october, and also fletch
Oct. 28th, 2022 08:54 amElseweb a friend asked for recommendations for SF/F read-aloud books, which resulted in a fun chat about the merits of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. October is certainly Zelazny's most fun novel and it's at least in his top three overall (competing with Lord of Light and Nine Princes in Amber + Guns of Avalon).
There's a thing Zelazny does where he writes quick vivid descriptions and snappy dialogue like ... like a noirish mystery writer, or like Alexandre Dumas. But he infuses it with a poet's sensibility and attention to sounds, which elevates it above 'just' clear and easy-to-read. The result is that Zelazny may be one of the best 'read-aloud' authors I can think of.
I want to tie this in to Gregory McDonald somehow. In the seventies McDonald wrote a series of slim mysteries starring investigative reporter I.M. Fletcher, with exactly that kind of prose but without the poetry. They're good, they're fun, but they're not really brilliant.
My favourite of them (Confess, Fletch) just got made into a movie with Jon Hamm as Fletch. It was... disappointing. It stuck fairly close to the book, is the thing, and one or two places where it deviated were for the best (Grover the assistant cop is now Griz, and has a lot more personality than Grover's barely-repressed-anger).
Thing is, the book had sharp edges. Comedy, sure, but also art theft, cold-blooded murder, and betrayal. The movie sanded those off: the art theft was of paintings looted in WWII, the murder was a cover-up, the betrayal... just didn't happen. And without the sharpness a lot of the comedy
fell flat. Bah.
The movie also neutered Police Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn. Flynn's an amazing foil for Fletch: slow-moving, hard-working, a brilliant eye, and always a step ahead of the other cops but just barely half a step behind Fletch. Without the sharp edges that character doesn't work, of course, and the Detective Monroe that we get incorporates what they could of the character while developing him differently. But I was hoping for more "Ah, Mr Fletcher, have you decided to save us the trouble and confess to the murder yet?" Oh well.
Considering a reread of the book: it's short, and it's been a long time. Curious to see how hard at work the Suck Fairy has been.
Back to Zelazny and Lonesome October, though, lightly edited from a comment elseweb:
I do love that sense of playfulness in books.
There's a thing Zelazny does where he writes quick vivid descriptions and snappy dialogue like ... like a noirish mystery writer, or like Alexandre Dumas. But he infuses it with a poet's sensibility and attention to sounds, which elevates it above 'just' clear and easy-to-read. The result is that Zelazny may be one of the best 'read-aloud' authors I can think of.
I want to tie this in to Gregory McDonald somehow. In the seventies McDonald wrote a series of slim mysteries starring investigative reporter I.M. Fletcher, with exactly that kind of prose but without the poetry. They're good, they're fun, but they're not really brilliant.
My favourite of them (Confess, Fletch) just got made into a movie with Jon Hamm as Fletch. It was... disappointing. It stuck fairly close to the book, is the thing, and one or two places where it deviated were for the best (Grover the assistant cop is now Griz, and has a lot more personality than Grover's barely-repressed-anger).
Thing is, the book had sharp edges. Comedy, sure, but also art theft, cold-blooded murder, and betrayal. The movie sanded those off: the art theft was of paintings looted in WWII, the murder was a cover-up, the betrayal... just didn't happen. And without the sharpness a lot of the comedy
fell flat. Bah.
The movie also neutered Police Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn. Flynn's an amazing foil for Fletch: slow-moving, hard-working, a brilliant eye, and always a step ahead of the other cops but just barely half a step behind Fletch. Without the sharp edges that character doesn't work, of course, and the Detective Monroe that we get incorporates what they could of the character while developing him differently. But I was hoping for more "Ah, Mr Fletcher, have you decided to save us the trouble and confess to the murder yet?" Oh well.
Considering a reread of the book: it's short, and it's been a long time. Curious to see how hard at work the Suck Fairy has been.
Back to Zelazny and Lonesome October, though, lightly edited from a comment elseweb:
It has only just now occurred to me that the word for a dog's penis-bone is 'baculum.' Which means that when the Great Cat kicked them back through the dimension gate with a 'carpe baculum' he wasn't just saying "go fetch a stick," he was also saying "hang onto your d*ck."
GODDAMMIT ROGER
(in a tone of voice usually reserved for shouting GODDAMMIT MIKE at John M. Ford books)
I do love that sense of playfulness in books.