Friday's Forgotten Books: Nero Wolfe

Now that we're all done with Thanksgiving dinner and preparing to tuck into leftovers today, I'd thought I'd choose a book that celebrates food along with a really good mystery.

Enter Nero Wolfe. Fifty-six-year-old (a fact you may have not known!) overweight detective genius from Montenegro (although his birthplace was changed to the U.S. for one book)who liked good food (especialy shad roe), beer (about 6 quarts a day), orchids and his luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City. Wolfe employed:

Archie Goodwin--Nero's "legman", a PI who can recite verbatim entire conversations. He does the bulk of the investigating (because Wolfe doesn't like to leave home) and drinks a lot of milk. He's also responsible for mundane office tasks, like opening the mail. Archie lives rent-free at the brownstone.

Fritz Brenner--Nero's talented Swiss cook

Theodore Horstmann--an orchid expert who lives on the roof of the brownstone who helps Nero daily with his plants from 9:00-11 am and 4:00-6:00 pm.

There are also three private eyes that Wolfe hires to help out: Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather. And remember Lon Cohen, the reporter?

And Nero is soooo eccentric with his yellow pyjamas, his inflexible schedule, his dislike of women, the way he closes his eyes and pushes his lips in and out when thinking.

Just typing these names and bits of description brings back so many fond memories for me. There wasn't a Nero Wolfe mystery I didn't enjoy. Not one. From the first one, Fer-de-Lance (1934), to the last, Death Times Three (1977).

Rex Stout wrote 33 Nero Wolfe books and 39 short stories. Journalist Robert Goldsborough wrote seven Wolfe books after Stout's death.

Oh, I am homesick for a Nero Wolfe. I'll have to re-read one. I've never read one of Golsborough mysteries. Perhaps I should do that. And I think I might ask for The Nero Wolfe Cookbook (it has 237 recipes!) for Christmas. It was also written by Rex Stout.



And I leave you with a super quotation:

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."~~Ray Bradbury

Please pop over to Patti Abbott at pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books. It's always a fantastic line-up.




sources:
wikepedia, answer.com, http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/corpus/Time/index.htm

Friday's Forgotten Books: Perry Mason

Before I start my post for Friday's Forgotten Books, I'd like to give a BIG shout-out to David Cranmer of The Education of a Pulp Writer who totally made my day! Child #3 and I stopped in at The Yellow Book Road to drop off some book launch/signing postcard-invitations. Mary, the co-owner, informed me that David had called to order a signed copy of I So Don't Do Mysteries! Yowzer!



And onto Friday's Forgotten Books (how's that for an abrupt transition?). While at Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor,Michigan, I picked up a used copy of The Case of the Sleep-Walker's Niece (EIGHTEENTH printing, 1965, original price of 50 cents) by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is so wonderful to be back in the company of defense attorney Perry Mason, his confidential secretary and love interest Della Street, his private eye Paul Drake, switchboard operator Gertie Lade, Lieutenant Tragg. It's even a pleasure to re-visit District Attorney Hamilton Burger.

Why did I stop reading Perry Mason? He puts me in such a good mood. I should gobble up one a week. And how about Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Ah ha! Another post for another Friday!

Some fun facts about Perry Mason: He's in over EIGHTY novels and short stories. He loves a difficult case. He shines in a courtroom. He lives in an apartment and likes to eat out, especially steak. We know nothing about his background or childhood. I personally feel that he strung Della Street along. But that could just be me.



Some fun facts about Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970): He got kicked out of law school after about a month for fighting. He worked as a typist in a law office, studied law BY HIMSELF, then took the bar and PASSED. He hung out a shingle at THE AGE OF 21 YEARS in Merced, CA. He practiced law until 1933 when The Case of the Velvet Claws was published. He wrote under his own name and SEVEN pseudonyms. He loved the courtroom and steak. He married his longtime secretary (as in, she worked for him for over THIRTY years) when he was SEVENTY-NINE and she was SIXTY-SIX. I think they were waiting for his first wife to die. That Erle Stanley Gardner was some kind of brilliant and some kind of character.

