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One Fearful Yellow Eye (1999)

One Fearful Yellow Eye (1999)

Book Info

Series
Rating
4.07 of 5 Votes: 1
Your rating
ISBN
0394559797 (ISBN13: 9780394559797)
Language
English
Publisher
random house audio

About book One Fearful Yellow Eye (1999)

8 jun 15yikes...lost my take, my notes, my index! no, still have that...on paper scratches, but had most of it generated here, had an audio listed of this story, too, for some reason. i blame atari. and smartphones, haunted by atari. plg. supply the missing vowel.this is an excellent story, 5+ stars and i am not going to make my list again right now. crappola. kaka poopie. alas, this review will be tagged, no doubt! flagged, i mean. i'd like to take this time to say hello to my fan club...greetings from the authoritarian-ship. HA! got it back...5 jun 15#45 from macdonald...and this is the 12th travis mcgee story for me. if you, gentle reader, have not read macdonald's other stories you are missing out. i glanced at one review yesterday was it? said something about Condominium...that macdonald tried his hand at "literature" (the high-brow lit) and it was a dismal failure in that reviewer's opinion.macdonald has a pile of stories that might be classified as "literature"...A Flash of Green...one among many...The Deceivers...another. macdonald rocks the casbah, friend, check him out. yeah...so...i just finished Darker Than Amber8 jun 15finished. excellent story, 5+ stars. i'd remarked in the last few mcgee reviews that the "bad" does not spend much time on stage...or so it seemed to me the last few i read. here, yes and no, it'd be a spoiler to say more...and i imagine that in itself is a dreaded spoiler. this is an excellent story! yippe ki aye! plus...i was able to rescue what i had...logged out...then thought to look at history and came back, not-logged in, found it that way. hoo-rah. garden's planted. what more could a man want? another travis mcgee story! story beginsaround and around we went, like circling through wads of lint in a dirty pocket. we'd been in that high blue up yonder where it was a bright cold clear december afternoon, and then we had to go down into that guck, as it was the intention of the airline and the airplane driver to put the 727 down at o'hare.time place scene setting* macdonald rarely leaves the reader guessing...it is all there in the opening:* december, chicago, o'hare airport, a 727 jet airliner* the busted flush, slip f-18 bahia mar fort lauderdale florida* travis last saw glory doyle four years ago, her husband doctor fortner geis was buried october 10...passed on the 7th oct* the geis residence on the chicago lake michigan shoreline, a home geis had built...though the telling suggests the good doctor built it himself. heh! pikers!* 130 east burton place...home of doctor fortner's daughter, heidi trumbill* drake hotel, chicago, where travis checks in after checking in with glory doyle* east scott street, chicago, tempo east gallery of heidi trumbill and mark avanyan* monroe, wabash, iwan reis pipe store...palmer house* 4th floor walkup on maywood, where gretchen lives at one point* bar, norway club, atop lakeway tower, chicago* 16th floor apt same bldg, of martin hollinder trumbill iv* methodist hospital, chicago* 24-hr place near hospital, lunchroom* time moves along...early afternoon, christmas day...10th feb, the 46th day for travis and lady friend in st croix...march 2nd...april* redbrick georgian motel just off interstate west of peru, illinois* the shottlehauster farm house 'bout a hundred miles from chicago* sales office, marco bay development...marco bay, citrus lane...place between the 'glades and the gulf, the adventure in living series (home) called "tropic supreme"* near christiansted, st. croix* roger geis' residence* country side tennis club...the lounge there* lake pointe is the name of the area on the lake michigan shoreline of the home fort built* 6-story apartment house, chicago, apt of janice stanyardcharacters major* travis mcgee, our hero, 1st-person narrator* glory doyle geis...a woman travis last saw four years ago when he nursed her back to life...she married the doctor neurosurgeon doctor fortner geis. he was 50 years old, had a few years left to live and she was 29. fortner's son and daughter took a dim view of the marriage. she was born gloria ann ridgen & at 22, she married the chemist karl doyle. he was emotionally insecure. they had a daughter, a son...when glory left him with the kids and demanded he see a doctor, he eventually killed the friend with whom she stayed, the two kids, himself...glory was not there.* doctor fortner geis, deceased at story open, someone blackmailed $700,000 from him. travis has been enlisted to discover who what when where why so forth so on* heidi geis trumbill...daughter of doctor fortner and glenna, his first wife. she married at 22, divorced at 24, is a painter pretend artist and is good at pretending. has taken a dim view of the marriage her father had to glory doyle. she runs an art gallery with mark avanyan* roger geis, son of glenna and fortner geis, is a market analyst. he lives in evanston* his wife, jeannie* janice stanyard, an o.r. nurse with whom doctor fortner had an 11-year affair * saul gorba...who marries gretchen...and he is one of the "bad" though he is rarely on stage, he is described as intelligent, also does body work on wars* martin hollinger trumbill the fourth..."gadge" trumbill...was married to heidi and doc fort used his money and influence to hire lawyers for the divorce so heidi would get $omeminor characters, w/name, w/o name, setting-type characters, scenery characters* meyer, the hairy one, travis's economist friend in florida...t'would appear he is nothing more than a mention in this one* the alabama tiger...who is also a floridian friend of travis...and he has a non-stop houseboat party going on...been about ten years now i think...never really see him, save this one story and then only a sentence...or was it thought, by another character* airplane driver, stewardesses* chookie mccall...who was in the 1st travis mcgee, and in another i forget which, a floridian friend of travis, dancer/entertainer, and she is now married to arthur wilkinson who is now building spec homes...chookie and arthur featured prominently in another travis mcgee