17 jan 15, saturday afternoon, 4:41 p.m. e.s.t.#26 from macdonald for me. just finished A Man of Affairs check it out a good read(1958) clemmie, john d macdonaldstory begins:he liked to drink sparingly after dinner, but now he realized he had let chet burney force three of his extra-potent highballs on him, and he guessed that they were the equivalent of six drinks at a bar. chet believed firmly in the social prowess of alcohol, and when chet and alice gave a large cocktail party, there were many critical cases of remorse the next morning, and many earnest vows to be more careful at the next burney affair. time place scene setting*river woods section of town*quality metal products division of the u.s. automotive corporation*still river*stoddard...where? new york is 600 miles away, so is this a real stoddard? or not? *a diner, the plant, the bus*corner of river and state street, stoddard*the fitz home on federal street...the burney place in the river woods section of town*the wharehouse that clemmie has converted to her apartment*a carnival...a lunchroom...a bar or two*london during the war...africa during the war*1957: craig was born in 1918, he is 39 years old= 1957*ober's private office*the vinelands, long melford, west suffolk, england...where maura is now with their daugthers*nick's bar on mallory...bill and craig spend time here*marino's italian restaurant*public campground at lake eldon, 40 miles south of stoddar*baseball at stoddard stadium...bowling alley afterward*restaurants...bars...lunchrooms characters major minor real imagined famous peripheral*chet burney, 39-year-old, married to alice, together they have three children, lawyer in the firm of tolle, rufus, kell and burney. *alice burney, his wife*craig andrew fitz, also 39-year-old, he was born march 23, 1918, our hero of this 3rd-person narrative. craig's wife maura has returned to england with their two daughters for a family visit. she will be gone for a time. craig gets into trouble while she is away. oh la. craig served as an officer during the war, injured in africa, spent much time in england, staff, enlisted december 8th, 1941. he met maura during the war. she was an english courier. craig's mother died when he was four, he lived for two years with an aunt, father remarried:*katherine...clemmie reminds craig of katherine, like-kind*she married gochak after craig's father passed*junior thompson*nancy smith*penny & puss, children, daughters of craig and maura, penelope and priscilla their christian names *developer, salesman, landlord...tough teenagers roamed in harsh packs...old men sat in their underwear tops*the men behind it*maura fitz*bucky langer...someone from wharton/craig*george thatcher, maura's father...maura's mother, maura's two married sisters with children*a boss with vile humor and unpredictable rages*kath, a girlfriend from craig's past, maccullough or maccullen*some stuff (nazis) had sneaked through*a fat bald lieutenant schiffler*russians, marines, british intelligence*captain hallowell...who had a girlfriend in the same uniform that maura wore, ella*a lancaster pilot, quite a few pedestrians, women, clerks, the dead, the wounded, the greeks, a boy in long melford, rescue people*laval was executed*2,000 employees, six assistant plant managers*craig's immediate assistants, two females, a secretary and a typist and six males*bucky howell...charlie...plant employees*betty james, craig's secretary*mr paul ober: man above craig at quality metal products*bill chernek: in purchasing. craig and bill go out to get blitzed and bill tries to find a cathouse he knew about*mr mccabe, dorothy bowman...to do w/the plant*harvey haley, previous plant manager*commerford, private secretary to ober*negro named howard, shirley temple, julie harris*ruthie, bill chernek's wife, kids, mother*a man from maura's past, his wife*maura's sister, elizabeth, with two boys*bartenders...joe, nick*negro population, a little old nigger, men leaned against darkened store fronts, a man slept on newspapers, a girl came quickly out of the door*two cops, a white-haired white woman who vomited in the gutter, a child who wept, a woman*al jardine...irene*waitresses in yellow uniforms, a good crowd in there, a stocky man:*pepper henry...wailing on another man:*dewey*clemmie bennet: clementine, 23-year-old, lives in an apartment converted from a wharehouse, gives her room to paint canvases*a girl from paris, daddy was on wife number three*a tall figure came out of the shadows, the man who owns it*t edison...mr entwhistle...dr lenetti...freud*villian and an alter ego in a horror movie craig saw*talkers, crowd, women, a group of young and husky boys, the attendant*the man at the small gate...the band was on a raised platform...three men passed a bottle around*mickey, a husky young man at the carnival who hits on clemmie repeatedly*hernons and dill quinn...some of his friends*another couple had just left the fair...carrying a small child, two others trailed them*john terrill: he is eventually given craig's responsibilities at quality metals*george lebarr bennet: lives in the robinson woods section of stoddard, is filthy rich, and tries to influence the clemmie/craig relationship...wants it to work, as he believes he failed clemmie by sending her to the best schools (to get her out of sight)*joe/jeannie tribbles*dave/floss westerling...floss and craig