“There are thirty-two ways to write a story and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot–things are not as they seem.”

The quote above by Jim Thompson kicks off a detailed survey of modern storytelling in books and movies. David Bordwell, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, seemingly has seen a thousand movies and still found time to read a couple thousand books. Perplexing Plots takes a roughly chronological approach at the beginning to describe the field of interest Bordwell wants to concentrate on: plot.

My favorite chapter in Perplexing Plots is Chapter 11: Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine. Bordwell makes a distinction between the Donald Westlake comic capers and the “Richard Stark” serious caper novels. I had no idea that Westlake divided the Parker novels into four parts with Parker the focus of Part One and Part Four while Part Two or Part Three would be told through one of the other characters to provide a contrasting viewpoint. Westlake structured the plots of the Parker novels to give maximum flexibility. This gives Parker (and his heist accomplices) the options of not just knocking over armored cars, but a football game, a casino, a convention of coin collectors, an Air Force base, an African embassy, a rock concert, a revival meeting, a jewelry auction, and a rural race track (p. 346).

I also enjoyed the contrast of Erle Stanley Gardner’s plotting with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries. Throughout Perplexing Plots Brodwell refers to Tarantino who seems to embody the kind of plotting Bordwell holds up as the Gold Standard.

“Why are hard-boiled plots so hard to follow, let alone remember? In part because of all the lying, but we get that in whodunits too. More markedly, hard-boiled plots tend to abandon the Gold Age tidiness of physical clues, timetables, and a closed circle of suspects. Instead we must keep track of secrets shared among a vast cast spread across an urban milieu.” (p. 200)

Perplexing Plots both delights and informs. I know you are all well versed in mystery novels and noir movies, but I can guarantee you will learn new facts about the plotting of those genres that will make you sit up and exclaim, “Wow! I didn’t know that!” Highly recommended! GRADE: A

Oh, and does anyone know which movie that cover photo came from? It’s only credited to 20th Century Fox.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Acknowledgments — xi
Introduction: Mass Art as Experimental Storytelling — 1
Part I
1. The Art Novel Meets 1910s Formalism — 29
2. Making Confusion Satisfactory: Modernism and Other Mysteries — 55
3. Churn and Consolidation: The 1940s and After — 81
Part II
4. The Golden Age Puzzle Plot: The Taste of the Construction — 119
5. Before the Fact: The Psychological Thriller — 157
6. Dark and Full of Blood: Hard-Boiled Detection — 194
7. The 1940s: Mysteries in Crossover Culture — 235
8. The 1940s: The Problem of Other Minds, or Just One — 261
Part III
9. The Great Detective Rewritten: Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout — 285
10. Viewpoints, Narrow and Expansive: Patricia Highsmith and Ed McBain — 318
11. Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine — 336
12. Tarantino, Twists, and the Persistence of Puzzles — 357
13. Gone Girls: The New Domestic Thriller — 382
Conclusion: The Power of Limits — 405
Notes — 413
Index — 467

Alex Pappademas and & Joan LeMay start Quantum Criminals by giving the origin story of Steely Dan beginning with Donald Fagan and Walter Becker meeting at Bard College as students in the 1960s. They began writing songs together and drifted into the music business. Fagan and Becker formed Steely Dan in 1971 and their first album, Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972), featured a blending of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and blues. Both Fagan and Becker were perfectionists and brought a ultra-sophisticated studio production to their albums filled with songs with cryptic and ironic lyrics. Steely Dan achieved critical and commercial success through seven studio albums, peaking with their top-selling album Aja, released in 1977. The group disbanded in 1981 with a couple of reunion albums issued years later.

