I like to read. That rates a zero on the surprise scale, of course. Just about every single person who blogs likes to read. It’s pretty much a requirement.
That said, I’m not a snobby reader. I am finicky though. I only read crime novels.
Consequently I read a lot of thrillers. And less then half of them are any good. I’ve often blamed the genre for that, but that’s not fair. Especially since I follow some excellent book review blogs and like everybody else, I’ve got apps for that.
I could be, should be, knee deep in top of the line thrillers.
The problem is I’m a compulsive person. As such, I routinely get an overwhelming urge to buy a paperback whenever I pass the book rack in Walgreen’s or Publix. (Not to mention my problem passing up sushi and guacamole.)
Now I love Walgreen’s and Publix. I can’t imagine shopping for groceries, greeting cards and hair color anyplace else, but neither mercantile is very good for buying books. Unless you like romance, James Patterson and Stephen King.
And westerns.
In other words the selection sucks. (Come on paperback rack jobbers. You can do better.)
Normally I would have been skeptical as I delved into Sunburn, a 2018 bestseller noir from author Laura Lippman. Number one: I’ve never read a Lippman novel. Number two: I bought it at Publix.
But I remembered reading about Sunburn, that it was supposed to be good. And so I had, if not high hopes, moderately high ones that this book would be among the exceptions.
Plus, Sunburn is not a thriller; it’s a noir. Noirs are generally shorter than thrillers. Therefore if you don’t like the first chapter of a noir, chances are you’re not going to like it period. So there’s not a big investment in time. You can bail out and absolve yourself of disappointment with no more than a shrug.
And that’s a bit sardonic because that’s exactly what Lippman’s lead character Polly Costello does from from the git-go. She walks out on her husband and their three year old daughter while they are vacationing on the Delaware coast.
She’s not impressed with the accommodations–they are blocks away from the beach and the towels are scratchy–and less impressed with her husband’s ambition. He’s content to get by with a middling job and periodic handouts from his mother.
Polly jumps on a bus to put as many miles as possible between her and her obligations only to disembark a mere seventy or so miles down the road. The town is of the one horse variety, the kind you breeze through on the way to the beach without much thought. She walks into the local watering hole, makes small talk with the bartender and walks out with a job as a waitress.
It becomes rapidly obvious that Polly is fleeing more than an unhappy marriage and inconvenient motherhood. That she is, of course, running from her past–and with good reason. Polly is a murderer. She is also, of course, a bonafide femme fatale with all the necessary features, e.g., a good figure, stand offish persona, billowing red hair and the propensity to use sex as a weapon.
Enter Adam. He’s a traveling salesman of some sort with a lot of free time on his hands and a broke down truck.
And he’s handsome. Extremely handsome.
And that amuses me.
While Polly is an attractive protagonist, she is not beautiful. She’s alluring. Sexy in a way that Adam can’t quite put his finger on (aside from her near perfect figure, of course.)
Conversely–and I am not speculating on this--trust me–if Sunburn was written by…oh, I don’t know…Larry Lippman, Polly would have been drop dead gorgeous and Adam would have been a scruffy everyman with a mysterious sex appeal.
It is important that genre literature strokes us. That it soothes us. That it affirms us.
Us. We. Them.
But I digress.
Prospective paramour, Adam, decides to stick around the one horse town and takes a job as cook at the watering hole, where Polly waitresses. Slowly, but surely, he begins a relationship with her, finding out some of her secrets; namely that her murder victim was her first husband with whom she had a disabled child, also abandoned by her.
As their relationship progresses Adam finds out more. He discovers that Polly’s first husband was a sadistically abusive cop, up to his eyeballs in murder, and that some of his unscrupulous cohorts are trying to hunt her down. He discovers the details of her crime, that she ran a butcher’s knife through her husband’s heart as he slept.
Yet, despite his knowledge, Adam is so disabled by Polly’s sensuality that he stays. Even though he doesn’t like one horse towns and has a fashionable apartment in Baltimore– he stays. Even though he has the means to fix his truck and skedaddle–he stays. Even though he is so gorgeous that he could have his pick of equally gorgeous women with considerably less spine crushing baggage–he stays.
Even though he becomes more wary of the woman he shares his bed with and for his own safety. He stays.
Consider their–how shall we say it?–intimacy:
She drifts toward their bedroom, pale and cold as a ghost. Within five minutes, the set clicks off and he is in bed with her. They both play it savage tonight. She pulls his hair, bites him hard.
Really? Yikes…Funny.
And there’s this:
He picks her up and carries her to the bed. She fights him, bites him and scratches. It’s shaming how much he likes this. They haven’t even kissed yet, and she’s drawn blood on him.