are an item*steve/lollie chews*vince/bobby helgren*anita osborne...commits suicide*ralph bench*tom osborne, divorced anita, married a 25-yr-old...he is 40*cops, cooper & finelli*manny brancci: mob-type character*carrens...just a name...not there at the party*margot, middle child of the weterlings*a fat woman with pouched eyes (at the low-rent rendevouz, floss/craig)*"mr and mrs jonathan johnson"...craig checks floss and himself in as*jeff...gate man at the plant*marino...of marino's italian restaurant*marilyn monroe...spock...freud...richard nixon...horatio alger, botticelli*bud upson & charlie montgomery: intermediate consultants brought in by paul ober...with baylor & killian*a man in a chaffeur hat*chavez toccata for percussion...bartok, stravinsky, sheldon, stotl*hildy, husband rick kelly, fletch harrikon refuting barzun, morton devell, jake romney, esperonza, gretchen mcrory, mrs bernice hudge, dan bradley, taffy his second wife, raoul caprichos....all these characters are in one scene at clemmie's apartment*yancha, female pole...marge, dan bradley's first wife*"mr robertson"...betty james calls craig at the campground at lake eldon*dickie, 6 and sally, 4, betty james's children*olsen: woman sent by clemmie to clean up craig's trashed house*howie...a man like mickey, only this time bowling, craig/clemmie*johnny moleska a man who meets craig, possible new job*dotty, al jardine's secretary*a weedy little man smirked*gibbs in new york...with the company*mimi mcgowan: neighbor of george bennet's and she is there when george meets with craig to influence him regards clemmie*harvey tolle...of tolle, rufus, kell & burney*jeff, bar man at bennet's place, mary...servant at bennet's...mr cleef, man who gave bennet expensive cheese*knights, neighbors of bennet*joe casswell, casswell products, eldon, pennsylvania a note on the telling, the narration, the storylinefor many of macdonald's stories i've read the story proceeds in a line from aye through zee. this one jumps back in time, sets up the early war years of craig, sets up the time he meets his future wife, maura, and unlike other time-jumps that might detail a line or two from a characters past...bill's parents drowned when he was fifteen...these time jumps are a tad more detailed. the story is told mainly through the eyes of craig fitz, 3rd-person. too, this is another story that has an industrial production site as part of the setting. there have been more than a few recent reads with the same kind of setting. although the actual state of affairs is vague. six hundred miles from new york. stoddard. wherever that is. i wish he had located his places on a map even if it had been a fictitious place in a real state. time passagesthe first happens soon after craig meets clemmie. clemmie engages in a kind of play-acting, imagining they are different people and she is happy when craig plays along with the idea. the scene continues for a page or two...and this example is still yet another example, one that has not been used by anyone on the time passages shelf...or, at least not in this fashion. characters in other stories have gone down this path...a kind of play-acting...the boy...gene was it? in Look Homeward, Angel may have engaged their imagination to fantasize about their self or others but as themselves, not imaginary people. actually, that's not true...as gene did imagine himself as another. ummm.there is another kind of time passages, craig, in a scene of paranoia, imagines different employees at quality metals keeping tabs on him...and, truth is, that does happen with one character update, finished 18 jan 15, sunday evening 8:45 p.m. e.s.t. after the packers lost to the seahawks in a coin-tossgood story. this is yet another story that does not fit the parameters of the genre. it is not a mystery. it is not an adventure story. it is not a cop/killer yarn. what it is is another yarn like The Deceivers. and you could follow the links to the previous macdonald stories i've read beginning with the one above to discover other titles like this one. macdonald investigates the ways and means of men and women whose morality is failing, whose only standard is the one they define as they go along and they go along to get along with whatever feels good and right at the time. all hail breaks loose, to one degree or another. some people die, in this one at their own hand. i thought about the movie fatal attraction as i read this but memory only recalls a like-kind exchange of emotions. craig and clemmmie, craig's fatal attraction to clemmie, an attraction made easier by his wife's absence and clemmie's availability. clemmie's attraction to craig...that changes with the tides of clemmie.
A slice of late 1950's white upper-middle-class suburban angst, in detailing the downward spiral of Craig Fitz. Fitz is an earnest, dependable, responsible husband and father of two. When his wife takes their kids for a summer trip to England, Craig's world slowly falls apart, thanks to the ever widening cracks in his character. All it takes is a twitching of the hips by a wild young beatnik girl named Clemmie. I love John D. MacDonald's stand alone novels even more than his Travis McGee series. I spent much of the 80's and early 90's collecting as many of them as I could find. This one is the kind of book that John Updike spent a chunk of his career trying to write.
