers—they open up whole new worlds of possibilities. This one did just that.

The next story, “Model Behavior” was a complete surprise, especially the black humor ending. I’ll never look at Facebook the same way…

“Heavy Sleeper” got me immediately, beginning as it did with a character exactly like myself—my wife tells me the same thing as his wife did—that a bomb going off couldn’t wake him. Same here. As he says about any potential burglars, “I’d make the shittiest guard dog this side of Cerberus.” Guilty… And then it takes a monster turn that caught me completely off-guard! I won’t spoil it for you, but this one was my favorite.

Next up was “Peeling Spuds” and it’s my co-favorite of the collection. I love black humor and this was the blackest and the funniest. Veste also takes a female pov here and does it beautifully.

“He Ain’t Heavy” created a surreal, wonderful, wacko world, with an intellectual brother at odds with his thug of a brother coexisting in a criminal family. Like all of Veste’s stories, the reader is set up until we feel comfortable in the fiction world he’s created—and just when we’re at ease enough to put our feet up on the coffee table and sip the coffee he’s graciously provided… he blindsides us, sucker-punches us, knocks the crap out of us!

Delicious!

In all of his stories, I experienced a physical reaction akin to whiplash. I’m trying to think who writes better endings than Veste and I can’t think of anyone who does so as consistently.

I had one small problem with this collection. There wasn’t enough. I want more! The good news is there’s a rumor he has another collection about ready to go. Hurry up!


Blue skies,
Les

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Review - BEAST OF BURDEN by Ray Banks

Hi folks,


I tried to write a worthy review of Ray Banks' novel, BEAST OF BURDEN, and feel like I failed miserably. I just don't have the words to do it justice. Here's what I came up with and all I can say is... you gotta read this book!


BEAST OF BURDEN
By
Ray Banks

Review

Wow. A world like the one I existed in when I was in my salad criminal days and which I’m pretty sure still exists intact. Where the cops have no morals and the outlaws do. I frickin’ loved this novel! And, I loved/hated the ending! I won’t spoil it here, but man! All I’ll say is that it fits perfectly Flannery O’Connor’s definition of a perfect ending—that it completely surprise and come clear out of left field, but that upon reflection it be the only possible ending. (That’s badly paraphrased, but I hope you get what I mean.)

Banks is just one of the best writers writing today. Period. I can’t think of another book that so clearly reveals the real relationships between lawdogs and outlaws than Beast of Burden does. Banks understands. Understands both criminals and cops and understands them perfectly. Never have I read an account of this world that is this true.

This isn’t so much a review than it is a collection of scattered thoughts. For instance, I identified immediately with Cal Innes. He’s a character not only unlike any I’ve ever encountered in fiction—he’s also a character I related to with a kind of weird reason. Not only is he a criminal like I was for a long time, but he’s also suffered a stroke. That was eerie as I suffered a series of ten mini-strokes (TIAs) a couple of years ago. Not only that, but like myself, he keeps on smoking. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him during the entire novel. Who writes characters like this? No one but Ray Banks could and carry it off. This just felt like my story, not simply because of the physical condition of Innes, but more in the way he sees the world and his place in it. And the cop, Donkin (the Donkey, as he’s called derisively, by his enemies on both sides of the law and there are many), is like the best cops I’ve ever known. He’s driven by his own terrible moral code which is much the same as is his chief foe, Innes. For those of us who’ve been career criminals, there is always a nemesis like Donkin. A guy you hate and a guy you love, but above all, a guy you respect. He’s no pussy.

Above all, this is a moral novel. Not in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense (although that’s part of it), but in the same sense as Borges’ novels are. Or Camus’ or any of the best existential writers. In other words, this is as far from Disney as one can get. I feel very inadequate to describe this novel accurately and all I can say is this: You’ve got to read it. It’s a clash of titans and it’s one of those few books that has already become a part of me and one that I’ll always remember. It was overwhelming.

I’m so thankful for intelligent writers and intelligent books!

Blue skies,
Les