The Good Old Stuff [Mass Market Paperback]

John D. MacDonald (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (April 12, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449129527
• ISBN-13: 978-0449129524
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,374,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEFORE TRAVIS MCGEE & COLORIZED TITLES, THERE WAS PULP FICTION., February 2, 2006

By 

RBSProds "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Good Old Stuff (Mass Market Paperback)

Five Stars!! John D. MacDonald could have gone in several directions in life (Wharton School of Finance and Harvard MBA graduate) and in literature ("Ballroom of the Skies" was great SciFi). But he followed up on this mystery direction, writing many "noir"-ish stories that became pulp fiction (Dime Detective magazine, Night Watch magazine, Detective Tales..) to hone his already considerable skills as shown in this 1985 paperbook. These 13 murder/mystery stories are excellent and not dated very much. And they are riveting because we can see elements of Travis McGee all over the place. Not a one refers to any colors in it's title, but the titles are grand: "Death Writes The Answer", "Breathe No More", "From Some Hidden Grave". But not as grand as the original titles "The Lady is a Corpse" and "This One Will Kill You". Noir all the way. But JDM acknowledges that he got a break that his pulp fiction brethren didn't get. Thank Goodness!!

My personal copy of this paperback is dog-eared to the extent that no dog would chew on it, but it's readable with a good spine. And I keep it around like a fine old wine, reading and re-reading a few stories at a time over long periods and putting it back on the shelf for another time, usually following a great, brisk Travis McGee novel. My favorite, "Murder in Mind", with not one but two McGee prototypes in the same story. I love this stuff and that's why I bought it and keep it. Five Big "Tarantino" Stars for the JDM version of Pulp Fiction!

(Note: there is another anthology called "More Good Old Stuff". Also there are over 20 Travis McGee novels with colorized titles like my favorite title, "The Dreadful Lemon Sky," and some really nifty ladies conjured up by JDM, but they really need to bring back the unusual pre-McGee novel "On The Run" with some truly memorable characters and situations.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All the stories have been altered., May 12, 2011

By 

Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Good Old Stuff (Mass Market Paperback)

Before John D. MacDonald achieved great commercial success and critical acclaim as the author of hardcover novels, he was best known for writing paperback originals. And before that, he made his living writing short stories for various pulp magazines. The Good Old Stuff, published in 1982, contains 13 such stories culled from various detective and mystery magazines. These stories were all originally published between 1947 and 1952.
The quality of the stories ranges from moderately entertaining to completely inane. Readers familiar with MacDonald's work will realize that even back then he was a much better writer than these 13 stories would indicate. Clearly, he was purposely writing beneath his skill level in order to meet the expectations of the magazine editors.
In the author's forward, MacDonald makes it clear that he decided to alter these stories in order to make them more accessible to readers in 1982. All 13 stories have been revised and many of them have been "updated". So, you will find yourself reading a story that has an unmistakable 1940s sensibility about it when, suddenly, you will be confronted with talk of such latter day subject matter as transistor radios, Amtrak, The War in Vietnam, The Johnny Carson Show, etc. I found this timeframe hybridization to be both disquieting and distracting.
As I see it, the only reason for reading this book would be to sample what MacDonald wrote in the early days before he became famous. But since every story has been revised, that's not what the reader gets.
Not recommended.