Books: The Man with the Getaway Face By Richard Stark (1963)

“In New York there is a contract on his life. In Nebraska, there is an unscrupulous plastic surgeon. After the events of The Hunter, Parker ends up in the Midwest getting a new face to hide himself from The Outfit. But he is now faced (no pun intended) with dwindling funds, so he gets involved with a sketchy armored car robbery in New Jersey with two former acquaintances, Skimm and Handy McKay. While he scores hid biggest haul, there is a catch (well, two). The first is the original planner of the heist, a dangerous woman named Alma (and Skimm’s girlfriend). Both Parker and McKay figure out that Alma is going to betray them. The second involves the murder of the Doctor Adler, the surgeon who altered Parker’s face (along with others). Stubbs, Adler’s chauffer, believes it to be one of three men who could’ve killed the doctor, and sets off to New Jersey in hopes of finding out if Parker was the one, because if he can’t, he’s willing to rat out Parker to The Outfit”

Parker is a no nonsense character that always does what is necessary and never deals from a position of weakness. Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark, has created an amoral character who you sort of root for. He is a killer, he is a thief, he plans out his hits with a laser focus, but finds that something always upsets the apple cart. Unlike Westlake’s other recurring character, John Dortmunder, the Parker tales are more brutal, less humorous, but still entertaining. The Man with the Getaway Face is well written, tightly plotted, with some twists and surprises.

This second book is not as thrilling as The Hunter (which had a more beginning, middle, and an end aspect) as Stark/Westlake takes up a lot of time describing the minutiae of the heist and is clearly laying the ground work for the third book. However, having read the Dortmunder books first, I can almost see the divulging point here from the serious world of Parker and John Dortmunder’s comic bad luck (though that was nearly a decade away when this book was released) world during the planning stage of the heist. There is a fine the line here between Parker and Dortmunder and it amuses me to see that (unconsciously, obviously) Westlake was starting to lay the ground work for his other popular series.

Books: The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson (2019)

“In the humdrum town of Moormouth, Walter Mortinson’s unusual inventions cause nothing but trouble. After one of his contraptions throws the town into chaos, Walter’s mother demands he cut the nonsense and join the family mortuary business. Far off on Flaster Isle, famed inventor Horace Flasterborn plans to take Walter under his wing, just as he did Walter’s genius father decades ago. When a letter arrives by unusual means offering Walter an apprenticeship, it isn’t long before Walter decides to flee Moormouth to achieve his destiny. Walter runs away in the family hearse along with Cordelia, the moody girl next door with one eye and plenty of secrets. Together they journey through a strange landscape of fish-people, giantess miners, and hypnotized honeybees in an adventure that will not only reveal the truth about Walter’s past, but direct his future.”

The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear is a strange and unique, but also very disjointed middle school novel. I felt the themes were a bit adult-ish, with grief and sorrow playing a major subject matter here. We have a Walter’s mother who is in need of psychiatrist to get over the death of her husband, but instead takes out her sorrow on Walter. It makes some sense, but then again, I felt Sosna-Spear bit off more than she can chew. The book as well seems marketed as story of fun times, adventure and friendship (which was what interested me in the first place). And while we have some adventure none of it is fun and Walter’s relationship with Cordelia is antagonistic from the start (though we get an explanation of that in last fifty pages of the book). There are a lot of good ideas here, but they all come off as half-baked and some are just forgotten. And Horace Flasterborn, the villain of the piece, reminds me a lot of Charles F. Muntz, the explorer that Carl Fredricksen adored in the Pixar film UP. Muntz, of course, was more interesting.

From Genesis to the Last Domino

I’ve always been a Genesis fan, though I knew their middle to end years more than their beginning. While I think 1977’s And Then There Were Three was perhaps the first album by the band I was aware of (thanks to my brother, but I also have to thank a long-time friend named Mike who fed me more of this band), but I don’t think I fully got into them until either 1980’s Duke or the 1983 self-titled album that included Mama and Illegal Alien (though the 1977 LIVE album Seconds Out could be in there as well). Still, my brother collected the Genesis albums featuring Peter Gabriel, most notably 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and 1973’s Selling England by the Pound. But it was those Phil Collins led years that included And Then There Were Three, Duke, Abacad, Genesis and Seconds Out that cemented my love for the band. I would eventually go back and get the vinyls of 1970’s Trespass, 1971’s Nursery Cryme, and 1972’s Foxtrot. I would also get the early Phil Collins led albums 1976’s A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering.

