Gamers
Ellen Raskin was a prolific illustrator. She did the dust-jackets for more than one thousand books. She also did more than 20 picture books for kids under her own name, and wrote four novels. Her most famous, The Westing Game, recently came my way. It won the Newberry Award in 1979. It’s a mystery propelled by an eccentric industrialist game-lover. In his will he promises his vast fortune to whomever of his heirs solves a mystery he devises. There are at least 14 players. My favorite is a precocious 13-year-old who kicks the shin of anyone who wrongs her. It’s a fun although not easy read. The point of view often leaps from one character to another. The prose and dialogue are only okay. The game’s the thing. Was I disappointed by the resolution? No, nor was I surprised, but no one should be dissuaded by the lukewarm opinion of someone who is not a big fan of mysteries. This is a beloved story that has so far stood the test of time. Four decades after its publication, it is still selling well, currently ranked 1527th at Amazon, where there are more than 14 million books listed. To give another bit of perspective to that, none of my twelve books is ranked better than two millionth at present. 1995 users have rated The Westing Game, forging to a consensus of 4.5 on a scale of five. I’ll go with 2.5. I’ll pass on the film version, titled Get a Clue! (1997), which critics blasted. Tragically, Raskin passed away of connective-tissue disease in 1984 at only 56. (Facts also from Wiki)
Israel and Sudan have signed a treaty. I have no idea if any of the recent Middle East pacts will hold, but imagine if a Democrat had inspired them.
Sean Hannity just had two of his pollsters on his radio show. Although they see the race as close, they are optimistic. I’ve been fighting to keep my hopes in check, leery of them coming crashing down on Election Day. I just don’t see how Trump can defeat the influence of the mainstream media, academia, social media, the cultural elite and mail-in voting. On the latter, here’s a snippet from foxnews.com about Arizona that shows the difficulty the President faces: “In a 12-day span, almost 281,000 Democrats turned in ballots compared to 218,000 Republicans.”
No sprinkles for the first time since Monday. My thanks to the young man who bought Dostoevsky’s The Possessed and Orwell’s 1984, and to the woman who selected Known to Evil by Walter Mosley, Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State by Sebastian Matthews and Four Sisters, All Queens by Sherry Jones; and to the folks who combined to buy six books in Russian; and to the gentleman who did a three for eight swap of said; and to the one I hadn’t seen since pre-pandemic, who donated a paperback in that language; and to Mike, who delivered four books on his passion — playing the horses.
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