Kookie & Patricia
RIP actor Edd Byrnes, 87, who endeared himself to baby boomers as the hipster Kookie in 163 episodes of 77 Sunset Strip. At one point he was receiving 15,000 letters a week from fans. He and Connie Stevens cut a record, Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb, that reached the top five. Unfortunately, he lost out on roles because that image was strong. Still, IMDb lists 85 titles under his name, including a role in Grease (1978), which endeared him to another generation. In 1982 he became clean and sober. Here’s a neat bit of trivia from his profile: “Was a taxi driver in the late 1940s and was fired for doing push-ups during his break.” Well done, sir. Thank you.
Born in 1921, Patricia Highsmith’s literary career spanned more than 50 years. She had 22 novels published, most of them in the crime genre. She also was a prolific short story writer. Until recently I was familiar with her only through film adaptations of her work. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was immediately recognized by Alfred Hitchcock, who brought it to the screen in 1951, about a year after the book hit stores. It remains a TV staple. The Talented Mr. Ripley, one of my favorites, was released in 1999. Both those novels have also been adapted under different titles. While waiting for proof copies of my latest novel to arrive, I read a short story collection of Highsmith’s, the ironically titled Nothing That Meets the Eye, released posthumously in 2002. Many of the pieces had never been published. The copy sat for months in a box at the floating book shop. I don’t think anyone ever took a look at it. It’s been said her work is more appreciated in Europe, where she lived most of her life. It will be back on display soon, and I will recommend it highly to anyone looking for serious fiction. To my surprise, most of the stories are slices of life, which I appreciate much more than any other type. While reading the first few pieces, I kept waiting for a crime to occur, but none did. All but the title story have psychological depth. The absence of it in that case manifests, I believe, those occurrences in life that defy explanation. I particularly enjoyed A Bird in Hand, which is about a man’s love of parakeets, Two Disagreeable Pigeons, told from the point of view of the birds, and Man’s Best Friend, about a man and his dog. This is fairly remarkable, as I’ve always been rather indifferent about animals — that’s how good the storytelling is. Many of the tales are set in Manhattan, where Highsmith worked for a while. The use of language is a bit odd at times, which probably reflects the period during which the stories were written rather than any flaws. There is plenty of variety, although the theme of failure is prevalent throughout, especially in Born Failure. Highsmith is a writer whose stature may grow in time. She was honored with several awards. She passed away at 74 in 1995. I was fortunate to have come into a copy of the collection. 21 users at Amazon have rated it, forging to a consensus of 4.2 on a scale of five. Here’s the author:
Headline at nypost.com sure to give environmental paranoiacs agita: “Glacier National Park removes signs predicting glaciers will be gone by 2020.”
A joker hacked into the Kentucky highway system and typed in this message to drivers:
For the first time in a week I was back at my regular book nook. Business didn’t improve much, but it was nice to be greeted by the many who wished me well. My thanks to the ladies who combined to buy four books in Russian between them, and to local porter Robert, who donated a batch of books from someone who may have been studying screenwriting.
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