Jake – Page 130 – Cannonball Read 17

Crying Out My Safe Word

King Blood by Jim Thompson

January 14, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

I am an unrequited fan of Jim Thompson’s novels. If he’s not my favorite writer of all time, he’s one of them. I usually read books for good, well-plotted stories with richly developed characters. Rarely do I read them for metaphysics. Such is not the case with Thompson’s work. Famously dubbed the “dimestore Dostoevsky”, Thompson’s unrelenting nihilism and views of the corruption of human nature weirdly fit my own despite my cheery demeanor. I believe we’re all mere steps away from chaos and those who […]

Home Improvement

Sideswipe by Charles Willeford

January 13, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

Alan Sepinwall, my favorite TV critic, has a running gag in his columns where he talks about how he’d like to see a character from whatever show he’s reviewing have a spin-off where they do banal tasks relational to the character’s motives. My personal favorite was the suggestion that goofy Justified gangster Wynn Duffy get a series called Wynnipeg in which he gets continually frustrated at teaching Canadians how to be criminals. At any rate, three books into the Hoke Moseley series and I feel like this one, as well […]

Under the Bridge

The Underbelly by Gary Phillips

January 11, 2019 by Jake 1 Comment

Because the hardboiled genre has become so mainstream, many forget it has its roots in anti-establishmentarianism. Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest is on some level a mea culpa for his time as a strike-busting Pinkerton agent. Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe frequently made an enemy of the local police, whom he never trusted. His last short story functioned as a screed against the American healthcare system. Gary Phillips’ The Underbelly may be seen as a unique take on the genre: a homeless PI maneuvering through the impoverished of LA trying to unravel the conspiracy […]

Get Out

The Expendable Man by Dorothy Hughes

January 10, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

I need a valium after reading this. I’ve written in this space before and in other places about my concern when white authors write from the perspective of non-white characters. Obviously, people writing trans-racially is not uncommon, nor is it necessarily a bad thing. Many great works of literature would be lost without folks doing this. And yet, considering the strong power dynamics of white supremacy in the United States (and frankly, the globe), a more natural distance separates colonizer from the colonized, no matter […]

It Happened Here

Collusion by Luke Harding

January 9, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

This book came out near the end of 2017. I tried to read it then but was too nauseated by the saturation of Trump/Russia coverage so I set it aside. Last summer, I saw it in a used book store for $2 and figured “What the heck?” So I picked it up. I’m glad I did. Even though much of the information feels dated (especially considering today’s Manafort revelations on his dealings with Kilimnik), it will likely remain as one of the central works to […]

Touchdown

The Seventh by Richard Stark

January 8, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

Every aspiring writer, whether or not they like crime fiction, should read “Richard Stark” (Donald Westlake)’s Parker series. Not because the books are good, though they are. But because Westlake, like other great writers, has crisp, lean prose that lends itself to the telling of a story. Not a word is wasted. And no matter what kind of story you write, if you write it like this, you’ll never halt narrative momentum. The story itself is fun enough but tough to recall with 250+ words. Parker novels aren’t really […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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