recommended reading: the long legged fly by james sallis

so. my idea of math: love of books + boring everyday existence + voracious search for new favorite books + blog = the occasional book review.

i recently stumbled across a detective noir (in more ways than one) series that begins with the long legged fly. in addition to featuring as it's main character black private investigator lew griffin, the book provides the reader with a perfectly nuanced and accurate snapshot of life in new orleans, at various points in the character's and the city's history.

the book begins in 1960 with a murder scene. lew is the murderer. he is a vigilante who kills the white men who rape and murder little black girls and boys. this scene, as with all the others in the book, is written so simply and sparsely that not one word is superfluous or unnecessary. each word of dialogue, each description of body positioning or physical surrounding is tight, yet incredibly apt at producing a reaction in the reader.

we follow lew, who we know early on is a dangerous man with a sense of justice, as he struggles to make ends meet as a PI in 1964. we see his shattered family -- wife and son no longer with him, he has a relationship with a hooker named laverne. we see that he likes to drink. we see how he is sought out by people who need to find people, and we see him find a prominent woman who is broken by the pressure of her life as a civil rights activist. in 1970 where the book continues, lew has built his business up and doesn't have to struggle to eat anymore. he still sees laverne. he is older, more mature, less likely to commit violence. he observes more and acts less. a black christian family seeks his help finding their daughter, and he does -- right before she dies of a drug overdose inflicted by her white, older lover. jump to 1984. lew has gotten back with his wife and they have divorced again. he has suffered an extreme psychotic break caused by alcoholism. he awakens in a hospital, and is released into a halfway house. he starts a relationship, a real one. he makes a friend in the halfway house, and the friend asks him to find his sister. he does. he saves her from what would have probably been a very bad fate. his lover leaves, unable to handle the violence and racism that plague the city. 1990. lew has become a writer, almost by accident. he writes from his own experience as a PI. one day his ex wife calls. she has not heard from their son, who teaches english at columbia in new york. he knows, as the book comes to an end, that he will not find his son, that he is gone.

you may be crying out "ack! you bitch! you have so many spoilers in this post that it stinks worse than two week old household garbage on a hot day." not so, gentle reader. for the magic of sallis' writing is that the plot seems to be only a vehicle for telling the parallel stories of lew griffin and new orleans, and how they evolve (or devolve) together. he captures with his laconic prose and dialogue the flavor of new orleans, the fact of blackness, the metamorphoses of personal growth and personal degeneration. he understands that history, personal or social, does not move in one progressive direction; lew and new orleans gain and they lose and they make circular progress, if any. sallins creates a character that is both archetypical and anti-archetypical; just when you think you know lew, he changes.

how much do i recommend this book? i have already ordered every other book in the series from the library. if you like detective stories that run to the more sophisticated side (no jonathan kellerman or tami hoag readers, please -- they aren't even in this guy's stratosphere) this book is for you.

favorite quote from the book: "either it's only in the relationships we manage that we live at all, or we must think that in order to manage them in the first place. we go on trying not just to survive, but to find reasons, such as love, that allow us to betray ourslves into choosing survival."