Kinsey and Me: Grafton tells all. Almost. (2013)

Sue Grafton. Kinsey & Me. (2013) An introduction by Grafton, which comes as close any author can to explain the source of fictions, followed by several short stories about Kinsey Millhone, not especially memorable, and a series of interlocked semi-fictions based on Grafton’s life. These are memorable.

Grafton had a difficult childhood, as the phrase goes these days. There’s no doubt that this shaped her moral altitudes, which of course spill over into Millhone’s uncompromising attitude to evil, and the compromises she sometimes makes with the law in order to achieve justice. Insofar as justice can be achieved. Crime fiction trades on our yearning for moral balance, and the best crime fiction reminds us that it’s at best precarious and always a little off.

A brief essay on the evolution of the hard-boiled P.I. genre is worth reading both as a defence of the genre and for insight into how women have improved it.

A necessary book for Grafton’s fans, and interesting both for fans of crime fiction and those who are curious about the intersection of life and art. ***

Hillerman's Memoir Doesn't Disappoint

 

Tony Hillerman. Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir (2001) Hillerman is one of my favourite writers. His police procedurals set in Navajo country integrate plot, character and setting better than most fictions. Because of them, I want to visit that part of America, but I doubt I will make it there.
     This memoir begins with his childhood on a hardscrabble farm in Oklahoma, where his mother taught him to have low expectations, because then he would be seldom disappointed. But the dominant attitude here is gratitude for all the breaks that came his way: his luck in surviving the war, benefitting from the GI Bill, learning how to tell a story as reporter, and a happy marriage and family life. The war damaged him both physically and psychologically, damage that he plays down. But that damage also encouraged his gift of imaginative empathy. The narrator of the novels has the same voice as the narrator of this memoir. I like this man.
     Footnote: Hillerman’s memories of his war add to its history in the best way: the point of view of those that actually fought it.
     Recommended. ****

Mortimer and Friends (Murderers and Other Friends, 1994)

 

John Mortimer. Murderers and Other Friends (1994) Part two of Mortimer’s intermittent autobiography. Charming, humane, with occasional flashes of rage at injustice and stupidity. I enjoyed this re-read. Mother gave me the book for a birthday; she enjoyed Mortimer and Rumpole as much as I did. (So did all the family).
     Highly recommended, partly because it also portrays a time and Zeitgeist that’s now long past, partly because Mortimer understands the difference between law and justice very well, and partly because he’s just very good company. He’s a raconteur, he can make any event interesting and often a reason to reflect about what makes life worth living. If you could push Mortimer to pontificate, he might say something about good company, a loving family, satisfying work, and perhaps jousting at windmills in the sure and certain hope that some of them would prove to be giants worth slaying. Recommended. ****