Please pop over to Patti Abbott at pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books. It's always a fantastic line-up.


Sources: Wikipedia, http://kirjasto.sci.fi/gardner.htm,http://www.erlestanleygardner.com/

Friday's Forgotten Books: Galliano's Circus

Before getting down to the business of Friday's Forgotten Books, I wish you all a Happy Halloween! Child #4 is uberly excited for this evening. She's dressing up as an angel. Dorothy the Dog will be a witch.

And, now...a big obnoxious drum roll...Friday's Forgotten Books.

My parents firmly believed in reading books aloud. Long past the time when we could read for ourselves. I think it's a great family activity. Certainly it spawns discussion.I really must institute it more with my own kids.

Enid Blyton (1897-1968) was a British children's author who wrote A LOT of books. About EIGHT HUNDRED over her forty-year career! Not to turn this into a math post, but that's an average of TWENTY BOOKS A YEAR. Yowser!

You might know her for her Noddy books or her Famous Five series.


But our favorite read-aloud was the circus series: Mr. Galliano's Circus (1938), Hurrah for the Circus (1939), and Circus Days Again (1942). These books are about 185 pages and have line drawings.

From Wikipedia (sorry, I'm pretty much cheating here, but I still have a special Halloween dessert to make):
The Circus Series (or trilogy) begins with Mr. Galliano's Circus, where the protagonist is Jimmy Brown. The story revolves around Jimmy, his parents, his dog, Lucky and the others like Lotta, who work in the Circus. Lotta is a small girl who rides horses.The other characters include Lilliput, the man with the monkeys; Stanley, the clown; Mr Tonks, the owner of Jumbo the Elephant; and Lotta’s parents, Lal and Laddo.

These books are definitely dated. I would imagine most of Blyton's books are. There has been some updating of language. For example, "golliwogs" has been replaced with "teddy bears." Also, there's an old-fashioned attitude about the circus books. Like stuff to do with the British class system and some racial stereotyping. And the plot moves somewhat slowly compared to contemporary children's fiction.

Yet, there was something captivating. My sisters and I were excited each evening to hear the continued adventures of Jimmy and company. I think I'll try reading Mr. Galliano's Circus with Child #4. She loves animals and stories about them. And I'm curious to see if I can figure out why I loved the series.

Hop over to pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books. Even though she's super busy this week, Patti organized this round-up early. That's how wonderful she is.

sources:http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-Circus-Serieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_Series

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

the book, published in 1959 in London and Boston, in 1969 in Toronto



the movie, 1974, Richard Dreyfuss' first leading role! And many unknown Canadians in minor roles!

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is Mordecai Richler's fourth novel. From The Canadian Encyclopedia:

Duddy Kravitz is a brash Jewish Montréal kid determined to make it - whatever "it" is, whatever "it" takes. Acting on his grandfather's maxim that a man is nothing without land, Duddy schemes and dreams to develop his first brainstorm, a lakeshore property in the Laurentians. Duddy is an attractive figure, bursting with chutzpah, but he is also driven to exploit others in his drive to succeed.

I spent a lot of time cringing while I read this book and while I watched this movie. Because Duddy does selfish things to get ahead. Selfish things which turn into horrible things as the novel progresses. That said, I couldn't put the book down.

A snippet from the book:

To a middle-class stranger, it is true, one street would have seemed as squalid as the next. On each corner a cigar store, a grocery, and a fruit man. Outside staircases everywhere. Winding ones, wooden ones, rusty and risky ones. Here a prized lot of grass splendidly barbered, there a spitefully weedy patch. An endless repetition of precious peeling balconies and waste lots making the occasional gap here and there.