story* kit cooper, taught glory to drive, mercedes 230sl, at fort's insistence * glenna deis, first wife of doctor fortner geis, mother of heidi and roger. she died young. (what is it with all these macdonald characters? so many of them, a brother died, spouse, maybe more than one spouse, tragic accidents, drownings, car accidents)* internal revenue people, one man in particular...looking for the good doctor's wealth, not finding it, watching glory* state tax people* mr john andrus, bank trust officer, who was one who handled some of doctor fortner's money. he has a wife and teenaged daughters. he is in his late 30s* doctor fortner's attorneys: waldren, farhauser & schrant* anna ottlo, german refuge immigrant, housekeeper to glory, has a daughter:* gretchen, and gretchen had a mad crush on the good doctor and when his first wife lay in bed for a long long time, gretchen put the naked moves on the doctor and he and she did it more than once, a baby resulted, a girl* anna's husband had one grandmother jewish...in germany prewar* centerfold mammalians...playboy* pimpled self-lovers* middle-class sales managers* window-shopping flocks of women* entirely girl* dr hayes wyatt, fortner's friend, who supplied fortner and glory with lsd-25...and in this scene, there is reference to another travis mcgee story i forget which one...i think the pink story...about doctor born and the toll valley hospitel...might be gray* nurse fletcher, operating room nurse, 1st lieutenant lois fletcher...doc fortner and her worked the war...one time they did it after a day of paraplegics...* her husband is/was a sergeant in the first marine division serving in the pacific* anna's daughter gretchen married 20year-old karl kemmer, whose mother was also a german refuge, and she lost two older sons in the war. kemmer is killed in...an industrial accidenti think it was* susan is the name of gretchen's daughter, doctor fortner's daughter* investigators hired by fortner to know about gretchen's circumstances...as she tried to blackmail him for money...though he set up some sort of trust for susan, his daughter* gretchen leaves town with a married man...eventually has 5 or more kids* father/daughter, acid party miami...previous case of travis's* nine kids in that small room...one chewing her fingers bloody...the daugther* stanyard's husband, chief o.r. nurse at methodist hospital...husband a veggie...boy, drowned boat swamped* kirstarian...some artist clown...two romping dogs* very noise jolly fellows wearing nickname badges & smelling of sour mash* maid with youngest child* two older children* noisy platoons of small children were keeping two young girls very busy* a big winded lady carrying three tennis rackets* her partner was a spry old man with white hair* jimmy, the bar man at the tennis club lounge and skippy the girl he will be marrying* his father-in-law (roger's) is in commodities* middle eastern politician on whom doctor fortner operated...and the associated gun-toting crazies in the region* charles, janice's cat* francisco smith, with allied services, a private investigation service engaged by doc fort to learn more about anna's daughter* a young girl, atlanta, gun-shot (story from past)* eldest child, branton fortner geis or roger and jeannie* a kidnapper who sings...a park policeman...a sitter, a retired cop* ralph...a cat of janice/jane's...ethel, ralph's mom cat* the super in janice's bldg* cinny lee...con-artist woman throwing the make on a guy in travis' drake hotel...and the guy from whom she was trying to steal* three kids were running* sweet little old lady on the veranda in charleston, south carolina...past...travis...* a substantial matron in a fur hat* maurie ragna, east chicago, lake county indiana, the outfit...past...and current, travis pulled him out of jamb and now they're buddies* a skeptical fellow who spoke in grunts* a lass had gifted* a chubby waitress* gretchen's kids: susan the oldest and doc fort's daughter too, freddy kemmer, son of the 20-yr-old gretchen married...and she married a burdow from california and had two kids, julian and freda, and with the last husband, saul gorba, she had tommy, the youngest* pansy perkins...one of two women, two men gadge introduces to travis when they meet...they're going to gualeloupe, make a movie* stocky ladies whomped each other with purses* stone-faced virgins, urchins (christmas time)* a gabble of young nurses* anna vanmaller, musician friend of mark avanyan* jimmy tait, sheriff...where the shottlehausters reside* the darling bread boy* harry and mildren shottlehauster, watching gretchen's cildren...along with their own six kids* a sonorous voice reading a standard service* a tired woman diddling with the keys on a small electric organ* travis's father...and the cretins at the gas station (past, story about a car he restored)* perry and wilma hennigan...and fredrika gronwald and wilhelm vogel...the same* two men...one english one israeli* buddy of travis's, high school, wrecked his car...buzzy by name* old sam...duggins...place where saul and gretchen hole up a hundred miles from chicago, deceased neighbor of the shottlehausters* miss edgerly, at the sales office of marco bay developmentreal people, famous, imaginary famous, fictitiously famous so forth so on* satchel...no last name given...satchel paige...some words of wisdom* sherlock holmes* god* hans hoffman* grace kelly* iwan reis...famous chicago pipe store, not plumbing, where my mind was, in the trench (gutter)...smokes* hefner empire* hans hoffman, kline, marca-relli, guston, solomon, rivers, picasso, kandinsky, motherwell, pollock* ropp, a kind of pipe* jesus* jack lalanne (exercise guy)* w.c. fields* the three stooges* general grant (the 50)* palmer (the golfer)* santas* baby snooks* hooo the hef ? maybe hugh? must be...hooo!* ? carson, pirie, scott ?* calvin (as in calvinistic)* himmler* eichmann* hitler* segal (to do w/art)* cassius clay (ali, before the name change)* james taylor (football)* dick tiger (boxer?)* einstein, jack paar, kurt vonnegut* lindbergh (airmail stamps)* papa (hemingway)* phil hill (drives like...)* smokey the beara quoteevery day, not matter how you fight it, you learn a little more about yourself, and all most of it does is teach humility.a wordgooney...never flies...a kind of designated not-partier, not-dropping acid, never flies (less)