“They [Fagan & Becker] meet Roger Nicols, a studio engineer at ABC who tells an interviewer years later that he got into the technical aspect of recording music because ‘I hated clicks, pops and ticks on records.’ He’ll become their closest collaborator in the studio, a partner in perfectionism, the nearest thing to a third full-time contributor to the Steely Dan sound. ‘It wasn’t a drag for me to do things over and over until it was perfect, [which] would have driven a lot of other engineers up the wall,’ Nicols said. ‘In my own way, I’m just as crazy as they are.'” (p. 55)

Fagan and Becker’s obsessive natures became legionary. Donald Fagan mixed “Babylon Sisters” 250 times before he would let it go, just typical of the borderline-psychotic commitment to quality control (p. 181). The result was intricate songs that still thrill listeners today.

Pappademas and & LeMay pick over a dozen Steely Dan songs and describe how the song came about, who played on the songs–there are dozens of character sketches of the various musicians and singers who Fagan and Becker included on the various Steely Dan albums. One of my favorite Steely Dan songs is “Deacon Blues” so it was a delight to read about the musician who played the famous tenor saxophone solo:

“Donald and Walter first heard [Pete Christlieb] on the Tonight Show, playing in Doc Seversinsen’s band. ‘We did our best work behind the Alpo dog food commercials,’ Christlieb said. ‘I sold a lot of dog food.’ He dropped by one day after a Tonight Show taping and tried the solo twice; the second take is the one on the record. ‘I was gone in a half hour,’ Christlieb remembered in 2015. ‘The next thing I know I’m hearing myself in every airport bathroom in the world.'” (p. 184)

Hardcore Steely Dan aficionados will love Quantum Criminals with all the details about the two geniuses who devised this music and all the effort it took to produce their brilliant albums. Casual fans will also enjoy the humor and irony in the Steely Dan story. Steely Dan (aka, Donald Fagan–Walter Becker died in 2017 of cancer) is now touring with surviving members of The Eagles. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• 1. Jack — 1
• 2. Walter — 7
• 3. Donald — 19
• 4. King Richard/King John — 28
• 5. Lady Bayside — 33
• 6. Chino & Daddy Gee — 35
• 7. Michael/Jesus — 43
• 8. The Charmer — 48
• 9. The Fella in the White Tuxedo — 53
• 10. Dan — 58
• 11. David — 63
• 12. Mr. Whatever — 68
• 13. Louise — 77
• 14. Cathy — 78
• 15. The El Supremo — 83
• 16. The King of the World — 90
• 17. Rikki — 95
• 18. The Major Dude — 102
• 19. Mr. Parker — 107
• 20. Buzz — 110
• 21. Napoleon — 116
• 22. The Archbishop — 119
• 23. Dr. Wu — 124
• 24. Mr. LaPage — 127
• 25. Owsley — 131
• 26. A Bookkeeper’s Son — 136
• 27. The Eagles — 141
• 28. Babs & Clean Willie — 144
• 29. The Old Man — 149
• 30. Pepe — 152
• 31. A Wooly Man without a Face –156
• 32. Peg — 161
• 33. Sayoko — 166
• 34. The Expanding Man — 181
• 35. Broadway Duchess — 187
• 36. Josie — 190
• 37. The Babylon Sisters — 193
• 38. Hoops McCann/The Dread Moray Eel — 197
• 39. The Dandy of Gamma Chi/Aretha Franklin — 205
• 40. The Gaucho — 210
• 41. A Jolly Roger — 214
• 42. Third World Man — 217
• 43. Abbie/Dupree — 219
• 44. Franny from NYU — 227
• 45. Lizzie — 230
• 46. Jill — 235
• 47. Gina — 238
• 48. Dave from Acquisitions — 242
• 49. Daddy — 247
• Acknowledgements — 249
• Notes — 251

The first season of Good Omens (you can read my review here) was based entirely on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990), and was dedicated to stopping the Apocalypse. 

It’s been four years since Good Omens, Season One showed up on AMAZON Prime Video. This Second Season has Neil Gaiman extending what he and Pratchett set up with the battles between Hell and Heaven. One thing that hasn’t changed in that time is the chemistry between leads David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Tennant plays the demon Crowley who’s dissatisfied with Hell, and Sheen plays Aziraphale, an angel who is dissatisfied with Heaven. Together, the demon and the angel work to save the Earth (and the Universe).

