Marlowe's afoot
The other book I finished during Residency was a Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake. This book was the treat I gave myself during a week in a hotel and wandering the halls of Seton Hill, because Chandler is simply a joy to read. Al Wendland, another enthusiast, saw me reading him and remarked how much he liked Chandler's similes, and I found a classic at the end of Chapter Twenty-three:
...The self-operating elevator was carpeted in red plush. It had an elderly perfume in it, like three widows drinking tea.
The details of craft are so plentiful in his work, that I find myself teaching from his examples, rather than more contemporary writers. He managed to be both popular and classic, artistic and hard-boiled. Good, good stuff.
Plot summaries and reviews of this book are everywhere, but I won't spoil any of the story for you. Just read it.
CBsIP: student manuscripts
The Chess Garden, Brooks Hansen
Peter the Great, Robert K. Massie
Dancing Naked, William Tenn
The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed.
The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Ralph D. Sawyer