https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction Author Thu, 30 Jun 2016 02:28:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald/ https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald/#respond Thu, 15 Aug 2013 19:03:44 +0000 http://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/?p=454 I haven’t read all of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels. But of those I’ve enjoyed the one that moved me most was BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD. So slender a book, but each page a well-honed blade. Boone Waxwell reads like an up-river Mephistopheles. That’s just one of the things that’s so wonderful about […]

The post BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD–John D. MacDonald first appeared on Michael Shea.]]> I haven’t read all of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels. But of those I’ve enjoyed the one that moved me most was BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD. So slender a book, but each page a well-honed blade.
Boone Waxwell reads like an up-river Mephistopheles. That’s just one of the things that’s so wonderful about MacDonald– he knows how to make monsters. (I use the present tense because like all great writers, he is always with us and still very much alive for me.) Though more prolific than Raymond Chandler he had the same gift of fashioning living, breathing, human gargoyles. And he knew how to give those gargoyles play; he let them run out some line and tear up the scenery; he savored extravagant violence, understanding that monstrosity is a baroque form, requiring resonant and detailed confrontation with evil–sometimes charismatic evil.
Waxwell’s rape kills both its victim and her worthless husband, who dies by her hand (so right that gesture).
But oh, the monsters death when it comes! How more than fitting! How tailored (though large in the bias!) to his crime! It’s among the most fulfilling climaxes in popular fiction.

The post BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD–John D. MacDonald first appeared on Michael Shea.]]> https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald/feed/ 0 https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald-1965/ https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald-1965/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2013 22:04:33 +0000 http://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/?p=453 I’ll be in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy on Saturday, August 17th (2 p.m.) and also at Dark Delicacies in Burbank on Sunday the 18th (also at 2 p.m.). The incomparable master of triple media: film, print and stand-up, Patton Oswalt, will be introducing my second book of THE EXTRA trilogy: ASSAULT ON SUNRISE from […]

The post LA Area Readings This Weekend!/ Oswalt/ Goodfellow first appeared on Michael Shea.]]> I’ll be in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy on Saturday, August 17th (2 p.m.) and also at Dark Delicacies in Burbank on Sunday the 18th (also at 2 p.m.). The incomparable master of triple media: film, print and stand-up, Patton Oswalt, will be introducing my second book of THE EXTRA trilogy: ASSAULT ON SUNRISE from TOR books.  Cody Goodfellow, editor and writer will be there as well.  We hope that the occasion will be like a Light in the vast darkness of the San Fernando Valley.

The post LA Area Readings This Weekend!/ Oswalt/ Goodfellow first appeared on Michael Shea.]]> https://www.michaelsheaauthor.com/news/bright-orange-for-the-shroud-john-d-macdonald-1965/feed/ 0