John D. MacDonald & Travis McGee

I'm having some trouble with John D. MacDonald, and it's likely to go unresolved. He was a prolific writer (The Executioners for example, basis for two Cape Fear movies), known mainly to me as the creator of the Travis McGee series.

Besides seeing his books (less frequently, it seems) on the shelves of used bookstores I scrounge through, I also am aware of him due to modern mystery/thriller writers. They're all there, whether it's Lee Child in an interview, or Carl Hiaasen writing an introduction to re-released editions, many current writers throw themselves at the MacDonald altar.

And this raises the apposite question: why haven't I read any of his stuff? Well, now I have (two four, in quick succession). I put aside moderns writers, and plunged into the Travis McGee series, reading the first four of twenty-one installments, The Deep Blue Good-By, Nightmare in Pink, A Purple Place for Dying, and The Quick Red Fox, all from the early '60s.

It's more than action, or characterization, it's the way he brings it to you in a roundabout way. I had to re-read a section because I wasn't sure if Trav and one of his lady friends had rolled around together. Instead of having McGee brood, MacDonald has him stir awake in bed and think "all the little gods of irony must whoop and weep and roll on the floors of Olympus when they tune in on the night thoughts of a truly fatuous male." Or as McGee flies cross-country: "A stewardess took a special and personal interest in me. She was a little bigger than they usually are, and a little older than the norm. She was styled for abundant lactation, and her uniform blouse was not."

The irreconcilable trouble I have with John D. MacDonald is that he's no longer alive, and dead people rarely write. At least I have nineteen seventeen more McGee books to go. Vaya con dios, Juan. Thanks for all of your good work.