Geez? What’s the matter with this guy? A glutton for punishment perhaps?…
Or could it be that he is just a guy (albeit an extremely good looking guy) who seeks absolution from a woman who is qualified to give it to him?
If so, now we’re talking sexy..
Indeed. But what about the children? Her children? She abandoned them.
That’s not sexy…Not sexy at all.
Nope. That’s bad. Really bad. That’s despicable. What kind of a woman does that?…
Exactly. What kind of woman?
Sunburn has been out for over a year now, but it’s just now showing up on the paperback racks at Publix and Walgreen’s.
Ugh…..doesn’t sound like my cup of tea in the slightest….but have you explored Andrew Vachss yet? I love to see how you handle reviewing a Burke novel or two….
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Actually, I think it’s a good novel, Michael. It’s good noir. To me, Lippman is turning the tables on some of the features of the domestic violence dynamic. Why does the woman stay, when she is in so much danger? When she is being humiliated? Here, to some extent a man is staying in a relationship that he would be better off leaving. At least that’s my spin on it.
I’ve heard of Andrew Vachss, I may head to library today. I probably won’t find one of his at Walgreens. Ha!
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But the man ALWAYS stay in noir,I think that is one of main linchpins to a noir based novel/film. The challenge is to write a femme fatale that is alluring enough to make a normal manturn into a crazy fall guy.
In one sense,writing a classic noir story is much harder today because of the wealth of information out there….how does one hide much less from from vengeful cops and only 70 miles away from the 2nd husband? And having bright red hair? hmmmmm….
I wonder how you would write a story like this…I bet it would be a quite the read!
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Ah, yes, Michael. The man always stays in noir. I would like for you to read it, Michael, just to see what you think.
Polly is alluring. She has the secret sauce, if you will. But is it enough? The scratching. The biting. It wouldn’t be enough for me. But, then, I’m not a guy. And, of course, it’s not all scratching and biting. So there’s that…And the near perfect figure.
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ha!! I get bitten and scratched by the cheetah when I late with the treats!!!
I’ll look for Laura Lippman when I make my trek to the library Tuesday. It sounds strange but I have never been impulsive when it comes to women,I have always sort of stood back and thought everything out,you know…look before you leap. I have no idea where or how I started doing that.
Especially since I believe in love at first sight…
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Ha! Paladin does that too?
Yes, we must look before we leap when it comes to the waters of romance. Those waters can be dangerous indeed.
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It sounds truly awful!
When I got my Kindle Fire this year, I quickly bought a few popular ‘psychological thrillers’ to read. The first one ( a massive best seller) was so-so. The second one (different author) was so similar to the first one, I had to keep checking the title to make sure I wasn’t reading the same book.
It soon reminded me why I had stopped reading Robin Cook and James Herbert novels in the 1980s. Formula!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sunburn is fully invested in the tropes of noir, no doubt, but Lippman uses those tropes to explore some stereotypes about domestic violence and the victims of it. There are undercurrents and threads of “the me too” movement that I found thought provoking. Your problem with Sunburn might just be my review.
Thanks for reading, Pete.
–Pam
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Pam, I had some issues leaving a comment. It might be in Spam.
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Interesting review, Pam. Drug and grocery stores should have a better selection. The whole “she-drew-blood-from-me-before-we-even-kissed” thing sounds cringey, haha.
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Yeah, it was cringey to me too. But just between you and me, I may have missed the mark on this review, Lillie. It’s a decent noir that wrestles within its confines, but it stays in its lane. Still it manages to turn the tables on some preconceived notions about domestic violence and the cost of that. I didn’t get that across. I thought it was a good book.
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That’s better than what could be said for most convenience store books. 😉
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Not for me. If I can’t find anything to root for, a soft side to empathize with, I wouldn’t follow the story because I just don’t care to read about despicable people doing despicable things.
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Well, that’s noir for you. Hardcore noir anyway. But there are redeeming qualities in the characters of Sunburn. It’s not Jim Thompson. I dropped the ball on this one, I guess. There are twist. There are compelling reasons and answers to the question of “why?” I didn’t get that across in the review. My bad.
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Thinking about Flannery O’Conner…would love to read your review of any of her stories!
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That’s a wonderful compliment, DW. The next “book” review I write will be on her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Lord willing.
God’s Blessings
–Pam
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Sorry, I thought it was a negative review. You convinced me not to bother. 😉
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I’m immediately curious about how this ends. I never read thrillers, but I’d love to see what happens, like does karma catch up to her?
We were watching The Terror recently and it made me want to re-read the book, which was super-great. The Terror is a thriller, I guess, kind of thriller/adventure/mystery/horror.
But as far as sunburn goes, I always want to see what happens to sociopathic personalities. Which is nothing, a lot of the time, as we know from Body Heat. And Chigurh in No Country for Old Men.
