Skip to main content

American Tragedy 4%

Kindle book--free; Audible narration $0.99
  Really like the start.  Clyde's parents are evangelicals.  He's put off by the shabbiness of their life.  His older sister, unbeknownst to him, is also chafing.  At the first opportunity, she runs off with an actor who promises to marry her.  Clyde starts as an assistant at a soda shop.  He has just been hired as bellboy at 5 star hotel in Kansas City.  The money (tips) and the glamor of the hotel thrill him.

Side notes:  He looks down on being a plumber, mason, etc.  He believes being a clerk in a bank would be much more classy.  I'm guessing that this book is before labor unions made plumbing, masonry etc. into trades that paid a living wage.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin . . . finished

 Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world.  Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way.  Plot is involved but sensible.  Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment.  The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview.  He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good.   Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child. 

The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey--opening pages

Blair, a lawyer in Milford, gets a strange call.  His practice is wills and similar--nothing criminal.  A woman tells him that Scotland Yard is accusing her of abduction and implores him to come out to help her, even if later on he passes the case to someone else.  The woman says she has called him because he is "her type," meaning respectable and conservative.  He agrees.