Ross Macdonald
On this day in 1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler was fifty-one, an ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age of forty-five, after being fired for alcohol-inspired absenteeism.
Read the story in Today In Literature
Hmm, been a while since I read Chandler. Or Ross Macdonald, my favorite L.A.-set detective writer. All that wonderful wise-cracking and bleak view of the species.
What shocks me is that some folks are still shocked and surprised by human behavior. Like the astronaut lady in today's news, gone bonkers because of a love triangle, drives hundreds of miles to confront her rival -- and, the gem of the story, wears an astronaut diaper so she doesn't have to stop to pee, she's in that much of a hurry. Nothing like the personal application of skills learned in your profession.
Writers can't think of more bizarre behavior than our neighbors are perfectly capable of.
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