Friday 5 April 2019

If You Want Classic Fast Food Literature Ask The Erle


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's funny how it's just over a year since I was in Essex exile looking after my mother, visiting her in hospital and then nursing her back to health. People ask me how I managed it and in truth you just do. What I did and experienced was just a fraction of what carers have to do for family members 24/7.

But if you discover things that relax you through this process then it's a help. I've already chatted about becoming unexpectedly a fan of the TV series Bones and the latest book I've read reminded me of someone else who helped as well.

Perry Mason Is Back
It is literary fast food. More enjoyable than Lee Child but still fast food. Easy to digest. A formula you already know (someone's in trouble for murder - Only Perry can deal with it) which you like and indeed trust.

It's not like fast food immune to criticism under examination. Perry Mason is too calm and perfect. How he worked the solution to the crime here is not really something the reader could have even guessed. The court scenes are also annoyingly short in relation to the rest of the book. However like fast food you don't look at the detail you allow everything to overwhelm you. And again as entertainment this really works.

Gardner's treatment of women is interesting. Whilst some including Perry Mason's assistant/secretary Della Street are described as having a good figure there is no one who could be called a bimbo. Neither is a female (or in this day and age male) character there so seduced by his charms she's ready to jump into bed with Mason either.

Also in these times of  #Metoo there was a moment when a secretary was asked by Perry whether her boss tried to make a pass at her. The answer was yes but he respected the "no trespass signs". Perhaps that's the tenplate for office rules in the future.

Ultimately like fast food you will forget this book months in the future. But you will also remember the experience. And like all good fast food, you'll remember it was fun.

Until the next time.






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