Great escapism

The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
That was fun. Spenser is a major wise cracker. This was Parker's first Spenser book and it was a lot closer to Humphrey Bogart in a Raymond Chandler novel than the Robert Urich TV series. I missed Hawk and Susan, but all the humor, action, and suspense were all there. As was the Boston/Cambridge area- makes me want to visit to see everywhere it took place. An added plus, was what a great job Parker did of making the times come alive. It really felt like 1973. That reminded me of the short-lived ABC show "Life on Mars" with Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel a year or two ago. It's a shame Parker recently passed away, good thing he wrote more than 30 Spenser books. This is the first one in the series, and only the second I've read and I am hooked!

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Vikto Frankl says that Murder Mysteries are like drugs. The puzzle of solving the mystery and the action and violence are like getting intoxicated, to escape our mundane, meaningless lives. He says that all the murders, whether intragal to the plot or collateral are a form of narcotization, numbing us against the reality of our own mortality. I say, right on!!!

Isn't it better to read a novel or watch a TV show than to get drunk and smoke pot? Lemme read a J.A Jance, James Patterson, or Robert B. Parker or watch NCIA, Bones, or Criminal Minds and I won't need any other opiate.

Of course, Orwell predicted this kind of thing in his novel, 1984. I hope I'm not just another "prole." Whatever, back to that Spenser novel and the Law and Order marathon. (see, I can't be too anesthetized, I can still multi-task)

Truthfully, what if reading were as cool and as inciting as drinking or using drugs? Lives would be saved, families kept together, fewer drop outs. fewer jobs lost, fewer crimes committed. Woudln't it be great if the only violence was in fiction?