Before I go on, I like to talk about the bands output. For nearly a decade, Genesis released nine albums (and two were released 1976). In our current day and age when some bands go five, six, eight or nearly a decade between releases, the idea of putting out nine huge albums in that period of time is staggering. Of course, the economics were different then, and their music was not seen as mainstream, radio pop friendly, but that’s still a lot of lyrical and musical output. 

And beyond some issues that popped up during the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974 (him writing the lyrics to the entire album, his band mates left to score the music; his wife’s pregnancy issue, and a brief time spent away working on what would be a shelved script with director William Friedkin) and the tour promotion in 1975 for that title, their time together seemed drama free. It seems well known that from the time of their formation until Gabriel’s departure, there never seemed to be any indication that he or the other members of Genesis had personal conflicts with each other -beyond the issues that arose during the period of 1974/1975 tour. What conflict did arise seemed borne from the media –who continued to make it appear Gabriel was the leading creative force in the group. To prove the point, it was initially suggested that Genesis was over when he announced his departure. 

In a lengthy public letter, Gabriel explained his reasons –that he felt constricted by long tours and a grueling recording schedule, and then his wife having such a difficult pregnancy. He was opting to quit the band and tend to family matters and his sick daughter, rather than start on a new record and tour. Tony Banks later stated, "Pete was also getting too big for the group. He was being portrayed as if he was 'the man' and it really wasn't like that. It was a very difficult thing to accommodate. So it was actually a bit of a relief.”

There is a definite evolution of the band from their progressive, album orientated roots to more popish style (though progressive songs and instrumentals continued, though to a lesser degree, in later releases) that Banks, Collins, and Rutherford added from 1977’s And Then There Were Three to 1986’s Invisible Touch (which became the band’s first number one album in the UK; #3 in the US, the highest any of their albums ever reached). There are many long-time fans of Genesis who still believe the band ended with Peter Gabriel’s departure. While it’s true he brought a certain theatrical aspect to his stage performance and filled his lyrics with social commentary, double entendres, and sly humor, Genesis always produced their work in an open, very collaborative style. And despite no full reunions are ever seemly going to happen with them (including with former members Anthony Phillips, Chris Stewart, and Steve Hackett), they don’t have a negative word to say about anyone. All have worked together in some capacity over the decades, but it’s also clear that musically, most went in different directions. 

And while Phil Collins solo work started to bleed into Genesis work (which was confusing at times, especially after the huge success of No Jacket Required and several songs for films), both Anthony Banks and Mike Rutherford found success in their own solo work, as did Steve Hackett, who continues to record and tour (and playing songs he helped create during his Genesis days). 

I will agree that their 1991 effort We Can’t Dance is not their best, but it was always going to be hard to replicate the huge success of Invisible Touch. It was still successful, hitting #1 on the UK charts and peaking at #4 on the US charts, but it was also clear that Phil Collins wanted to move on. Much like Peter Gabriel, and even to a point, Steve Hackett, Collins wanted to branch out even beyond his success as a solo artist and member of this band for twenty plus years. One of those branches included winning an Oscar and Golden Globe for his work on the 1999 Disney film Tarzan.

His departure after the We Can’t Dance tour left Genesis in limbo. Both Banks and Rutherford felt there was still some life in the band and started working on album that would be named Calling All Stations. They brought in Scottish singer Ray Wilson of Stillskin as Collins replacement. The album was released in 1997 to underwhelming reviews and poor sales. Its failure led to the bands hiatus. 

The bands break went on until 2006 when Collins, Banks, and Rutherford began a Best of tour called Turn It On Again. After that, in 2007 Collins ended his association with Genesis and then he fully retired from performing in 2011 due family commitments and medical issues which prevented him from now playing the drums. In 2014 the band participated in a BBC documentary about Genesis, but Steve Hackett made it known he was displeased with it, calling it a "biased account of Genesis history" that never covered his solo career or talked about Wilson’s time with the band. So while Hackett may not have personal issues with his former band mates, per se, he has been vocal about what made him depart the band. There is little doubt he helped shape the band with his brilliant guitar work during its early years, but by 1974 and the whole Lamb Lies Down on Broadway production and tour (where everyone was having personal issues outside the band), Gabriel’s departure and the Genesis’ shifting away from lengthy guitar solos and progressive rock, he had grown increasingly constricted by his lack of freedom and level of input. He had been writing more material on his own and thus found it increasingly difficult to contribute more of his ideas within a group context (which he also claims was rebuffed). He wished to embark on a solo career and "take the risk in order to find out just how good I was on my own.”

