This week at the Gilpin Library
by Larry Grieco, Librarian
Donna Leon lives in Italy, writes in English, and has created “one of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever.” (Washington Post) Her detective is Commissario Guido Brunetti, a police inspector in Venice. The twenty-fifth offering in the series is called The Waters of Eternal Youth. Brunetti is called upon to investigate a most unusual case, one that may not even be a case at all. Some fifteen years ago, a teenage girl fell into one of the city’s canals. She couldn’t swim, but was rescued by a man, an alcoholic, who heard her splashes and pulled her out. The girl suffered brain damage, leaving her “unable to learn or mature.” Now, her rescuer, being a bit intoxicated, claimed he saw her thrown into the canal, but the next day he didn’t remember anything. The girl’s grandmother meets Brunetti at a fundraiser for a Venetian charity, and implores him to investigate. With more than a few trepidations, he agrees to look into the case. At first he is in charge of the case, but then the case takes over and he can’t resist delving deeper and deeper, until he will not rest until he gets to the bottom of it. Baltimore Sun: “Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen…Leon’s ability to capture the social scene and internal politics [of Venice] is first rate.” Seattle Times: “Intelligent and deeply satisfying mysteries…The Venetian detective has reached iconic status.”
This column is now coming to an end. For the last sixteen years it has appeared here every week, except for just a few occasions. It’s safe to say I’ve published over 800 columns, introducing you to probably around 2,400 books, and a few of you have been kind enough to tell me you’ve enjoyed reading what I’ve written. All pressures about meeting weekly deadlines aside, I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed writing for you. If you are a regular reader, you know who my favorite authors are. Here’s a recap of my “recommended reading” list:
There is no series of detective novels that I’ve enjoyed more than the “Spenser” series, by the late Robert B. Parker. Beginning with The Godwulf Manuscript, and ending—39 books later—with Sixkill, Parker created an untold number of “mean streets” for Spenser to walk down, almost always with Hawk at his side, and with the love of his life, Susan Silverman, to be his confidante and moral compass. The Spenser series was continued, after Parker’s death in 2010, by Ace Atkins, but fails to satisfy true Parker fans.
For fantasy , it’s hard to beat the novels and stories of Peter S. Beagle. From A Fine and Private Place to The Last Unicorn, Beagle seemingly wrote with a magic wand to spark the imagination of his readers. One of the classic fantasy stories of all time is “Lila the Werewolf.” The main character, Farrell, is a musician living in New York City. At one point he needs to explain to a friend why he is still with Lila, even though she’s a werewolf:
“The thing is, it’s still only Lila, not Lon Chaney or somebody… she’s got her guitar lesson one night a week, and her pottery class one night, and she cooks eggplant maybe twice a week. She calls her mother every Friday night, and one night a month she turns into a wolf. You see what I’m getting at? It’s still Lila, whatever she does, and I just can’t get terribly shook about it. A little bit, sure, because what the hell. But I don’t know.”
I still will believe Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is the great American novel, with Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby a close second. I still read Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises about once a year, whether I need to or not. And I will always cherish A Moveable Feast, which I hope to be reading in the moment I finally leave this earth.
But for now, I’m merely leaving Gilpin County and its world class rural library. To say I’ll miss everybody who I see fairly regularly is an understatement. Take care, God bless, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do—which actually gives you a lot of leeway. Au revoir.