Customer Reviews

Flash of Green

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a strangely muted, yet exquisitely crafted , story from the creator of the Travis McGee detective novels. Local wheeler-dealers in a West Florida town devise a residential development that involves filling in a beautiful bay, to the dismay of the town's conservationists. Jimmy Wing, newspaperman, professes to help both camps, but is really in it only for the chance the view the "mechanism" of the conflict at close quarters. In the end, everyone emerges a loser; and Wing finds he has won a pyrrhic victory over his detachment from humanity. In this book, MacDonald probably brushes uncomfortably close to his real persona.

This is pre-Travis, early MacDonald. Jimmy Wing, a reporter for a small Florida daily has foreknowledge that beautiful Grassy Bay is about to be dredged by developers into a commercial/housing development. It just needs to be passed by the Board of Commissioners. This battle has been fought two years ago and defeated by the altruistic Save Our Bay organization. But this time, it isn't a wicked outside developers; it is a local consortium, and things look bleak for the S.O.B. contingent.

Jimmy spills the beans to young widow Kat Hubble who is all things demure and honorable. Just exactly why Jimmy does this or why he has a serious case of the lusts for this lady is unclear. Jimmy is sucked into spying for the local power structure headed by delightful old rascal, Elmo Bliss. I was so taken with Elmo; I was almost rooting for him in spite of his very non-correct environmental stance. Elmo was one of the few whose motives were pure; he wanted power and went after it. Maybe he went a mite overboard, but you always knew what he was about. The Save Our Bay people were persecuted, blackmailed and put to rout. Those left standing were sadder and wiser.

The story is a slow starter, and creaks here and there, but MacDonald puts in a lot of work on the characterizations, particularly Jimmy. I saw a few stirrings of a pre-Travis McGee in Jimmy particularly in the latter chapters. Motivation was seriously lacking. Much of the time, the characters were not acting in their own best interests, but we are never satisfactorily told why. MacDonald does shade the opposing groups well; they all have their share of vices as well as some virtues. My biggest problem was I could not work up enough enthusiasm to care very much about the outcome. Grade C.

John D. MacDonald has always had the incredible knack for putting character development before plot. A FLASH OF GREEN is the precursor to the Travis McGee books, but MacDonald's gift for characters was already shining. Newspaperman Jimmy Wing, on the trail of a story which may ruin a small Florida ecosystem for development (what else is new?) decides to stick around for the ride, to see who's doing what. Chief among the perpetrators is Elmo Bliss--what a great name! And what a great character! I had just as much fun watching him than I did the narrator. Strangely, I felt I knew more about what made him tick, as opposed to Jimmy. (Then again Jimmy is terribly stand-offish). As the plot unwound, I felt that the pacing did, too. But what held this together, as I said, is the characters, and that's a big plus in my book!

Florida has always been a sad, sad place for attracting all the wrong type, like a beautiful woman. Can she help it she's beautiful? Why does man enjoy destroying or just lassoing beauty, subduing and eventually making it as dull and ugly as he is? I am not sure but I think this is the message here from MacDonald. He doesn't know why either but he wanted to write about it to get it out of his system.

This story is as current as tonight's news and as depressing. It's heavy handed against all that MacDonald himself finds distasteful, there is never any good in the people he dislikes especially what he views as religion, he never makes any room for those who are not zealots or evil religious nut cases. There are people who believe in God and are as repulsed by that as he is. He never mentions them in any of the books I've read so far. In a way it makes him less credible as Elmo understood, if you are always against something or for something it makes you less believable and less of a thinking man.

I was disappointed that we didn't learn more about what happened to all the characters that he took so looonnng to develop. Did they just go on as before only with less innocence? Did Claire recover? Survive? what about all the others? he could have penned a little about them so we'd know.

It's a worthwhile read. Leaves you a little wondering. It was a definite page turner but the wind up could have been more complete.

John D. MacDonald's longstanding concern for Florida's gulfcoast ecosystem comes through loud and clear in this 1962 novel, even as he recognizes the inevitable environmental havoc being wrought by the relentless onslaught of civilization.
A Flash of Green is a third person narrative featuring a protagonist named Jimmy Wing. Wing, a reporter for the Palm City Record-Journal, decides to insert himself in the midst of an ugly conflict between land developers and environmentalists, all the while leading each to believe he's on their side.
Ethically challenged, morally ambiguous, hot tempered and obsessional, Mr. Wing is an unusual type of protagonist. It could be argued that his many faults make him all the more human and, therefore, more realistic. But I found him off putting to the degree that I did not care one iota what happened to him one way or the other.
Bottom line: A Flash of Green is one of MacDonald's lesser works. The storyline is uncompelling and the main character falls flat. A rare MacDonald misfire.

Arrived in good shape and propmptly. It was a pleasure to retrieve this early novel from one of my favorite writters.