The Major Conundrum is the appearance in Aziraphale’s bookstore of the Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm). But Gabriel has lost his memories and Aziraphale investigates why that happened. Meanwhile, Crowley gets involved in matchmaking the woman who who runs the nearby coffee shop with the woman who runs the nearby record shop. Three Nazi zombies wander around as well as 70 demons who attack the bookshop. However, the six episodes of Good Omens 2 drag. Plenty of meandering subplots and tedium. Don’t waste your time (like I did) on this disappointment. GRADE: D (for dull)

A few weeks ago I posted about Jonathan Latimer’s The Fifth Grave (you can read my review here). In his comment on my review, Art Scott mentioned that his favorite Jonathan Latimer mystery was Lady in the Morgue (1936;  filmed 1938 (aka The Case of the Missing Blonde in the UK); Preston Foster as Crane). I decided to reread Lady in the Morgue and then reread my favorite Jonathan Latimer mystery, Headed for a Hearse (1935; filmed 1937 as The Westland Case; Preston Foster as Crane).

One reason I’m fond of Headed for a Hearse is the relentless pressure Latimer puts on the plot and the characters. At the center of the story is a locked room mystery involving Chicago stockbroker Robert Westland, who has been convicted of the murder of his estranged wife. Sentenced to the electric chair and with only six days left to establish his innocence. Westland hires criminal lawyer Charles Finklestein, who in turn hires two agency detectives from New York: William Crane and ‘Doc’ Williams. Latimer keeps the countdown to the execution in the forefront of the action.

The evidence against Westland is that his wife’s body was found shot in a locked apartment to which only Westland and his wife had keys. Westland had been decoyed there on the night of the murder by a phone call that seemed at first to have come from his fiancée, Emily Lou Martin. Additional evidence was that neighbors beneath the Westland apartment, heard a shot at the time of the killing. The weapon used was a wartime Webley pistol of a type owned by Westland, which has now disappeared from his desk. The evidence seems damning but William Crane, Latimer’s brilliant investigator finds some clues that lead to a final confrontation just minutes before the scheduled execution (with a little manipulation by Crane). I just love the suspense in this mystery! GRADE: A

Lady in the Morgue is nearly as good. The corpse of a young woman disappears from the morgue and William Crane, while initially baffled by the incident, slowly reveals what happened to the missing corpse and the hijinks behind the wickedly clever plot. If you’re in the mood for some classic mysteries that will test your detection skills, give Headed for a Hearse and Lady in the Morgue and try and learn why Jonathan Latimer is one of the great underrated genre writers! GRADE: A-

The Hard to Find 45s on CD initially began as a compilation series collecting songs that appeared on 45s back in the 1960s. After a few volumes, the series branched out to include songs from a time when 45s were disappearing. You have to take “Seventies Pop Classics” with a grain of salt when you consider the 20 songs on this CD. Perhaps “Songs Not Heard Much Any More” would be a better subtitle.

There’s “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas which hit Number One in October 1974. Marlyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.’s “You to Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show) was their first single after they left The Fifth Dimension. I’ve always liked Jennifer Warnes “Right Time of the Night.” And Bob Welch’s “Ebony Eyes.”

Do you remember some of these obscure hits? Any favorites? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:

1	Exile (7)–	Kiss You All Over	3:28
2	Suzi Quatro And Chris Norman–	Stumblin’ In	3:28
3	The Poppy Family–	Which Way You Goin’ Billy?	3:21
4	Edward Bear–	Last Song	3:10
5	Hurricane Smith–	Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?	3:24
6	Billy Ocean–	Love Really Hurts WIthout You	2:59
7	Carl Douglas–	Kung Fu Fighting	3:14
8	Maxine Nightingale–	Right Back Where We Started From	3:12
9	Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.–	You Don’t Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)	3:41
10	Toby Beau–	My Angel Baby	3:29
11	Chris Rea–	Fool (If You Think It’s Over)	3:32
12	Samantha Sang–	Emotion	3:55
13	Jennifer Warnes–	Right Time Of The Night	2:50
14	Prelude (3)–	After The Goldrush	2:07
15	Boney M.–	Rivers Of Babylon	4:17
16	Daniel Boone–	Beautiful Sunday	3:01
17	Pilot–	Magic	3:03
18	Bob Welch–	Ebony Eyes	3:26
19	Sniff ‘n’ The Tears–	Driver’s Seat	3:42
20	John Paul Young–	Love Is In The Air	3:2