In 2015 Collins said he was willing to come out of retirement, and speculation of a reunion again began to circulate. While both Banks and Rutherford were open to the idea, there was a no way former member like Gabriel or Hackett would be willing to do it (Gabriel would not sing Collins penned songs and Hackett would not have editorial control). Then in January of 2020 the band announced The Last Domino? Tour. This tour is planned for seventeen dates across the UK and Ireland between November and December 2020. Tour guitarist Daryl Stuermer and drummer Chester Thompson will return and Collins's son Nic will also play drums due to his father's ill health. When asked about the possibility of the group heading into the studio and writing new material, Collins said the chances were slim, but finished by saying "Never say never.”

Whether this tour goes on now, considering the COVID-19 pandemic event, is anyone’s guess at this date, if only all three remaining members are in their late 60’s and early 70s, and Collins is having health issues. 

Books: If It Bleeds: New Fiction By Stephen King (2020)

 If It Bleeds is a collection of four stories by Stephen King

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is a tale of mortality and friendship starting out in 2004 (and plays out like an old episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents). We meet nine-year-old Craig, who runs errands for Mr Harrigan, a retired tycoon. In return for this, Harrigan gives Craig money and occasional scratch off lottery card. As everything’s eventual in the world of Stephen King, a few years later, one of those lottery ticket pays off to the tune of $3,000. While socking the money away, Craig wants to thank old Harrigan and uses some of the money to buy the tycoon an iPhone.  While not trusting them at first, eventually Mr. Harrigan finds uses for the device. But when the man dies, and Craig is heartbroken, he slips the phone into the pocket of the dead man at his open coffin funeral. Months later, Criag decides to call Harrigan’s number.

The Life of Chuck is another grim reaper tale and King admits in his afterword he has no idea where the story came from, though its genesis what in billboard sign congratulating someone named Chuck who gave 39 years to something. King wrote two stories featuring this Chuck and then wrote a third, all them with the theme of how terrifying life would be if you knew how and when you, or the person closest to you, were going to die. The fact that it’s told backwards –like some variation on Christopher Nolan’s Memento, adds to the fun.

The third, and longest story is, If It Bleeds. It features the return of Holly Gibney – who King admits has become one of his most favorite characters, a “quirky walk-on” who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on in Finder Keepers, End of Watch, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider. Speaking of The Outsider, in my review of that book, I noted that King did not go into any detail about what this monster was, where it comes from, why it exists, but either he didn't feel the need to or we're bound to run into this monster in a novel yet to be written. Here it’s been a few years since the events of that book, and Finder Keepers have been running smoothly with Holly at the helm. When a bomb goes off in a school, killing scores of kids and teachers, while watching the coverage, private detective Holly Gibney can’t help thinking that the journalist appears to be feeding rather too eagerly for her liking on the unfolding horror around him. She decides to investigate. Her instincts pay off and she eventually comes to the conclusion that this on scene reporter is just like the creature she encountered before. It's not be the same one –but it clearly seems to be variation on the one readers saw in The Outsider, with its shape-shifting abilities being different, but they both seem to enjoy killing people and feeding off the sorrow. I was also struck by the idea that the creatures in The Outsider, the one here in If It Bleeds and the one in The Storm of the Century could be all somehow related. Wishful thinking, I guess.  It’s a terrific sequel/continuation of The Outsider’s themes and I do enjoy Holly a lot (and its here we get more background on how and why Holly is the way she is).

Rat comes from the department of Careful-What-You-Wish-For and is filled with some a bunch of meta-referential things King likes to pepper through his novels and short stories. It’s a bit of hallucinate tale at that, as we meet troubled writer Drew Larson who is struggling to write a novel. Something happened three years ago when he last tried to write a novel, and his wife Lucy is sacred that it could happen again, especially when Drew wants to isolate himself in the family cabin. There is a destiny-altering encounter with rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. 

While I continue to enjoy King's novels more than his short-fiction and novellas, I'm never generally disappointed in these collections.The same goes for Joe Hill, as I see his last collection of stories, Full Throttle, still sitting on my shelf.