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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, November 16, 2008
This review is from: Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women (Paperback)
The first tale, Stella: Red Clay, is perhaps the best in the book, following the decades-long obsession of a boy and his father, Buddy and Clayton Hayes, with a B film starlet, Stella Dora Doyle, who marries well and then murders her husband, only to get off because of some legal maneuvering. Years later, after the father, who was a high school classmate of the starlet, dies, the son meets up with the actress- Stella- and discovers the truth behind the murder. It is a well-structured tale, and uses the soap opera machinations inherent in its telling to great effect. Also, the fades in and out to different time periods works well. It won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1997, from the Mystery Writers Of America, and appears in Best Mystery Stories Of The Century.
Marie: Blue Cadillac, originally published in Playboy, does not work nearly so well, as it follows Marie, its blond titular character, and her obsession with Elvis Presley play out as she seduces swindles a gullible would-be suitor: Braxton Cox, who is heading home to Memphis in his Mustang for Thanksgiving. Precious: Winners And Losers follows a divorcee who is troubled over his ex-wife's pending remarriage. Charmain: White Trash Noir is another murder tale that starts off in media res, but is not as good as the first one. It follows a woman who offs her college basketball star husband, and gets sentenced to some time, even though the shooting was really an accident. While the character study of Charmain is strong, the rest of the tale is rather sparsely detailed, and not particularly interesting, as well as too long. Malone does a good job rendering the lead's character and lack of self-esteem. The realistic question of whether Charmain will air her marriage's dirty laundry to save herself from a conviction is what gives the tale a nice tension that lesser tales lack.
Lucy: Maniac Loose follows the lead character after she confronts her dead husband's lover, and attempting to psychically screw her. The lover ends up dying, and Lucy strolls naked through town. Do not be thrown by this description- it's a very good tale. The ending, where Lucy is on trial the same day as a man who shot his wife, who is the maniac of the title, is quite strong:
Testifying over his lawyer's protest that he'd tried to kill his wife and her lover but had `just messed it up', the maniac pleaded guilty. So did Lucy. She admitted she was creating as much of a public disturbance as she could. But unlike the maniac's, her sentence was suspended, and afterwards the whole charge was erased from the record....A few months later, Lucy went to visit the maniac at the state penitentiary. She brought him a huge box of presents from the going-out-of-business sale at The Fun House. They talked for a while, but conversation wasn't easy, despite the fact that Lucy not only felt they had a great deal in common, but that she could have taught him a lot about getting away with murder.
Flonnie: The Rise Of The South And Flonnie Rogers details the life of a bitchy old black woman that might be best described as Miss Jane Pittman with a `tude. It is slight, with some humor, but fairly forgettable. Patty: Love And Other Crimes, at forty-eight pages, is far too long, and another murder tale that is a shadow of the first two. A good five pages is wasted on describing the titular character's past husbands, very little of which is relevant to the tale. Meredith: Fast Love is a simple little romance, as a bumpkin falls for the first woman jogger he has ever seen. It won an O. Henry Award. Angie: The Power is a solid story following a small town clique's obsession with pro baseball and murder theories regarding Marilyn Monroe. Mona: Miss Mona's Bank describes an old woman's talking two bank robbers out of their crime. Betty: A Deer On The Lawn is a rather soulless tale of a woman who gets her wish in getting out of her loveless marriage when her husband dies. Mattie: An Invitation To The Ball is another overly long tale of murder- probably the least affecting tale in the book.
Overall, the book is a sturdy collection, although not particularly quotable. It is not a poetic prose, and not likely to cling to someone's bosom the way many other writers' words do. In a sense, Malone's prose, if a car, is a serviceable beater- not particularly memorable, nor pleasing to look at, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do more often than not, and that is entertain. Does it enlighten? No, no more than most soap operas do. But, there is something refreshing in the best of his unpretentious tales. Perhaps it is called enjoyment?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Word Wizard at Work, February 28, 2003
This review is from: Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women (Paperback)
The Italians have a word for it: "sprezzatura," meaning "the art of effortless mastery." Michael Malone, North Carolina's twenty-first century Prospero has exactly this kind of prestidigitator's touch with the short story form. His collection entitled: "Red Clay, Blue Cadillac" has a natural flow which makes reading it pleasurably easy. Proof of his legerdemain? Presto! Two of these stories garnered national prizes: "Stella, Red Clay" won the Edgar Allen Poe award and "Meredith: Fast Love" the O.Henry laurel. A notoriously difficult literary form, the short story usually entails a five point structure: 1. situation 2. generating circumstances 3. rising action 4. climax and 5. denouement. Such literary strictures apparently pose no hardship for Malone who, while maintaining his necromancer's panache with narrative, never loses his inventive prowess. His humor and command of southern speak shine. Here, the novelist presents the reader with a dozen distillate vignettes, every conception dazzlingly real. Each story bears a woman's name and there are as many types as stories: the omnipotent femme fatale, the psychologically abused wife, the easy sexpot, a feisty and unsinkable old African-American... to name only a quarter ot the total. Malone doesn't limit his magician's sleight of hand to the distaff side either; there are fascinating guys too: a good ole boy hunter type personifying bumpkinhood, a clueless, abusive husband, a slick upper class lawyer, and a harried sports manager. These lists omit many memorable minor characters. I was delighted when Malone's sleuthing duo, police chief Cuddy Mangum and chief detective Justin Savile whom we know from "Time's Witness" and "Civil Seasons" showed up in the seventh story: "Patty: Love and Other Crimes." A Cahner's Business Information, Inc. critic called this story, "pedestrian." I found it anything but. "Patty" fits the classic pattern snugly; plus it has an ingenious plot, insight into the human psyche, really funny dialogue, and enough twists and surprises to keep the reader happily engaged. Loving Savile, as I do, I was disappointed that Cuddy has more hilarious conversations with "Bubba Percy, the star (in his opinion) reporter for the Hillston Star," than he does with his chief detective. I always envy those who have yet to succumb to the enchantment of a Malone book for the first time. My initial reading brought Robert Louis Stevenson's appreciative lines to mind: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be happy as kings." Malone's version of the new south is on target and fits this quotation. I'll betcha it'll prove even more rewarding the second time around. Postscript: When reading a work so full and varied, surely, one must wonder about the inscrutable interior stratagems involved in the creative process. In the fourth story "Charmain: White Trash Noir" there are four words which may hold subtle clues to the internal windmills turning inside the learned, labyrinthine mind of Michael Malone. Tenuous intimations to be sure, but ones too plain to be coincidence. Charmain's patrician young lawyer's name is Tilden Snow and his ancestral home is called "Heaven's Hill." These phrases may jangle, even fibrillate your mindsprings if you have read "The Last Noel," Malone's novel which begins as a rare southern snow is falling. It's memorable heroine's name is Noelle Katherine Tilden and her old southern mansion is known as Heaven's Hill. Mysterioso!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Okay for short stories, April 15, 2003
This review is from: Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women (Paperback)
Mr. Malone, I wish you would stick with Cuddy and Justin as they are your finest, in my opinion. The very best story here is Maddie and I wish you had developed her into a full length book. That story was greeeeat. A good mystery, good historical stuff and a good twist in the end although I think I saw it coming. I cannot get enough of Cuddy and Justin so please carry them on into the future. Please????
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