Richler (1931-2001) grew up in working-class Montreal during a time of anti-Semitism. He used this setting (around St. Urbain's Street in the 1930s and 40s) in many of his books. Richler was prolific and controversial. He wrote everything from children's books (the Jacob Two-Two series which you must read) to novels to essays to political satires to screen plays. He left Canada for London, England for a while, then returned because he was worried "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent" and because he missed ""blizzards, hockey, smoked-meat sandwiches." He won TWO Governor-General's awards: St. Urbain's Horsemen (1971) and Cocksure (1968)

Mr. Richler said he wanted to write one book that would continue to be read after his death. He more than succeeded.

Hop over to pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books. Thanks, Patti, for spearheading this!


http://www.northernstars.ca/Writers/richler_bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Richler
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000256

Friday's Forgotten Books

Crackpot by Adele Wiseman
1974, McClelland and Stewart

Adele Wiseman (1928-1992) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents had emigrated from the Ukraine to escape the Jewish pogroms. Adele did her BA at the University of Manitoba and then worked at a variety of jobs to support her writing habit. She took about three years to complete her first novel, The Sacrifice, which won the Governor General's Award in 1956. That bears repeating. Her FIRST novel won the Governor General's Award! THE most prestigious Canadian literary award. Over the years, Adele was writer-in-residence at several Canadian universities: Toronto, Manitoba, Trent, Western, Concordia). She also headed up the writing program at Banff School of Fine Arts. Oh, how I wish I'd taken a class from her.

A description of Crackpot from amazon.com: "Hoda, the protagonist of Crackpot, is one of the most captivating characters in Canadian fiction. Graduating from a tumultuous childhood to a life of prostitution, she becomes a legend in her neighbourhood, a canny and ingenious woman, generous, intuitive, and exuding a wholesome lust for life."

This story takes place in Winnipeg from World I to World War II. The voice in Crackpot is incredible. The symbolism is incredible. The language is incredible. Parts of this book were uncomfortable to read, though. I squinted my eyes and kept muttering, "No, no, no, don't do that" or "Don't go there." For example, Hoda is the town whore. She gives birth to an illegitimate son, whom she leaves at the door of the orphanage. He grows up to be a teen. I'm sure you can do the math. But Adele Wiseman is such a magnificent writer that I couldn't stop reading.

Oh, and a little trivia. Guess who Adele Wiseman's BFF was? Margaret Laurence! Another amazing Canadian writer.

You can read excerpts of Crackpot here.

Thank you Patti Abbott for coordinating Friday's Forgotten Books. Please visit Patti's blog for book posts and for links to the other participants.

Friday's Forgotten Books

The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone by Matt Cohen
First published: 1979
Nominated for the Governor General's Award

I recently picked up my old copy of this book, but wasn't sure why. I originally read The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone for a university course and promptly fell in love with everything Matt Cohen. But I haven't read anything by him for several years now.

The Sweet Second Summer takes place in a fictional town in eastern Ontario, near Kingston. I'll be near Kingston in August, and I think that's what brought this book to mind.

Anyway...The Sweet Second Summerr is the story of two fringy characters, Kitty Malone and Pat Frank, who're looking for happiness and actually kind of find it. Kitty and Pat finally figure out how to mesh their past and present. Matt Cohen writes great characters, great scenery, great atmosphere.

Here's partly why I'm headed to the Kingston area (except for the winter part!) (from page 114 of the Bantom Seal version):

"Looking through it (the air above the burning tip of a cigarette) he could see the whole flat surface of the lake stretching miles in front of him, so smooth and icy-serene it could have been a giant eye frozen and buried in earth and rock. And the trees around the lake were like dark green lashes, thick and tipped with snow..."

Matt Cohen died of lung cancer in 1999. He was private, prolific (publishing over 20 novels). Weeks before his death, he won the Governor General's Award for Elizabeth and After. After his death, it was revealed that he wrote several children's books under the name Teddy Jam.

I'm happy to be participating in Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books. Please visit Patti's blog for book posts and for links to the other participants. I noticed Lesa's Books Critiques also reviews a Canadian novel.

Also, there's a surprise post by a bestselling author on the Class of 2k8's blog.