21 jan 15, wednesday morning, 10:58 a.m. e.s.t.#28 from macdonald for me. just finished a great story, first one i read from this writer, A Single Shot, check him out.(1962) a key to the suite, john d macdonaldstory begins:the gentle hand of a girl pressed him awake, and he looked up along a tailored arm at the gloriously empty smile of a stewardess. "fasten your seat belt, please."you bet. onward and upward. okee dokee then, as the good doctor said (the combat zone, 1978)...yippe ky aye. time place scene setting*a super-constellation airliner...terminal...restroom...taxi*somewhere on the ocean...florida? a hotel/resort location on an ocean setting, the sultana, name of the hotel where the convention of agm *american general machine) and its associated divisions is held...and agm is a part od gae, inc.*joint convention of coluda and napatan*#847, room where floyd hubbard is*8th floor of suites where much of the convention, the hob-nobbing and drinking from suite to suite is held*grand ballroom and a section between that the hotel main where displays are set up*#1102, a room that fred frick, the local representative of agm takes a room to be ready in case of need*the arabian room...the hideaway club (private area of the sultana)...pagoda bar...olympic pool...persian grill...the arabian room...suez lounge*alma's house, kitchen characters major minor real-famous name-only peripheral hypothetical*floyd hubbard, our hero, the hero of progress as described by macdonald, previously taught for three years, found himself in american general machine, is described as the company's hatchet man. he is married to jan/janice, they have a four-year-old and a less-than-one-year-old. they have been married seven years*a stewardess...other sleepers on the super-constellation*jesse mulhaney: the man seen as likely to be cut by the company, with the company for 32 years, married to connie, who attends the convention with him, children grown. he is a president of one of the companies associations, napatan...doesn't say what the initials stand for.*connie, his wife*mike, one of their children, the four-year-old*jerry kipp, is the president of coluda, another association*taxi driver, an old man in what looked like bright yellow pajamas...saturday jones, a 40' plywood silhouette...a massive woman in white slacks and white halter...busy-fingered, stone-faced little polish women*hank...one of three stout disheveled men*a big doorman with a mety military face*work gangs were sweeping*a friend of his (floyd)...early dental plate*maintenance crews*desk clerk*housekeeper at the 8th floor*a bellhop*a brawny monochromatic woman*fred frick, american general machine's local man...which seems like florida though not stated in the story*bobby fayhouser...one of the road men*a hundred people were adding the finishing touches*tommy cormer*a pair of pretty twin blondes...honey and bunny, both 23-year-old, in tight plaid pants...girls hired to sell the various exhibits...honey with the mole*honey has a musician husband, hugh constanto...bunny has a county cop boyfriend*cabanas of people...bartender...a hard-faced blonde with a lithe youthful body*alma bender, a kind of madame though that word is never used. fred frick calls alma suddenly after having his idea to use a woman to get ahead of floyd*cory/corinna barlund, the girl...call-girl...high-end...none of those words are used, as it is a business proposition for fred, alma, cory, though cory does get a tad vulgar at one point with floyd*"john dempsey"...fred frick rents room #1102 under this name so the boys have a room...he hands out keys to only a few*bert...wife of freddy...they also have children*ed, chris, wally, out in the last year*pete stormlander, a publisher of a regional magazine, tropical life...who is used to provide cover for cory at the convention*john camplin, new executive v.p. of agm of gae...and he is the one who sent floyd hubbard to the convention to test him, as he has already tested him once...to see if he is the material the company is looking for*harry farber of gae...to houseton from new york, and he is on scene to provide an ear to what john camplin says about floyd hubbard*ernie, alma's muscle*dave daniels liked to a cross between matt dillon and his horse...for the uninitiated, matt dillon was the sheriff on the tv show gunsmoke that ran for 30+ years and he is, appropriately, from the chicago office, is vulgar, and cory puts him in his place and he will hold a grudge forever, chicago-like*stu gallard...from los angeles*charlie gromer, old road man*cass beatty---advertising*picture by lilian ross*fletch, harry mallory, dix weaver, past presidents of the associations*man, ed, at the table directly behind him...the man's neighbor*a lean woman in silk harem pajamas played a listless noodling piano*hotel p.r. man, alan amory*rick dilarra, convention director*honorable congressman from indiana*ruthie, 10, floyd's 1st love, yay back...he bought her valentines and she thought it was from*tommy!*fearless state senator in nashville that time*harris, lunt, or tomaselli*700 delegates...wives of delegates...several salesman...maid, a tall austrian who is turning ten-dollar tricks...a shy associate...a florida sales manager...a dark-haired man in a bathing suit*mark...a schoolmate of floyd yay ago*mr paul ellinder, an instructor and mark and paul had one of them proverbial homosexual encounters that floyd came upon*three men sat at the end of one aisle*jud ewing, federated, chicago*maynard, cory's cat...half siamese half alley*baltimore colts*a cherokee indian*john swazey...lipe's boss*peter lipe, ass't district attorney*rice emper, legal counsel to the sultana*det. sgt. milton manning*det. lt. al farrier*captain brewhane*suzy wong...some famous whore? a note on the narrationmultiple character 3rd-person p.o.v. and i wonder if you could call it limited, as well. the story ranges from one to another, we look at the world through a number of characters, but we're told in dialogue what they think feel want nothing more nothing less. our hero is floyd hubbard, seen as the company hatchet man though he sees himself as less than that, self-effacing and likeable. one reviewer lamented the female characters and i've no clue what story that reader read. the focus of the hatchet man, jesse mulhaney is married to connie, has been, for years. has been with the company for years. she is with him on this trip and she is described in terms flattering, more so when her age is considered.i think it is nothing more than fashionable criticism (and make this meta) when readers speak of unflattering female characters...women who say "dear"...so forth, so on. it's like those who concentrate on the n-word, neglecting to read the unflattering