published 1969
Maybe with Ross Macdonald the thing is that they ARE all the same, but that’s what’s good about them? You know what to expect.
‘Fog still lay in a gray drift across the foot of the town’
is the final line of one
chapter, and you feel could have been moved to many another chapter throughout this
book and his others. The same features turn up - lost mothers and daughters,
intricate family/friend relationships, everyone turning out to be connected.
Here we have families living across the street from each other, and some pretty
horrible happenings, past and present, leading to what we would now call severe
mental health issues. Cozy it is not. And the words that critics always use
about the books - elegaic, atmospheric, haunting – are as true as ever. They
are beautiful books, and MacDonald is a tremendous writer. There is a
dream-like quality to them, though the dream is not a pretty one. These days I
am surprised to find that if I want to read about a Southern Californian
private eye (and, of course, I do) then it will be Macdonald and Archer rather
than old favourites Chandler and Marlowe. To me these books have stood the test
of time more convincingly than Raymond Chandler
– and I never thought I’d be saying that.
The title of the book comes as Lew Archer is questioning a witness:
‘…They had a funny look on both their faces. As if they really wanted to kill each other and be killed.’
I knew that goodbye look. I had seen it in the war, and too many times since the war.
Although the books are very much of their time in some areas, MacDonald has very good women characters: varied and interesting, good and bad. You would strongly feel that he was someone who really likes women, not always true of all his contemporary writers. Here is the determined student Betty:
I was beginning to understand the girl, and the more I understood the better I liked her. She had a serviceability that I had noticed before in widowers’ daughters.
Then there is the beautiful Irene, the doctor’s wife Moira
(yes!) with the lost romance, and the excellent Mrs Shepherd in her ‘staid gray
dress and a multicoloured Mexican apron’.
There is a mesmerising description of Archer and others
watching home movies of a pool party some years before, connecting up all these
people in happier times.
The projector whirred. Its quiet
shotgun blast of light filled the screen with images. A large rectangular pool
with a diving board and a slide reflected a blue old-fashioned sky. A young
blonde girl with a mature figure and an immature face climbed onto the diving
board. She waved at the camera, bounced excessively, and did a comic dive with
her legs apart and kicking like a frog’s. She came up with a mouthful of water
and spurted it at the camera. [The next person] on the diving board… walked to
the end of it gravely, as if the eye of the camera was judging her. The black
rubber helmet in which her hair was hidden made her look oddly archaic. She
stood for quite a while with the camera on her, not once returning its stare.
Then she bounced and did a swan dive, cutting the water without much splash. It
wasn’t until she disappeared from sight that I realized how beautiful she had
been. The camera caught her coming up, and she smiled and turned onto her back
directly under it.
The book is full of such marvellous writing – like this
about the MacGuffin of the lost chest full of secrets:
I was beginning to sense that the theft of the box was just a physical accident of the case. Any magic it possessed, black or white or gold, was soaked up from the people who handled it.
The plot was full of surprises and unexpected moments, and though I couldn’t always seem to keep all the different generations of the people in the book straight in my head, that didn’t seem to matter. A highly recommended, excellent book.
Top picture shows Gloria Vanderbilt (talking of lost mothers and daughters) taken by Toni Frissell in 1966, from the Library of Congress. She could represent most of the women in the book.
A pool party in Florida in the 1950s.
The Lew Archer stories are so good, aren't they, Moira? You're right, I think, about MacDonald's writing; it's evocative, descriptive, and a lot more. And I can say from experience that he has Southern California down to perfection. As you say, you hear a lot about Chandler and Marlowe, but for my money, Archer takes a lot of beating. And I'm so glad you brought up the way MacDonald wrote women. His female characters are a lot more real, if that's the word, than a lot of others of the time, and they're interesting people in their own right, I think.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot and yes I agree - I have a lot of time for Ross Macdonald on several levels. Knowing your geographical connections that's high praise from you -always interesting to hear the take of someone who is local!
DeleteI have only read 4 of the Lew Archer books, the first four. I had read that his books did change over time, that at some point they had much more emphasis on psychology, family problems, and such. Although certainly two of the early books I read were about family issues, The Drowning Pool and The Way Some People Die.
ReplyDeleteIt has been two years since I have read one of Ross Macdonald's books, and I want to continue reading them. I did read Tom Nolan's biography of Ross Macdonald and I enjoyed it immensely, quite possibly influenced by the fact that he and his wife lived in Santa Barbara for decades and were active in environmental groups here.
And you are someone else with local connections!
DeleteI wasn't aware that his writing style is supposed to have changed, and I don't have a clear mental view of where his books come in the chronological list. I must pay more attention.
And I meant to say also, this is a lovely post, makes me want to get right back to the series. I hope I can make that happen.
ReplyDeleteVery kind words Tracy, thank you
DeleteMargaret Millar - Macdonald's wife - is an even better writer and more unpredictable in how she writes and what she writes about.
ReplyDeleteYes unpredictable - I hadn't thought about that before: his stuck to a format (in a good way) but hers went in very different directions. Interesting.
DeleteKinsey Millhone is a most excellent Southern Californian private eye, though not of the Golden Age.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, good call! And I love the way she turned from being completely contemporary to being someone from the past - very clever of Sue Grafton
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