“San Francisco,
1947. Bartender Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin and the rest of the Cookie's
Coffee Irregulars--a ragtag bunch of working mugs last seen in Noir--are on the hustle: they're trying to open a driving school;
shanghai an abusive Swedish stevedore; get Mable, the local madam, and her
girls to a Christmas party at the State Hospital without alerting the
overzealous head of the S.F.P.D. vice squad; all while Sammy's girlfriend,
Stilton (a.k.a. the Cheese), and her "Wendy the Welder" gal pals are
using their wartime shipbuilding skills on a secret project that might be
attracting the attention of some government Men in Black. And, oh yeah, someone
is murdering the city's drag kings and club owner Jimmy Vasco is sure she's
next on the list and wants Sammy to find the killer. Meanwhile, Eddie "Moo
Shoes" Shu has been summoned by his Uncle Ho to help save his opium den
from Squid Kid Tang, a vicious gangster who is determined to retrieve a
priceless relic: an ancient statue of the powerful Rain Dragon that Ho stole
from one of the fighting tongs forty years earlier. And if Eddie blows it, he
just might call down the wrath of that powerful magical creature on all of Fog
City.”
As with
most of Moore’s work, Razzmatazz is a bit out there, plot wise. It’s also a
continuation of his 2018 novel, Noir. As a long-time reader of Moore,
his talent to balance farce with a serious subject (he goes fairly in-depth on
the history of America when the Chinese immigrants who came here in the middle
of the 19th Century were not seen as human beings) matter is always
impressive. What makes most of his work great is ability to show empathy
towards those in modern society (then and today) try to destroy, as he deals
with lesbians and the drag kings on that era. Though I sense that here, Moore
employees a more 21St Century man that is Sammy. So while the story had two intertwined plots that seemed unrelated -which
is a classic noir story device- the tale does take liberties with the more
repressed era that was born out of post-WWII.
While this book does not have
as many laugh out loud moments of his earlier work, the silliness and sometimes
weirdly disturbed mind he has makes Razzmatazz a worthy read. Also, the prose,
the witty remarks and foul language used in creative ways continues to make me
smile, knowing some people hate him for not only his ally-ship but his creative
use of the F word (the eponymous “razzmatazz” of the title is the books euphemism for sexual
relations, by the way).
Finally,
don't skip the author's note at the end. It's very much worth reading.
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