portrayal of bad whites poorly mishandling swine in huck finn. it's like those years, yay back, college...misogyny this, misogyny that...hell it wasn't until twenty thirty years out of college that i finally learned what the word for "hatred of men" is. do you know? fashionable, though, to spread the word. and so often, as can be pointed out from the actual text...critics should be subject to the same show me don't tell me barb the writer is aware of...so often, the critic's barb is nothing more than that...a clanging symbol without merit or evidence.jesse mulhaney, acceptable to the terms that the local company man, fred frick suddenly arrived at...the hiring of a local girl to make floyd look bad...an acceptance that makes jesse look bad no matter how long you think about it...has a loving relationship with connie, his wife. i don't recall any "dears" in her speech, though you would think a married couple would use that language...partisanship has not dredged us that far apart...but she does read him and his moods and takes him to task later on. and their relationship is true. he takes a nap afterward...this happened before the missus put her foot down. before and after are scenes that only happen after a long time together and macdonald described it nicely. so that other reviewer has his head up his arse. truth. but that suddenly that begins to describe the reason for the story...suddenly as macdonald uses the word...fred frick has this idea...to hire a girl to make floyd look bad. treasure the bad...and i will...it is nice to know that macdonald, as good as he is, also screws up the telling from time to time. suddenly, all hell breaks loose. naw. doesn't work. but i still enjoy the story...a little less than halfway through at this point. fred frick would not have suddenly arrived at the idea for a method and manner of making the company hatchet man look bad. the idea would have been budding and flowering long before they arrive at the hotel...would likely have been used before, either by fred, or others. so...treasure the bad. update, finished, 21 jan 15, wednesday evening, 8:39 p.m. e.s.t.good story and one that reads quickly. and almost another story that does not fit the genre parameters, this one squeaking in closer to the end with enough tragedy to find a niche on that level called...something. i think labels are silly, so why bother? this story, like more than a few others now out of the total read, could as easily fit in the fiction or literature label as it could...almost...noir or crime-drama, police-action, mystery-theatre, camel-racing, badger-prodding, cake-baking. blah blah blah. all it took was one drunk with an attitude and there you are. everyone gathered in the room thinking that perhaps by talking about it it will change. good read.
It all happens at a convention one weekend. Floyd Hubbard, a young company hatchet man arrives in Houston. His job is to bring down Jesse Mulanaey, one of the managers in his organization. Mulaney, however, has friends, and they are out to embarrass and stop Hubbard. Though smart and capable, Hubbard is still naïve in many ways and prime meat for Mulaney and his crafty cronies. The book has the elements of many conventions you hear about—drinking and whoring. In this very short work, MacDonald succeeds in getting several characters together and, through their own weaknesses, getting trapped. The important issue raised is dthe purpose of these business conventions. It is the training. No it does not happen in those seminars, but in the bars and bedrooms. It is where the young and uninitiated become hardened and conditioned to a certain way of life and a certain way of thinking some in the corporate world see as desirable. MacDonald is a master at understanding human nature and putting into a story. In this case, it is a wonderful, tightly written 140 pager.
Do You like book A Key To The Suite (1968)?
This read-it-in-one-sitting stand-alone by JDM is a great thriller and an even better study in psychology, organization dynamics, and the things that a life as a business executive can do to a person. While dated, many of MacDonald's insights into the lives of middle managers still ring true, and in terms of offering a warning about the potentially dehumanizing effects of business, this may be one of the better books ever written. (And I am no Marxist.) Those who dislike JDM's "philosophizing" will find the letter written by the wife of main character, a corporate hatchet-man at risk of losing his soul, to be an unpleasant impediment to the storyline, but I felt it was thoughtful and poignant point of view on the risks of climbing the corporate latter. (The letter can be found at the beginning of Chapter 7.) The more JDM I read, the more I feel he is not just one of my favorite crime writers, but one of my favorite writers period.
—Mark
This one builds very, very slowly, but the ending is very good. A company hatchet man goes to a convention to check out salesman who's going to be given the boot. A couple of the salesman's cronies come up with a way to stop the hatchet man from filing a negative report: set a trap and blackmail him. Their simple, yet effective plan is to get a call girl to seduce him/let herself be seduced. But people being what they are--unpredictable--the plan doesn't quite work. Some questionable psychology (i.e., the woman's motive for prostitution). As I say, the ending is stunning.
—Karin Montin
MacDonald's early novels in the Travis McGee series comprised, oh, probably about a tenth of the available reading on board one ship back in the Sixties, and I read them all. A couple or three years later I read a few more. Like most formula fiction, though, the pattern became a little too obvious, and I left MacDonald for more challenging reading. A touch of nostalgia brought me back, but I decided to look at some of his earlier work. The Brass Cupcake a week and some back. And then this one, also a pre-McGee piece.Impossible to say that I liked any of the characters because they were drawn not to be very likable. Freddy Frick, a minor character, the least likable of the lot except for the drunken lout Daniels. The central character, Hubbard, fleshes out as an honest sort in the early going but succumbs to his humanness and then to his guilt at being all too human just as Frick and his boss, Mulaney, hoped. Mulaney's side, Connie, and Hubbard's, Jan, make cameos in which they come off as the predictable Fifties-Sixties housewives-helpmeets with their own quirks. Cory, the whore-with-the-heart-of-gold, is the most flawed of the lot, and gives MacDonald the necessary evidence for his closing commentary on the great American institution, the convention.A quick and enjoyable read.
—Terry