David J. Schow’s detailed Introduction gives us the basic arc of Charles Beaumont’s writing career. Beaumont was a workaholic and wrote over a 100 short stories until he died in 1967 at the age of 38. Ray Bradbury wrote this insightful comment on Beaumont for The Magic Man (Fawcett, 1965): “Some writers are one idea people. Other writers, far rarer, far wilder, are pomegranates. They bust with seed. Charles has always been a pomegranate writer. You simply never know where his love and high excitement will take him next.”

I’ve read some of Charles Beaumont’s short story collections back in the 1960s. But most of you will recognize Beaumont for his stories filmed for The Twilight Zone: “The Howling Man“, “Static“, “Miniature“, “Printer’s Devil“, and “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You“, but also penned the screenplays for several films, such as 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Intruder, and The Masque of the Red Death.

The Carnival and Other Stories (Subterranean, 2022) opens with a “deal with the Devil” story, “The Devil, You Say?” I enjoyed Beaumont’s comic pastiche of the Mike Hammer novels in “The Last Caper.” And I was amused by “The Love Master” and “Genevieve, My Genevieve” that were published in Rogue, a men’s magazine that featured “spicy” stories. What you will find in any Beaumont short story collection is a variety of stories, all completely different. If you’re looking for a master short story writer, the prove is in The Carnival and Other Stories. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Return of the Magic Man by David J. Schow — 7
• The Devil, You Say? — 23
• Elegy — 51
• The Last Caper — 61
• Mass for Mixed Voices — 73
• Hair of the Dog — 87
• The Quadriopticon — 103
• The Love-Master — 129
• A World of Differents — 139
• Anthem — 147
• Mother’s Day — 163
• The Trigger — 177
• Genevieve, My Genevieve — 193
• Buck Fever — 207
• Dead You Know — 219
• Mourning Song — 227
• Something in the Earth — 241
• Insomnia Vobiscum — 253
• My Grandmother’s Japonicas — 257
• Appointment with Eddie — 269
• The Carnival — 287
• The Crime of Willie Washington — 305
• The Man with the Crooked Nose — 321
• The Wages of Cynicism — 333
• The Child — 337
• The Life of the Party — 359
• Beast of the Glacier  — 367

I enjoyed the first season of Foundation (you can read my review here). I loved Isaac Asimov’s trilogy when I was a kid. When I reread The Foundation Trilogy decades later, I was surprised by how chatty it was. The folks behind this TV series have transformed Asimov’s cerebral classic into more of an action series. The first season set up the galactic Empire setting and now in the second season, the Foundation has to deal with a mutant who can totally disrupt the Plan to spare humanity thousands of years of barbarism.

Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) entire Plan of Psychohistory to reset the Empire after an anticipated Dark Age is predicated on the movement of the masses, not on individuals. Nevertheless, that notion is challenged throughout season 2 when the Plan meets its second Crisis Point.

Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), Hari Seldon’s former student, becomes obsessed with stopping a threat from 150 years into the future called The Mule. Goal and Salvor (Leah Harvey) try to connect as recently united mother and daughter, even as they attempt to follow Seldon’s instructions for establishing a Second Foundation to stop the Plan from failure.

Llobell and Harvey are compelling as Gaal and Salvor as their characters’ journeys stress each of them. Hari Seldon gets a bigger role this season as the Plan is threatened. Harris engages the audience as more of Hari’s backstory is revealed. Hari Seldon struggles with the consequences his actions have on the people dedicating their lives to a future they’ll never see but only dream about. 

