Yes, after 11 days, electricity (and running water) have come back to my current location! The lack of power disrupted my consecutive days of blogging streak too. I was up to 129 consecutive days, a new record*. I know, you don't care, but I was enjoying it. In celebration of what is hopefully a return to daily blogging, one more book post before my comics (hopefully) show up. Hmm, not much of a celebration, is it?
A Maggot, John Fowles - The most interesting thing I learned from this book was that "maggot" once meant a whim or a lark, and that is what Fowles claims this is for him. A man rides into a town with four companions, including a maid and a deaf-mute. Next morning he, the maid, and the deaf-mute part ways with the others, and the next time anything is known of them, the deaf-mute is found hung in the woods. The man is apparently highly connected, so someone referred to only as "Your Grace**" has dispatched an attorney to figure out what's going on.
The attorney manages to track down the surviving members of the group (minus the man he's searching for) and tries to construct what's going on from there. It's a mess of lies about trips to find loves denied them, Satanic rituals, trips in oddly shaped vessels to what was apparently Heaven, and so on. We have no idea if any of it is true, since characters lie to other characters for various reasons, then claim the new story is the truth.
I was thoroughly disappointed in the book. The book jacket declares the book part detective story, part gothic horror, part science fiction, part history of dissent, and other than perhaps the last of those, I don't think it can lay claim to any of those descriptors. The most character that prompted the greatest response from me was Ayscough, the crotchety old attonrey who hates the way the world is changing, and despies anyone not from at least his social class. One of the people he interrogates is Welsh, and Ayscough takes every opportunity to disparage them as a worthless bunch, put down their religion, their lands, all of it. If he actually existed, I'd say the world was much better off when he died. If he didn't, then I'd say the world was much better off for that.
Everything's Eventual, Stephen King - It's a bunch of short stories by Stephen King. if you like his work, you can probably find something in here you'll enjoy. I was partial to the story of the traveling gourmet food salesman who is trying to decide between suicide and writing a book about all the curious phrases he's seen in gas station and rest stop bathrooms.
Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, Robert Lacey - I'm not usually one for biographies, or gangsters, but the local library doesn't have that large a selection, so I figured it was better than nothing. This was actually a very entertaining book about a fairly successful rackateer, who unfortunately was not nearly as successful as the public (and the government) believed him to be (he was the basis for Hyman Roth in Godfather Part 2, for those of you familiar with the film). Part of this is because people who aren't in crime seemed to believe all criminal enterprises are connected, like a vast corporation, and because Lansky knew many different successful rackateer types, they must obviously all be part of one large group. While he did enter into joint ventures occasionally with his friends, it wasn't an official partnership or anything.
The book paints a picture of a man who, while successful at skimming money, and establishing successful casinos (both legal ones in Cuba, and illegal ones throughout the U.S.), failed at every legit business venture he tried, and wasn't much of a family man either. His first wife had a nervous breakdown, and his children were varying degrees of disasters***. He managed to avoid being deported by the Justice Department for almost 2 decades, then when he decided perhaps he'd like to reconnect with his Jewish heritage and live out his days in Israel, the U.S. suddenly wanted to drag hhim back for trials. Of course, by then he was considered some sort of Mastermind of an International Crime Syndicate, so naturally they wanted him back. Reporters claimed (without any factual basis) that he was worth $300 million, but his loved ones were basically broke within five years of his death.
It's kind of sad, I don't think, even at the end, that he realized just how badly he'd screwed things up. He could joke about his lack of success in the world of business, but poor investment strategy isn't funny when it affects the source of income your quadraplegic son needs to be looked after.
* Breaking the old record of 101 from March 23 - July 1 2007. Which I guess makes that stretch Lee/Kirby on Fantastic Four, and this stretch Bendis/Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man?
** It's set in England in 1736, so you tell me who Your Grace would refer to. The man was apparently a disobedient son to Your Grace, if that helps.
*** His middle son, who appeared the least screwed up, turned out to have set up wiretapping on his own home phones, so he could listen in on his wife's conversations. After they divorced, he eventually remarried. His children from the first marriage found this out from their great uncle at Meyer Lansky's funeral, at least two years after the marriage. And Paul admitted to his daughter that the divorce, he spared no thoughts for his children. Yes, he was the least screwed up of Meyer's kids.
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