Dispatch No. 4: Always Carry a Spare (Book) --Not a Donald Westake Title

The other day I went to a local park, intent on finding a quiet spot to finish Ron Rash's fantastic new novel, "The Cove." Only thing is, I failed to to bring the book with me.
Fortunately, I always have an extra book or two (or ten) in my car. I recently picked up a couple of paperbacks by Donald Westlake at a second-hand store. The one I selected, "Trust Me on This," proved to be especially pertinent to my new situation. Having recently left a full-time job in journalism, it was interesting to read about a young woman just starting out in the profession.
With Westlake, of course, there are numerous twists and turns and insights. A peerless storyteller, Westlake, who died in 2008, always found a way to make the mundane and the obvious worthy of another look. "Trust Me on This," published in 1988, is about the inner workings of a tabloid newspaper. What's immediately striking is the novel's setting. It's easy to forget that 1988 was part of the Dark Ages before cell phones and the Internet. The reporters in the book use typewriters. The young reporter rents a Chevette!
That might sound dated, but Westlake's story is timeless. Here's a brief passage that illustrates his knack for the hidden detail:

"Phyllis' apartment was in a tall white box standing on end right at the water's edge. Out the broad windows of her seventh-floor living room, the Atlantic Ocean rolled and ran, grayish blue with foamy highlights in white. Her forehead against the cool glass -- the apartment was sternly air conditioned -- Sara looked down at the beach, now in the building's shadow. "That's ours?" she asked.
"It's all ours," Phyllis told her. "The whole world is ours. Everything you can see is ours. Isn't it fabulous?"
It was. The name of the building, one of an apparently endless row of apartment buildings and condos along the oceanfront, was the Sybarite, displaying a cultural striving combined with a historical shakiness not infrequent among the namers of names along the Florida coasts.

Here's a link to a story I wrote in 2009 about Westlake's last brilliant novel, "Get Real." I managed to solicit tributes from many of the writers who followed in his wake. As I recall, it was one of the easiest articles I ever wrote. Just the mention of Westlake's name brought out a galaxy of notable writers wanting to pay tribute.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/music/s_632939.html

More on "The Cove" tomorrow.

Dispatch 3: No Pulitzer for Fiction

For the first time since 1977, there's no Pulitzer Prize awarded for fiction. I have mixed emotions about this. There were a lot of very good novels published last year, obviously. But I sort of like the idea that, if no single book that stands out per the Pulitzer board, there's no award. How many years do we come away from the Grammy or Academy Awards and think, what the hell just happened?
I interviewed one of the finalists, Karen Russell, early in 2011 when I was working at the Tribune-Review. I would have been ecstatic if she won for "Swamplandia!" an entertaining and magical book about a family that wrestles alligators in Florida. I
Here's a link to my interview with Russell: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/books/s_720125.html

Dispatch 2: The Name Game

Trying to decide what to read next, I came across two books with the same title, "Wish You Were Here." Neither is a Pink Floyd biography.
The more promising novel is by Graham Swift, the noted British writer who won the Man Booker Prize in 1996 for "Last Orders." It's set in 2006 on the Isle of Wight and is described as a "moving novel set ... against the background of a global `war on terror' and about things that touch our human core." Knopf is the publisher.
The other "Wish You Were Here" is by Beth K. Vogt, who is also the author of "Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood After 35." Published by Simon & Schuster, the book description reads "Allison Denman is supposed to get married in five days, but everything is all wrong." Isn't it always so?
I've not read either book -- I'm more likely to open Swift's novel -- so I don't know if there are any Pink Floyd references. I just can't fathom why anyone would choose a title that's the same as one of the most popular records in rock and roll history.
Maybe the titles fit the stories. Perhaps there's an element of stealth marketing. They both might be fantastic books.
I just think I'd prefer a title that stands on its own.
The book I did start: "The Cove" by Ron Rash. I'm only 20 pages in, but it's riveting.

Dispatch 1: A new start

Hello
Today is the first day of my new career. After 19 years of journalism, I'm starting a new adventure with some brilliant people. More about that at some other time.
This blog will be all about books, of all sorts and kinds, I hope. For the last 15 years I covered books for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Politics aside, it was a great gig. I got to talk to (and sometimes meet) some of the best writers on the planet. The list ranges from Pulitzer Prize winners David McCullough, and Michael Chabon to some of the best writers from my hometown:  Jane Bernstein, Lynn Emanuel, Jim Daniels, Kathleen George, Hilary Masters, Jane McCafferty and Chuck Kinder, who is connected to almost literati in town, and the rest of the world. I'm  proud to call Chuck a friend. He's one of the  kindest and most honorable people I know. Chuck also throws the best parties. If you're invited, drop any plans you have and make sure you get to his "compound" in Squirrel Hill.
But I digress ...
For the last 14 years I wrote profiles for the Trib. I was fortunate to interview Richard Ford, Jane Smiley, P. D. James, Jennifer Egan, Laura Lippman, Neal Stephenson, Joe Wambaugh, Michael Connnelly, Dennis Lehane, Lisa Scottoline, Alafair Burke, Kazuo Ishiguro, Francine Prose and many others.
I'm going to continue that here, I hope, in a few weeks.
For now, I'm just going to blog about what I'm reading and what's caught my eye. I'm almost done with "The Gentlemen's Hour" by Don Winslow. Winslow -- who wrote the seminal novel about the drug wars, "The Power of the Dog" -- is a fantastic writer who never, ever disappoints. Winslow again features the cast from"The Dawn Patrol,"  a group of middle-aged surfers from San Diego. They book are arguably mysteries, but I read them as meditative books about life via the prism of surfing. Highly recommended.
Not sure whats next on my docket. Stay tuned.