Any other year, I would be on the way to the airport right about now to make the long trek to NECON. This year I decided not to go, but I’m already missing it and it hasn’t even started.
I finished Charlie Huston’s debut novel, Caught Stealing, last night. It reminds me a bit of the Nick Stefanos novels of George Pelecanos, although with more baseball and less food. I didn’t realize until late in the game that Hank was a recurring character, so it will be interesting to see how Huston brings him back after the way the book finishes.
Next up: Sarah Langan’s third novel, Audrey’s Door. I started it last night and within the first few pages the title of my review for Dead Reckonings popped into my head: Crooked House (inspired by the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, which was in turn inspired by a children’s song or poem).
I watched The Taking of Pelham 123 last night–not the remake but the original, which was on a cable station I rarely watch. I think it was called Retrovision. Uncut, uncensored, commercial free. I’ve seen the movie before, though it’s been a long time, and I also read the novel it’s based on back when it was a paperback bestseller. It stars Martin Balsam, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo and Walter Matthau, along with a bunch of other familiar faces in smaller parts. Four guys with machine guns hijack a NY subway and hold 18 people for $1 million ransom. The film looks its age, released in 1974, and the gender politics are fascinating. There’s a new female hire in the subway chief’s office and he is getting pressured to stop his constant swearing in deference to her. Of course, she has managed to gum up the works by dropping her wedding ring into the toilet on her third day. And there’s an undercover cop on the train among the hostages, but what good can that cop do in this situation “especially if it’s a woman.” Turns out it’s a long-haired guy that Matthau mistakes for a woman late in the film. This is the same New York that featured in the TV series Life on Mars. Loud, brash, dirty, and rude. It is amusing to see Robert Shaw as the “good” bad guy and Hector Elizondo as the worst of the foursome, lecherous, volatile and violent.
Speaking of gender politics, stay tuned tomorrow for my essay “Apparently I Write Like a Girl” on Storytellers Unplugged.
