A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries)
by John D. MacDonald
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Book Summary Information
Author: John D. MacDonaldEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-03-09
ISBN: 0449224767
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Fawcett
Book Reviews of A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries)
Book Review: from the Jimmy Buffett school of detective fiction
Summary: 1 Stars
A colleague of mine left this book on my desk one day. Reading it made me wish he had left the hardbound version, since that way it would have hurt more when I threw it back at him!
It's a detective story, you see, featuring the inimitable Travis McGee, the beach bum cum gumshoe who appears in over a dozen MacDonald outings.
What can I say about this book? In one stroke, MacDonald has managed to outstrip Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Joyce, making them all look like mewling infants.
Here's just a sample of MacDonald's deathless prose:
"And I suppose you had an affair with her."
"Gee, honey. I'd have to look it up."
I caught her fist about five inches from my eye. "You bahstid," she said. [p. 32]
Of course, MacDonald cannot be accused of being a superficial writer! Consider these penetrating philosophical musings:
"I own some Sears electric clippers with plastic gadgets of various shapes which fit on the clippers to keep you from accidentally peeling your hair off down to the skull. I find that long hair is a damned nuisance on boats, on the beach, and in the water. So when it gets long enough to start to make me aware of it, I clipper it off, doing the sides in the mirror and the back by feel. The sun bleaches my hair and burns it and dries it out. And the salt water makes it feel stiff and look like some kind of Dynel. Were I going to keep it long, I would have to take care of it. That would mean tonics and lotions and special shampoos. That would mean brushing it and combing it a lot more than I do and somehow fastening it out of the way in a stiff breeze." [pp. 123-124]
But perhaps Travis, our hero, is at his most debonair when he's beating the snot out of recalicrant women:
"I smiled at her, pulling her a half-step closer and said, 'If you get loud and say nasty things, dear, if you get on my nerves, I can hold you like this, and I can take this free hand and make a big fist like this, and I can give you one little pop right here that will give you a nose three inches wide and a quarter inch high.'
'Please,' she said in a rusty little voice.
'You can get a job as a clown. Or you can see if you can find a surgeon willing to try to rebuild it.'" [p. 136]
In sum, if you're in the mood for sappy, incoherent, misogynistic, and, well, all-around cruddy fiction, you can't go wrong with the peerless Travis McGee!
(The author, John MacDonald, died in 1986, and therefore -- it tickles me to announce -- will not be inflicting any more of these books on us! God be praised!)
Summary of A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries)
A Travis McGee mystery. It wasn't Harry Broll turning up out of the blue with a gun that made McGee scrap his programme of love and leisure aboard his houseboat. Mary Broll and Travis had once been very close, and if, as Harry said, Mary had vanished without a word, she must be in serious trouble.Literature & Fiction Books
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