WILL UNWOUND #208: “Will’s Mystery Project: ‘The Ivory Grin’ by Ross Macdonald
August 21, 2010I picked up The Ivory Grin with great expectations. The cover of the worn paperback that I bought at a used book sale declared that the author, Ross McDonald, was the true heir to Raymond Chandler, and that his detective, Lew Archer, was the bastard son of the great Philip Marlowe.
Why do publishers do this? Do they really think they are doing their authors a big favor? One of the things that I respect most about J. D. Salinger is that after he reached a level of fame as an author and was in a position to dictate his contractual relationship with his publisher, he specified that his hardback book jackets and paperback book covers were to contain nothing more than the title of the book and its author’s name. Next time you go to the bookstore check out the Salinger section and you will see that even now after his death his book covers are the most boring in the store.
In that sense boring is good. Salinger had the right idea. He wanted the reader to judge him by the words he wrote and not by some publisher’s inane and inaccurate blurb or some fragment of an enthusiastic book review (riveting!) Let the book speak for itself. Don’t try to influence the reader before he has a chance to even read word one. All hail boring book covers. Academic libraries have the right idea to strip off the dust jacket and deposit it in the recycle bin.
Boring is bad, however, when the book itself is boring. I have struggled with all of my linguistic limitations to come up with a wittier, more nuanced word than boring to describe Ross McDonald’s mystery The Ivory Grin. Let’s see…in addition to being boring the book is also depressing. What else? What happens when you mix boring and depressing together? What do you get? Drab.
That’s the perfect word for this book. It is drab. It mostly takes place in a down on its luck, rundown little town. It is peopled with down on their luck, rundown petty little people who manifest the wide diversity of humanity’s least admirable traits: greed, jealousy, pride, vindictiveness, ruthlessness, dishonesty, and selfishness. In the hands of a gifted author this type of setting and these types of characters can come alive and capture our imagination. Why are these petty little people so awful? Were they cursed from birth or did this evil little town doom them to living the life of the damned? We really want to know because it tells us something about the nature of the universe.
In the hands of Ross McDonald, however, we don’t really care about the dirty little town and the colorless little characters who keep getting murdered in it. Ah, but you might think that Philip Marlowe’s “bastard son,” Lew Archer, is there to redeem this evil little world. Archer, it turns out, may have a more finely calibrated moral compass than the other characters in this drab little book, but he’s even drabber than the drab.
Philip Marlowe’s bastard son my foot! Archer is so colorless as to seem more like a disembodied voice than a flesh and blood detective. Marlowe was a lusty, drunken wayfarer trying desperately to find the meaning of ….all this.
Archer is a mere skeleton of a man, which I suppose accounts for the title: The Ivory Grin.
I give The Ivory Grin one star (out of five).
Will, I can’t remember if you have an order for reading the books on your list…if not, give yourself a reprieve from the drab and banal and read Louise Penny, but do start with the first in the series, “Still Life.” “The Brutal Telling” on your list has to many roots to the previous four books to make sense if you haven’t read the others. And I just read the lastest installment in the series, “Bury the Dead,” is due out September 28.
Elizabeth, I’m already on to Evanovich. Sorry.
Dang, Will, your reviews are to die for!
Jeanne, is that a compliment and/or a pun???
It’s on the “do not read” list now, Will. Your reviews are terrifically entertaining. Thanks so much.
I am reading a mystery series that, while not great, is certainly entertaining. If you have an interest in World War II, James R. Benn’s Billy Boyle mysteries are a good way to while away some free time.
Ellen, thanks for the compliment and the tip! Makes writing these reviews worth it, plus it is fun!
Wow! A book to avoid at all cost, unless one wants a rationale for suicide or something! I agree with Ellen. I love reading your reviews. I love how you let your opinion out in the open. There is no doubt where you stand when you do a review!
Publishers can’t seem to resist the comparisons. The number of really awful fantasies that have been declared another Harry Potter in the YA field is mounting higher and higher. Rarely are they any good. That comparison is a desperate way of trying to get their money back on a title!
Joan, that is exactly what I’m talking about. Publishers loose credibility that way. One more great reason to have Booklist around to keep things real.
As another library soul who isn’t really into mysteries all I can say is that I admire you for your mystery project and encourage you to keep reading even through the duds as simply by doing so you will no doubt become an even more well rounded reader (and will certainly be able to tell anyone who asks which mysteries to stay away from!)
And I’ll reiterate here that I do admire your perseverance in reading all those books – I love books and I love to read but if a book doesn’t capture my interest in the first few pages to the end of chapter 1 or so – I don’t as a general rule finish reading that book.
Linda Reimer…I’m stubborn that way. I guess I was named “Will” for a reason.
Do yourself a favor Will, pick up P.D. James or Tey next – or Connie Willis if you you want a smidgen of SF with it – or Jasper Fforde if you need something a little witty after your trip to drab town. Writers who try for the classic noir genre of crime fiction can be awful when they fail.
Met…believe it or not I’m already into an Evanovich mystery. Ha! But I will read your recommendations soon.
Don’t forget Nancy Pearl’s rule of 50. If you are under 50, try 50 pages of a book, if it doesn’t grab you quit. If you are over 50, subtract your age from 100 and use that as your number of pages to try as life is getting too short to waste time on not so great books.
Enforce the rule and move on to something better!
I’m stubborn. When I start something I always finish it.
I used to do the same – always finished every book I started. A few years ago it dawned on me that reading on my own is called “pleasure reading”, so now if it isn’t providing pleasure I don’t finish it.
Imh…I take pleasure in being stubborn.
Some of the Lew Archers aren’t so bad. I remember liking THE WYCHERLY WOMAN fairly well. Right now I’m deep in an Elizabeth George, a writer I have mixed emotions about sometimes.
Beth…thanks for the positive comment about Lew Archer. Unfortunately, we’ve parted company for good. Good luck with the George novel.
I haven’t read much of MacDonald’s but did enjoy his short stories in the collections: Good Old Stuff and More Good Old Stuff. I don’t think Lew Archer was in them, maybe that’s what saved them!
Alice…yes, I have heard that Macdonald was a master of the short story.
My first thought is that you need to cleanse your mental palate–and I would suggest any Tony Hillerman. Spare, beautiful, Colorado Plateu scenery and rich culture. and tow very interesting police officers.
Having said that, I make it a rule to never read a book that I can buy at Walgreens.
LS…sounds perfect. Unfortunately I’m ankle deep in an Evanovich mystery, if you can call it that.
Your choice of adjective was certainly telling. Marlowe was “gritty” and I would argue that the color MacDonald series is also gritty.
FD…good point. There’s a subtle difference between gritty and drab though.
And I certainly hope you’re enjoying Stephanie Plum as much as I have. I don’t really think of Evanovich’s books as mysteries – more as slapstick comedy, filled with Dickensian characters. But this will certainly be a change from drab!