"Το κίτρινο μάτι", εκδόσεις ΒΙΠΕΡ.Όγδοο βιβλίο της σειράς με ήρωα τον Τράβις ΜακΓκι, που αυτή την φορά θα δράσει πολύ πιο μακριά από την αγαπημένη του και ζεστή Φλόριντα, στο αρκετά κρύο και μελαγχολικό Σικάγο. Η Γκλόρι Ντόιλ, μια νεαρή κοπέλα που ο Τράβις είχε βοηθήσει πριν λίγα χρόνια όταν είχε βρεθεί σε πραγματικά απελπιστική κατάσταση, καλεί τον πρωταγωνιστή μας στο Σικάγο για να την βοηθήσει σ'ένα επείγον ζήτημα. Ο άντρας της, Φόρτνερ Γκάις, αρκετά μεγαλύτερος της σε ηλικία και πολύ γνωστός γιατρός, πέθανε πρόσφατα και αυτή κατάλαβε ότι τα χρήματα που τόσο καιρό μάζευε αυτός, που έφταναν κοντά στις εξακόσιες χιλιάδες δολάρια, έκαναν φτερά. Η εφορία υποπτεύεται ότι η Γκλόρι έκανε κάποια κομπίνα για να γλιτώσει τους φόρους, τα δυο μεγάλα παιδιά του Φόρτνερ από προηγούμενο γάμο πιστεύουν ότι τα έκρυψε κάπου για να μην πάρουν τίποτα και πάει λέγοντας. Η αλήθεια, όμως, είναι ότι ο Φόρτνερ φαίνεται να έπεσε θύμα εκβιασμού από αγνώστους, λόγω κάποιων μυστικών που είχε από προηγούμενες σχέσεις του. Και ο Τράβις θα μπλεχτεί σε μια ιστορία με οικογενειακά μυστικά και όχι μόνο... Σε σχέση με προηγούμενες ιστορίες, αυτή μου φάνηκε κάπως πιο κουραστική, με περισσότερο μπλα μπλα, λιγότερη δράση και κάπως μπερδεμένες οικογενειακές καταστάσεις, όμως η αλήθεια είναι ότι στο τέλος, τότε που έγιναν οι αποκαλύψεις και μάθαμε ορισμένα σημαντικά πράγματα για κάποιους χαρακτήρες, η κατάσταση σώθηκε για τα καλά. Γενικά προτιμώ τον Τράβις ΜακΓκι να δουλεύει στην ηλιόλουστη Φλόριντα και να μην μπλέκει σε περίπλοκες οικογενειακές ιστορίες. Μέσα στον Ιούλιο θα πιάσω σίγουρα το επόμενο βιβλίο της σειράς.