I’ve watched the three episodes (of 10) that are available right now (new episodes drop on Fridays) but I’m totally hooked! GRADE: INCOMPLETE (but trending towards an A-)

Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men covers artwork from 1500 to the present and introduces the reader to Artemisia Gentileschi, Frida Kahlo, Wilma af Kline, Tracey Amin, Kara Walker, Elisabetta Sirani, Marie Denise Villers, Lady Butler, and dozens of women artists.

I liked the book’s traditional chronological approach to women artists over the centuries. Hessel points out a number of “firsts” achieved by women artists: Lavinia Fontana is considered to be the first woman in Western art to paint female nudes in 1595; Alma Thomas is the first African American woman to achieve a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1972; “A Lesbian Show” was the first all-lesbian art show in the U.S. (held in New York City in 1978).

If you’re interested in Art History, you’ll love Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men. With over 300 images, this book is a feast for the eyes! Do you have a favorite female artist? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Part one: paving the way c.1500-c.1900

Chapter 1: Painting herself into the canon — 19

Chapter 2: Looking to a heroic past — 52

Chapter 3: From Realism to Spiritualism — 69

Part two: what made art modern c.1870-c.1950

Chapter 4: War, identity and the Paris avant-garde — 110

Chapter 5: The aftermath of the First World War — 156

Chapter 6: Modernism in the Americas — 188

Chapter 7: War and the rise of new methods and media — 208

Part three: postwar women c.1949-c.1970

Chapter 8: The great era of experimentalism — 236

Chapter 9: Political change and new abstractions — 262

Chapter 10: The body — 298

Chapter 11: Weaving new traditions — 312

Part four: taking ownership 1970-2000

Chapter 12: The era of feminism — 327

Chapter 13: The 1980s — 355

Chapter 14: The 1990s — 374

Chapter 15: Radical change in Britain — 392

Part five: still writing 2000-present

Chapter 16: Decolonising narratives and reworking traditions — 414

Chapter 17: Figuration in the twenty-first century — 432

Chapter 18: The 2020s — 452

Glossary — 460

Timeline —462

List of Illustrations and Photographic Acknowledgements — 500

Acknowledgements — 505

About the Author — 507

INDEX — 508

Stephen Hough is considered one of the world’s leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards through his hard work and talent. This moving memoir of his unconventional Life tells how Hough grew up in an unmusical home in Cheshire and defied the probabilities to make it to the main stage of Carnegie Hall in New York at age 21.

Hough describes his early love affair with the piano which shriveled away after a teenage nervous breakdown and degenerated into failure at school and six-hours a day of watching mindless television.

Hough’s writes about his supportive, if eccentric parents: his artistically frustrated father and his housework-hating mother. Hough’s education was challenging. There were the teachers who encouraged and inspired Hough–and others who hit him on the head screaming, “You’ll do nothing with your life!”

The heart of Enough for me is Hough’s struggle in finding his way back to the piano after abandoning plans to become a Catholic priest. Hough then flourished at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Juilliard School. Enough ends with Hough beginning his career as an international soloist. If you’re in the mood for an inspiring story of a young boy who beats the odds to become one of the best pianists in the world, give Enough a try. Do you enjoy piano music? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Prologue — 1 

