Tsundoku is a Japanese word for acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up without reading them. Welcome to my (second) weekly pile recap blog.

Stick Around To The Conclusion To See My Raw, Unadulterated Piles

Books/Audiobooks

A Philip Marlowe mystery, some strange horror, and a work of Marxism.

The Second Murderer
By Denise Mina
2023, Mulholland Books

Raymond Chandler’s been dead for 69 years, and The Second Murderer is the sixth “authorized” Marlowe novel. Chandler wrote seven. How does Denise Mina’s new rendition stack up?

I liked The Second Murderer! A twisty story told by a voice-y Marlowe in a steamy, political 1940s LA. Mina does a fantastic imitation of the Marlowe voice. Her Phil’s still dry, quippy, mean, honest, and fiercely loyal to unspoken ideals.

Marlowe is summoned to a mansion on Santa Monica Boulevard by a rich, wealthy oil-drilling family. They want him to find their missing daughter and offer good money plus expenses. Marlowe’s too smart. He sees their motive. They want to hire a two-bit, one-man private eye outfit because they don’t want to find the girl. They think he’s a bum. That’s the perfect motivation for Marlowe to prove them wrong!

That is, until a familiar fling from Farewell, My Lovely, gets in Marlowe’s way. It’s more fun if I don’t tell you who it is. She started her private eye firm with Daddy’s police contacts in Bay City, and the rich jerks hired her, too. Marlowe and her compete to find the girl and also maybe fall in love? She was my favorite part of the book, and if there’s a sequel, I hope she returns. Marlowe also visits some LA neighborhoods he never frequented much, Skid Row, South Central, and a little lesbian bar Raymond Chandler would have never known existed.

It’s interesting to see how Marlowe adapts over time. This book seems written with women readers in mind, with a romance subplot, a majority of women cast, and historical discussions of lesbianism. Marlowe’s stories were initially published in men’s fiction magazines (Black Mask). It’s impressive how the character’s voice is so enduring it can appeal across time and audiences.

Mina’s interpretation also makes much more sense than Chandler’s original novels. Chandler would combine three stories into one book, so they don’t really make sense. The twist in The Lady in the Lake is so silly you’d think it was a joke. The best one, A Long Goodbye, was not a story-combination novel; it has a “literary” plot (i.e., no plot). It’s mostly drunk people talking. It’s fantastic, one of my favorite novels of the 20th century.

In his letters, Chandler said he obsessed over the Marlowe voice and character, not the plot. He was exactly right to do that. That’s why people are still reading and writing Marlowe almost a century after publication (well, 75 years). If you like Marlowe or mysteries, check out Denise Mina’s The Second Murderer.

Negative Space
By B.R. Yeager
2020, Apocalypse Party

I find B.R. Yeager’s writing intoxicating, like a weird new drug your friend told you about that you can weirdly buy at the gas station, even though this drug is hardcore and messes you up. Reading him feels like being possessed by a language ghost. His two novels get at the strange suburban feeling of liminal loneliness, and the less you know, the better, but I have a longer piece about both that I’ll post this week.

Marx’s Literary Style
by Ludovico Silva
2023, Verso

I loved this 1973 essay about Marx by Venezuelan poet Ludovico Silva. His close reading of Marx brings the 150-year-old books to life. Silva suggests we consider the way Marx wrote, not just the topics and ideas he wrote about. If you are a Marx reader, this is a must-read, and I give it my most dialectical recommendation.

Conclusion: Raw, Unadulterated Piles

This is a blog about piles. But where are the piles?

Where are the piles? I Haven’t Seen Any Piles.

OK, let me show you some piles.

The books on the left are the ones I’m writing about for Medium.com. The pile on the right is for a fiction project about boxing, all to be read.

And yet, there are more piles no one can see. Digital piles of audiobooks on Libby and Hoopla, NetGalley ebooks, posts, and internet articles: a beautiful, mountainous pile of the mind. I’ll keep thinking about piles, but I want to see your piles in the meantime!

Thanks for reading! Follow for more writing about books.

Do You Keep Your Books In Specific Piles? Show Me The Piles! I Want To See Your Piles!

NickyAdmin: This is the second reading piles newsletter from Medium, 10/08/2023