I made my daily visit to Ed Gorman’s blog and was shocked out of my seat by the kind words he had to say about THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE.
What makes the novel so remarkable–remarkable enough for me to put it
on my Edgar short list along with Terrill Lankford’s Blonde
Lightning–is the way, like the best of the Rockford episodes, Goldberg
is able to parody his standard SoCal moments while telling a
convincing, even moving tale about the real nature of SoCal streets and
the real nature of heroism.The novel owes more to literary pieces than to genre ones because here
the narrator’s voice is more important than plot, something you find in
novels such as Richard Price’s Ladies Man (modern) and J.D. Salinger’s
Catcher in The Rye (classic). And as in both of those novels, Goldberg
creates an Everyman, a man who just doesn’t fit anywhere, a man who is
driven to find some small justice in a world where justice is just
another commodity to buy and sell. You can almost hear Holden Caulfield
hectoring you, telling you that you’re a sap to believe all that
hi-faultin’ nonsense about the hallowed justice system working for one
and all. He knows better and you should know better, too.
I may be blushing all weekend. To be compared on any level besides "this book is also written on paper" with Richard Price and J.D. Salinger just floors me. Thank you, Ed. Now how the hell am I supposed to get back to writing MONK #2 after that?
I’d hold out for Janet Maslin.
I want this book. I’m going to order it from Amazon right now.
I am also emerald with jealousy, because, um, that phrase about how in your novel the narrator’s voice is more important than plot? Well, that is what they write on my REJECTIONS. They say, tone down the voice despite its charm and put in some frelling plot. I have the plot, but just not enough frelling. *pout*
Another all-voice book I read recently, _How I Paid for College_, is a “book” book. You remember those . . . the ones that didn’t have to fit into a genre, whose authors didn’t have to be branded, where the agents’ first wail wasn’t “but how can I PITCH THIS?” I miss those books.