Smoking Makes You Look Cool (Part III)

Clarice Lispector
Clarice Lispector
conrad
Joseph Conrad
james baldwin
James Baldwin
Barry Hannah
Barry Hannah
art spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
paul bowles
Paul Bowles
langston hughes
Langston Hughes
images (1)
Patricia Highsmith
T.S._Eliot,_1923
T.S.Eliot

(Parts I and II (don’t worry, everyone already yelled at me re: “smoking unhealthy,” etc., and yes, whole post was probably just an excuse to run that pic of Lispector)).

 

Benjamin Black’s Vengeance (Book Acquired, 3.06.2013)

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Vengeance, the latest in Benjamin Black’s Quirke series. From Janet Maslin’s New York Times review last year:

Vengeance” once again leads Quirke into his favorite kind of trouble: “yet another morass of human cupidity and deceit,” involving the deaths of powerful men and the foxy insolence of their glamorous widows. It breaks no new ground.

But why should Benjamin Black tamper with a winning formula? The crimes aren’t graphic or even terribly central. And the detecting questions don’t count for much. The books are far more notable for malaise, atmospherics, sexual chemistry and vast amounts of swirling tobacco smoke and mind-muddling alcohol, without which justice could apparently never prevail.

Vengeance is new in trade paperback from Picador.