Astonishingly, moving takes up time that I might otherwise spend reading. Who knew?
Plus one of the books I’ve been working through is a detailed history of Vietnam and while fascinating, it’s slow going.
THE BLACK ANGEL (1946) stars Dan Duryea as a drunken pianist recruited by June Vincent to prove her cheating husband did not murder Duryea’s scheming ex; together, they settle on shady nightclub owner Peter Lorré as the most likely suspect and infiltrate his club as a musical duo (this has a lot of singing). While Duryea, playing a more sympathetic role than his usual villain, is great, Vincent is bland and the plot is much weaker than the Cornel Woolrich novel; if I hadn’t read the latter last month I’d like this better but I still don’t think I’d give it top ranking. “Perhaps an evening with Shostakovich will be good for me.”
THE CROWN CONSPIRACY by Michael Sullivan is the first volume in a fantasy series (technically part of a two-book omnibus but rather than move it with us, I let it go back to the library half done) wherein two rogues (strongly reminiscent of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, though not so much they’re just a knockoff) accept an assignment to steal one lord’s allegedly magic sword before an upcoming duel. It turns out this puts them in the right place to frame for the murder of the local monarch, thereby putting a schemer on the throne to advance a covert conspiracy to restore the region’s ancient empire. Not classic, but solidly entertaining, and the enchanted prison in one chapter is very impressive.
THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Films by Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom turned out to be more useful for my story than I thought: Along with each pop-culture entry (variously including The Green Berets, Coming Home, “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” “We Got To Get Out of This Place,” The Best and the Brightest and The Quiet American) this provides extensive background material on the relevant historical background and the creation process that brought the work about, plus the critical reception. In addition to providing me with more Vietnam information, it’s quite interesting in its own right.