Do You like book One Fearful Yellow Eye (1999)?

It’d been twenty-some years since I’d read the Travis McGee books, and when I heard that a movie version of The Deep Blue Good-Bye was in the works, I’d started picking up copies in used bookstores to give the series another read. I’ve had moments where I’ve started to regret that decision.While I had fond memories of MacDonald’s tales of the Florida beach bum who makes his living recovering funds that were stolen by semi-legal means or conned from the victims, re-reading these early books from the’60s with a 2010 perspective is starting to depress me because the attitudes and portrayals of women are so painful that they make an episode of Mad Men look like feminist propaganda.McGee is summoned to Chicago by an old girlfriend, Glory, who had married Fortner Geis, a prominent and respected surgeon who has recently died after a long illness. Geis should have had a large estate to leave to Glory and his two grown children from a previous marriage, but all involved are shocked to find that Geis had spent his final months converting his funds to cash and now the money is gone. McGee’s first theory is that it has to be some kind of blackmail, but what kind of threat could make a dying man leave nothing for his family?I often laughed out loud at how dated some of this comes across. Geis is repeatedly described as a good and honorable man, yet it’s known to most of the characters that he once had a relationship with his nurse that started with an act that was borderline date rape. He also had an illegitimate daughter that he deliberately never met, even when he was dying, but everyone still thinks he was a swell guy because he set up a small trust fund for her and had private detectives check up on her regularly.The most cringe inducing parts involve a woman who is known by all the characters to be ‘frigid’. Of course, McGee can help her solve that problem, and you can imagine what kind of therapy he plans to use.But for all the flaws, these books still hold a kind of charm for me. The mystery of why Geis gave up all his money is intriguing, and McGee’s brooding commentary about modern life circa 1966 still made this an good crime novel. Plus, when MacDonald isn’t sharing his views on women, he regularly delivers writing gold. Check out this sample when McGee is flying into Chicago and bad weather is making the landing tricky:Even with the buffeting, there is an impression of silence inside the aircraft at such times. People stare outward, but they are looking inward, tasting of themselves and thinking of promises and defeats. Anyone who has ever white knuckled an armrest during a bad flight should be able to relate to that, and it’s these moments that’ll keep me going through this series.
—Kemper

