READING 2020

I have been trying to read more, and 2020 provided plenty of reasons to get back into it.

Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics

Written by historian Kimberly Phillips-Fein, a look at the historical, social, economic and political context of New York's re-making in the mid-seventies. New York's painful transformation into a hub for massive conglomerates set the stage for the kind of austerity politics that feel all too familiar in the 2010s, and Fear City interrogates the political choices underpinning the fiscal decisions which destroyed a unique example of local social democracy.

Reading Fear City in 2020, and watching New York struggle with Covid this year brought home how the scars of the mid-seventies remain.

The Liquidator

When I was younger, I loved reading the James Bond novels. The most prolific author of the series was John Gardner, and I read quite a few of his. They did not grip the same way as Ian Fleming's work, and my opinion has not improved on a recent re-read.

However, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to read the book that gave him the Bond gig, The Liquidator.

A blackly comic spin on the Bond formula, The Liquidator is a modest but really enjoyable little thriller that builds into a marvellous farce as the title character stumbles through a conspiracy both more and less complex than he understands. I want to keep it vague because we will probably cover it on the James Bond Cocktail Hour at some point in the future, but it is a lot of fun, and has led me to completely reassess my opinion of Gardner as an author.

Madea Lives!: A Film-By-Film Guide To Loving Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry is a fascinating character. He reminds me a lot of Russ Meyer - not in subject, but as an independent filmmaker with a genuinely original take on his art and the financial independence to not have to deal with outside interference (for good or ill).

Written by film critic Evan Saathoff (formerly of Birth.Movies.Death), this comprehensive tome examins Perry's filmography up to 2013's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. 

Combining close analysis with humour and a genuine passion for Perry's work, Saathoff captures his own fascination with the filmmaker, and made me more interested in watching the man's films.

Nixonland

Technically I am still halfway through this one but it depressed me so much I had to take a break. A terrifying portrait of ambition coinciding with the worst elements in America's psyche, Nixonland is a great book, particularly if you want an inkling of how the US ended up where it is now. Author Rick Perlstein has written a series of books on the modern conservative movement, from Goldwater to Reagan. All are vital reading, but Nixonland is a great starting point. 

Quarry

The hardbitten tales of a hitman operating in the middle of the midwestern United States, Quarry is the creation of writer Max Allan Collins, who is probably most famous for writing the graphic novel Road to Perdition. 

I bought the first book of this series a few years ago and forgot about it. I started reading it at the beginning of the year and sped through it. While it was not the most original story in the world, the prose was tight, and Collins writes with an extremely dry sense of humour.  

I ended up reading the first four books of this series this year - the highlight is the third one, Quarry's Deal, in which our protagonist forms a relationship with someone who just might be in the same profession. 

The one criticism I have the books are the cover art. The latest editions were published by Hardcase Crime, a speciality label which tries to recreate the feel of the old pulp thrillers. This includes creating painted cover art that evokes the those old paperbacks. My problem is not that these covers feature scantily clad women, it is that they have almost nothing to do with the content or style of the books - and it also feels like the art completely misses that pulp covers generally included more elements than sex appeal. They generally featured a strong image that would give some sense of a key sequence that would make people buy them. These covers feel like pale imitations, with no sense of imagination. 

Well, that went on longer than I thought. Anyway, if you are in the mood for something short, brutal and a morally questionable, Quarry might scratch that itch.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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