There are certain books that bide their time, like plants, waiting decades to flower. The cause of that flowering is not hard to find. A hot wind was breathing in at the bedroom window. Further down the page, a few hours later, we get a wider prospect:. It was a bright September morning. The edges of the sky had a yellowish tinge like cheap paper darkening in the sunlight.
There was no wind at all now, but I could smell the inland desert and feel its heat. Discover notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Something, we realize, is ready to catch fire. Eleven of them are available in a three-volume boxed set, hefty and handsome, from the Library of America.
Here he is, staring into a mirror to check for damage:. It was wonderful how much a pair of eyes could see without being changed by what they saw.
The human animal was almost too adaptable for its own good. What matters most about Archer, as with any cat, is not who he is but where he prowls. His basic beat is Southern California.
In , when the novel was adapted into a movie starring Paul Newman , the action was redirected to Louisiana, and the result fell predictably flat. It was like sending Madame Bovary to Marseille. Now and then, Archer heads farther afield. Chandler haunts you and makes you laugh; Macdonald keeps you posted, although his Californian evocations are not without a quick lyrical toughness of their own. The Los Angeles wildfires that started on January 7th of this year were remarkable for a number of reasons.