Wirral to Thelwall  

Ridgeway 5 

Third finger 6 

A short walk from the Beatles 8 

Upstairs and downstairs 9 

Grandad and the pet shop boy 11 

Salted sugar 12 

Transparent machismo 13 

Vicious Henry 14 

Bianowig 16 

Where my caravan has (not) rested 17 

Lollipop 19 

Uncle Alf and Auntie Ethel 21 

Orange lipstick 23 

Crane’s and consumption 25 

A complicated character 28 

Hideous ferns 30 

Mompou: The young boy not in the garden 31 

The most important record I owned 33 

Heterosexual nocturne 36 

Could this be the new Mozart? 37 

Pink stilettos in Criccieth 38 

All Saints Drive 40 

The long garden 42 

Choccie 44 

Coffee and being powsh 45 

Fatty foods 47 

Eating on Sundays and Jean Sheppard 49 

Chubby Cheeks 51 

Empress 54 

Colours of springtime 56 

All things bright and beautiful 57 

Pulling up my socks 58 

Circumcised 59 

Dogs 62 

Doris Cox and her knickers 64 

Parents’ bedroom 65 

Pills and potions 67 

Irby 68 

Metal guru 70 

Beloved neighbours 72 

Chetham’s  

Naughty boy 77 

Random teachers7 9 

Shit in a bottle 85 

Cecilia Vajda inside our bones 87 

Latin and the greenhouse effect 88 

Isador 89 

Steele more 91 

The wise man with the pipe 93 

Can I learn some passionate Chopin? 98 

Philharmonic Hall and three piano recitals 100 

Not Paderewski 102 

No witnesses 105 

Lennox Berkeley’s umbrella1 07 

Knee up 109 

My purple bedroom and my wasted years 112 

David Bowie 114 

Yes, I pulled down his trunks 116 

Whatever you do, don’t turn out queer 118 

My mother’s lady friends 121 

Jimmy Savile – twice 123 

Bell bottoms 125 

Not the Knot Garden! 126 

Cello, drums and flute 128 

Henry Miller, my favourite writer 129 

Dover Road 131 

Bibles and badges 136 

Bloody hell 138 

My gregarious mother 140 

The late Mr Hough 142 

Red roses 144 

Eileen, anything more to add? 146 

The pink moustache 150 

Heads up: Three tricks my father taught me 151 

Posthumous poet 151 

The pianos I’ve owned 152 

The Dream of Gerontius 154 

On stage 156 

RNCM  

Leaving Chetham’s 161 

A fabulous zigzag run 162 

Doors opening 164 

One of the greatest men I’ve met 168 

Composing and orchards 173 

A screech in the library 174 

Devon and the Tiber 176 

Living as a priest in Manchester 180 

A vocation to be a pianist 182 

The Eighth Day 185 

Pickering Arms 187 

Harry’s infallible left hand 188 

Hazel 190 

Dad the hippie 191 

Norman Baker 194 

Tinkle of glass 197 

All aboard to Juilliard via Pimlico 199 

Juilliard  

Across the Atlantic 203 

Bill’s blue-eyed confidence 205 

Eline overlooking the river 209 

Cockroaches and Proust 213 

Madame Borsuk 215 

Friends and the cafeteria 219 

Random teachers at Juilliard 221 

This just isn’t your piece, dear 225 

Attending concerts in New York 230 

Smoking and showing off on the fourth floor 235 

Chita, Katie and Olegna 237 

Eating in the early years in New York 239 

Closets and bars 241 

Wisdom teeth on edge 243 

The late Glenn Sales 244 

Competing before Naumburg 245 

After Naumburg 248 

Epilogue 253 

Diane enjoys Jim Gaffigan’s brand of stand-up humor so we watched Gaffigan’s latest “Special” on AMAZON Prime Video. It’s 104 minutes long…mercifully. I knew we were in trouble when Gaffigan opened with Covid-19 and diarrhea “jokes.” Then he moved on to making fun of the people–baristas and customers–at Starbucks. There was a pointless story of Gaffigan and his family taking a hot air balloon ride in Mexico.

After watching Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale I belatedly read some of the audience reviews (which I should have done before I wasted my time watching this). Here’s a sample:

“The opening with the Covid references was not a good start. Timing wise maybe it made more sense when it was filmed but not now. I got about 10 minutes into and was sadly disappointed. Always bragged to everyone about this comedian who doesn’t need to swear to be funny and that part holds true but the material didn’t work this time. This should gave been tested before audience’s before it was released to TV.”

"Used to be a huge JG fan, have watched all specials and saw him live, he was amazing. But this…this was an utter disappointment. Turned off after 30 minutes.  Don’t waste your time."

So there you have it: Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale is an unfunny waste of time.  Beware!  GRADE: F