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The Dreadful Lemon Sky

Page history last edited by PBworks 18 years, 3 months ago

MacDonald, John D - The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974)

 

Wow, what an ending this book has! Its plot core involves drug dealing (marijuana)* - - and here JDM shows his libertarian attitude: if it doesn't hurt anybody, then do it, but make sure it doesn't screw you up. When greed takes over, and it is not just a lark any more, then the murders come fast and furious. Everybody involved, even sympathetic characters, is corrupted in some way. Sexual jealousy, hypocritical political shenanigans, excessive desire for wealth and status run under the story; but many of these corrupted people are really good in some way or another, marking out the author's usual theme about human complexity - - these victims are all flawed but basically decent. Except, of course, for the main villain (actually there are several in this book, 'breaking' one of the rules of classic detective stories). who is as nasty as they come under his charming surface. TM's friend Meyer is in this story as a full partner, and he plays a good role, not so irritatingly pontifical as usual; it is amusing to have Travis snap at his efforts to play detective.

 

McGee makes mistakes and misjudgments, as usual, and almost dies (twice) because of it, and his beloved houseboat, the Busted Flush, comes to near grief. One will never laugh at the idea of being attacked by fire ants after finishing this book! * McGee speaking of pot: Meyer - “Do you disapprove of a person using the weed?” Travis - “Me? I think people should do whatever they want to do, provided they go to the trouble of informing themselves first of any possible problems. Once they know, then they can solve their own risk - reward ratios. Suppose somebody proved it does some kind of permanent damage. Okay. So the user has to figure out if there is any point in his remaining in optimum condition for a minimum kind of existence. For me, it was relaxing, in a way, the couple of times I've had enough to feel it. But it gave me the giggles, warped my time sense, and made things too bright and hard - edged. Also it bent dimensions somehow. Buildings leaned just a little bit the wrong way. Rooms were not perfectly oblong any more. It's a kind of sensual relaxation, but it gave me the uneasy feeling somebody could come up behind me and kill me and I would die distantly amused instead of scared witless.” Meyer - “I am trying to imagine you giggling.”

 

Wyatt James

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