She was a very affectionate woman, needing and giving the casual touches and pats which to her were as necessary a part of communication as words. (p. 13)He told me that [Hans] Hoffman had such an almost childlike quality of enthusiasm, that youthfulness that comes from being eternally inquisitive. (p. 13)In such a situation there could be almost a compulsion to find a guilt-feeling. When the beloved is dying, we want to be blamed and punished. Without that there seems to be nothing left but an indifferent malevolence of fate. (p. 43)"Funny, but everybody I can think of right off the top of the head could sure God draw a fat realistic cow if they ever happened to want to. Hans Hoffman, Kline, Marca-Relli, Guston, Solomon, Rivers, Picasso, Kandinsky, Motherwell, Pollock…. You dabblers bug me. You want the applause without all the thousands of hours of labor learning how to draw, how to make brush strokes, learning all the things that give painting some bite and bones even when you don't use any part of it. Go ahead, draw the lamp. Quick sketch. Prove that I'm a jackass." (p. 62-63)tBut once he knows that it is absolutely no dice, there is no persistence. They know how to keep their worlds separated. And most of them are wryly aware of the ugly fact that the overly male type who thinks he hates them so thoroughly is the man who is, deep in his heart, unsure of his own masculinity. The man who knows that his preferences are solidly heterosexual has no need to go about thumping everybody who lisps. (p. 72-73)The he told Fort that no matter how much he might try to deny it or ignore it, he was still a mammal. By questioning him, Dr. Wyatt showed how much warmth there ha been in Fort's childhood. He'd been breast-fed, hugged, patted, cuddled, kissed, spanked. People with austere childhoods could adjust to the life Fort was living. But for Fort, some essential assurance-area was being starved. He felt remote because his body, untouched, was beginning to doubt the reality of its own existence. Hayes Wyatt told Fort that casual sex relationships would not do very much to help him. He said Fort should marry an affectionate and demonstrative woman. (p. 85)tWhat had seemed drabness, both in her and in the room, became merely understatement. I had the feeling this would be a comfortable room to be in, a comfortable woman to be with. She had the indefinable quality of restfulness, of making no trivial demands upon others or upon herself. (p. 103)Two surgeons can make two cuts that look identical, and one will bleed like a pig and the other will be almost dry. One surgeon can cut to where something is supposed to be, and it isn't there, and another will somehow guess that the patient doesn't quite match the anatomy lessons and, without knowing how he does it or what clued him, go right to where he wants to be. (p. 105-106)tHe didn't trouble easily, you know. He had his own philosophy about worry. He always told me that people spend so much time fretting about what they did yesterday and dreading what might happen tomorrow, they miss out on all of their todays. He said that when you realize you can't change the past or predict the future, then you come alive for the first time, like waking up from half-asleep. (p. 111-112)
—Shuriu

This is something of a departure for Travis McGee. It (almost) all takes place in Chicago, where McGee tries to puzzle out who has drained his friend Gloria Doyle's inheritance from her late husband, a marriage of only a few years, as she knew he was ill when she married him. There is hardly any "action" until the very end. Instead, it's McGee keeping track of a couple dozen characters and trying to piece together how this particular scam worked. We see McGee evolving somewhat on homosexuality. Whereas a few novels ago gays were just objects of ridicule, here Trav says: "I am always skeptical of the male who makes a big public deal out of how he hates fairies, how they turn his stomach, how he'd like to beat the hell out of them...the average homosexual in the visual and performing arts is usually a human being a little bit brighter and more perceptive than most."And, we revisit LSD, first broached in 1964 in Nightmare in Pink, pretty early for an awareness of the drug. We learn that McGee had several medically supervised trips to help him get over that Nightmare. And so did Gloria, with her husband, to help them come to terms with his eventual passing. The fact that there was a fair amount of the drug left around is a pivotal plot point. We get one nice description of evolving fashion in 1966: "a Limey lass, the height of mod exhibitionism, her little-girl skirt a good four inches above the knee, and a metallic golden serpent wrapped around her left leg just below the knee."As we get to the climax, the sadism ratchets up. Upon discovering a body, McGee affects a childlike narrative: "Can that be you, Mr. ____? How straight you sit! But of course, sir!...My goodness, they dropped the cold chisel among your poor teeth, sir. And ripped away your pants for further intimate attentions which have left that faint stick of burning on the silent air..."There's kind of a false ending where you know there's more because not everything has been wrapped up and there are still a couple chapters to go. And we find that our ultimate villains have been, shall we say, intimately involved with some ultimate 20th century evil. The villainess describes her partner, who has a woman captive: "First there must be the gross humiliations, the unthinkable violations of the precious citadel of self, with pain as the spice, fright as the sauce. But he will have to do with what variations he can invent on that theme, because he cannot have what he likes best, to create those moments of ultimate hopeless horror when the companion experiences damage she knows cannot be undone, cannot be mended, and then begins to wonder how long he or she will be forced to sustain the burden of consciousness and of life itself." Nicely chilling there.So not the best of the McGees, and a lot of characters to follow, but still head and shoulders above any other crime writer I'm aware of.
—Jim

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