tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post3793955910000188514..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: No Past Is Dead: The Last Talk with Lola Faye (2010), by Thomas H. CookThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-16815669508538937382015-03-17T17:51:02.312-07:002015-03-17T17:51:02.312-07:00In NO, they tore out entire communities of histori...In NO, they tore out entire communities of historical architecture and bulldozed them under, for the underpasses. This includes all those historical music roots sites such as Basin Street, and endless number of long-time, strong, wonderful African American communities.<br /><br />The families still come and 'reunion' under the over passes on Mardi Gras day, doing grilling, dancing and so on, in memorium.<br /><br />Charleston though, was spared . . . .<br /><br />Love, C.Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-53892489783100329362015-03-15T14:54:37.227-07:002015-03-15T14:54:37.227-07:00Sixties "urban renewal" in my opinion di...Sixties "urban renewal" in my opinion did a lot of damage in Mobile, Alabama, which had an amazingly pristine architectural heritage and, as you say, wrecked cohesive neighborhoods. Mobile could have been like New Orleans or Charleston, SC.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-19073128607366528652015-03-15T12:16:41.882-07:002015-03-15T12:16:41.882-07:00Urban renewal . . . which also destroyed long-esta...Urban renewal . . . which also destroyed long-established, cohesive African American communities too -- culminating in the terrible wreckage and displacement by the interstates and overpasses, such as in New Orleans, Harlem, the Bronx and just about every city in the U.S. We just keep on keepin on making the same mistakes.<br /><br />I'm not entirely certain but Alabama wasn't too much affected by the Great Flood of 1927? Though, with all the rivers, and the endless tonnage of water pouring out of the north from their own snows, over-rains and flooding, Alabama's fields at least, probably got flooded, and the towns that served the rural communities.<br />Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-73770414611477971712015-03-14T18:44:17.634-07:002015-03-14T18:44:17.634-07:00Barry, I read your review after doing the piece an...Barry, I read your review after doing the piece and was glad to see you were struck by his work in a similar way to me, even though Lola Faye lacks the qualities that John found so outputting in Instruments. For me he has that "unputdownable" quality of Margaret Millar and the better Barbara Vine.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-40178400076655459392015-03-14T18:41:59.614-07:002015-03-14T18:41:59.614-07:00Foxessa, yes, that's true about Middlemarch, s...Foxessa, yes, that's true about Middlemarch, such a powerful feeling of futility.<br /><br />A lot of beautiful Alabama public buildings got swept away in the 1930s-1950s, replaced by that sort of flat, drab, gray and white behemoths beloved by Soviet bureaucrats in the Stalin era. They are especially bad choices in the Deep South, where in the summer glare everything becomes simply blinding.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-81788572992565985952015-03-14T11:34:10.712-07:002015-03-14T11:34:10.712-07:00[ " . . . (invariably, writes Cook of Luke, ...[ " . . . (invariably, writes Cook of Luke, he would start out big with a "passionate concept," then watch it "shrink to a bloodless mongraph")." ]<br /><br />One inevitably has to think of George Eliot's Causabon in Middlemarch.<br /><br />It's that same architecture that struck me first about Birmingham. O, what a grey and drab city it appeared to me -- even the main public library.<br /><br />I have seen many of those classic small town southern domed courthouse town squares though, in Mississippi and Tennessee.<br /><br /><br />Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-61286670326172892772015-03-13T13:48:25.885-07:002015-03-13T13:48:25.885-07:00INSTRUMENTS OF NIGHT is the only novel by Cook I&#...INSTRUMENTS OF NIGHT is the only novel by Cook I've read so far, though I want to read others. It's interesting that you mention Faulkner in connection with him, because when I reviewed INSTRUMENTS I mentioned Faulkner as well, although in a somewhat different context--see http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930832/Instruments%20of%20Night. Until I read your review of LOLA FAYE, I was unaware that Cook was also a Faulkner fan.Barry Erganghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04305184548497082776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-72380082704036900652015-03-10T13:32:57.103-07:002015-03-10T13:32:57.103-07:00John, I think Instruments was rather his take on t...John, I think Instruments was rather his take on the popular 1990s serial killer novel. Lola Faye is much different book, about which I can't say more without possibly spoiling. That's one the frustrations about reviewing crime novels, you always feel restrained from saying too much about the plot.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-17010216389800605752015-03-10T11:02:27.967-07:002015-03-10T11:02:27.967-07:00Years ago I thought THE CHATHAM SCHOOL AFFAIR was ...Years ago I thought THE CHATHAM SCHOOL AFFAIR was perfection and it sent me to the library to sample more from Cook prior to his Edgar award winning book. Then I read INSTRUMENTS OF NIGHT in 1998 and everything changed. I was so turned off by its indulgence in torture and sadism and a despicably amoral ending that I never read another Cook novel afterwards. But...this review is encouraging. Maybe INSTRUMENTS was a purge book. You know I can handle dark crime fiction and loathsome characters. I cannot abide, however, a book that betrays a perverse worldview which I think INSTRUMENTS exudes in a very foul way.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-54176093414604544072015-03-09T12:27:00.888-07:002015-03-09T12:27:00.888-07:00Moira, was it Red Leaves, that's the one that ...Moira, was it Red Leaves, that's the one that got so much attention in UK. In the US it was some of his previous books that did that. Several of his recent ones have been quite up to mark with the earlier ones, I think. The most recent ones are moving in somewhat different directions.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-31029472644771121052015-03-09T12:09:02.151-07:002015-03-09T12:09:02.151-07:00I read one of his books and was fairly neutral ab...I read one of his books and was fairly neutral about it, but you make me feel I must read another.Clothes In Bookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680610242823846662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-73380427563194018742015-03-09T11:42:13.326-07:002015-03-09T11:42:13.326-07:00That's a great point about the the relative br...That's a great point about the the relative brevity of his books. They aren't short books, really, but they aren't the bloated behemoths you so often see, It's clear he takes the time to think about his writing, to polish it, so that he can be enjoyed purely on the literary level as well as for his plot spinning.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-49609371692803730232015-03-08T19:57:41.047-07:002015-03-08T19:57:41.047-07:00I couldn't agree with you more about Cook'...I couldn't agree with you more about Cook's excellence. I've read far too few of his books (precisely because they <i>are</i> so good; I tend to space out the books of authors whose work I especially like), but each time -- at most half a dozen -- I've found them a knockout. He also has the very considerable extra virtue that his novels are, in today's terms, relative short, not the padded-out behemoths we've become accustomed to.<br /><br />Many thanks for this splendid account.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com