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I’m glad you want to read it. Everybody else was NOT intrigued. They were like, GROSS. And noir is gross. And like you say, sociopaths walk away unscathed in noir–and in life.
But I got a little carried away trying to convey its feminist themes. Nobody got it. And that’s on me. I didn’t pull it off.
I liked the book. I’d give it a solid B. I don’t know if that’s enough for you to read it, since you don’t read thrillers (although this is a noir.) Then again, maybe I’ve got the whole thing wrong. That’s probably it.
I’d be curious to hear what you think of it, though. I respect your opinion.
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Thanks, Pam. I appreciate it. No, I definitely want to read it! But I’ll probably have to put it on my wish list and follow the author and wait for a sale because I rarely pay over $2.99 for a book. Not that this one wouldn’t be worth full price–it’s just my budget and the fact that I’m already over for this month. Ha. What’s new? 🙂
Also, I completely read the review as positive and got all your little witticisms and asides. I don’t think you missed the mark at all explaining yourself, so I’m not sure what made other folks take a different route, lol! Maybe just hearing the word “noir” turned them off from the start and/or rough sex stuff? I personally love noir. It made Bladerunner what it is and what would we do without Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain?
So…you’ve got a little bit of a mystery going on here in your own review, I think, ha ha.
Either that, or just our two brains are similarly wired. 🙂
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Great. I’m glad I got it across and I’m glad that you got it. Win. Win. Ha!
Send me your address and I’ll mail you my copy. I don’t have room on my shelf for it. Happy to send it to you.
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Ooh, yeah! Thanks so much ! ! !
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Great post 🙂 I have not read this novel yet but it sounds fascinating 🙂 Laura Lippman sounds like a great writer 🙂 Interesting bit of trivia: she is married to David Simon, who created the HBO series The Wire 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂
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That is interesting. I had no idea. She loves Baltimore like I love Nashville, I know that. Thanks for the info–and for reading.
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Hey Pam, in case you are interested, me and Cindy are doing a collaborative blog entry on her site today regarding our favorite Robert Altman films. Here is a link to the blog entry
https://cindybruchman.com/2019/08/13/l13fc-director-robert-altman/
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Yay! I’m on it.
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Wow, that was fast, Pam! I got it today! Can’t wait to dive in.
Thanks a million, Ms. Efficiency. Were you in the military by any chance, lol ??
🙂
Have a great weekend.
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No! Ha! That’s the first time I’ve been asked that. Glad you got it. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
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Pam, I read this last year and thought it one of the best crime novels of the year. The book sizzles, evoking the long-ago classic noir, pulp fiction of writers like James M. Cain, David Goodis, and other genre masters.
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I liked it too, John. I liked the feminist twist on it. Very well written novel.
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What a great read, Pam. Very enjoyable and snappy, crisp writing with enjoyable images thrown in.
Some things I liked and took note of: “His tanned, brawny arm on the window ledge makes Polly think of a thick snake basking in the middle of the road.”
“He was a good man surrounded by bad people.” (Some internal reasoning there that sounds very familiar, considering the present administration and a certain someone’s inability to take responsibility for absolutely anything)
“She was capable of stillness he has never found in another woman.”
This scene in particular was nice because Adam starts out thinking about rice, and a stream of consciousness takes me to Polly, her mysteries, women in general, and a whole thought process and when Polly asks, “What are you thinking about,” it circles back to the beginning and he just says, “Rice.”
Yeah, great noir atmosphere, lines like, “I wised up,” suspense and machinations. The only thing that threw me was the very ending; wasn’t expecting that, and felt very sad for a certain character. But I saw all the feminist leanings (and leaning aways), a kind of constant battle going on between being female and trying to free oneself from that label. Considering I never read crime novels, I enjoyed this a lot, and thanks again for sending it!
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You’re welcome, Stacey. I’m glad you liked it. I like the crisp writing style. It’s pared down and succinct. I liked that it has feminist leanings and, yet, Polly doesn’t check all of the feminists boxes. Nor does she check all the femme fatale boxes, or all the protagonist boxes. Polly is on the spectrum of narcissism, I think–but she’s not a monster. She is very opportunistic. She is manipulative, too. At the same time, she loves her daughters and wants to provide for them. She manages to do just that within the extreme circumstances that she finds herself and she uses both her dark side and her good side to achieve her objectives. It’s very modern noir. It marries cynicism with hope. That’s a tough sell, but the author walks the tightrope quite well, although she wobbles and nearly falls a few times. That’s my take.
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“Polly is on the spectrum of narcissism, I think–but she’s not a monster. She is very opportunistic. She is manipulative, too.”
“It marries cynicism with hope.”
Exactly, lol!
You put it much more succinctly!
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