Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir

Anyone calling himself a serious mystery fan probably owns at least a handful of Lawrence Block books. Block is best known for his Matt Scudder series, of course, but he has also had success with a mystery series featuring burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. This time around, though, Block offers a memoir focusing on his years of as a competitive racewalker (competitive only in the sense that Block competed against himself to improve his own previous distance and time records).

While many of Block’s readers will have used running and walking as favored forms of exercise, few of them are likely to have taken those sports to the level described in Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir. Shortly after he gave up drinking, Block surprised himself by taking up jogging as an outlet but he soon concluded that jogging just for the sake of jogging made little sense to him. Rather, he came to feel that he was in training for something specific: a race against the clock and himself. In 1981, well into his forties and by then having switched from running to racewalking, Block finished 40 races, five marathons among them.

Then he stopped – and for 22 years he did not enter another race. But, living in New York, Block never completely stopped walking and he even devotes a portion of Step by Step to the three months in 1991 he spent on the 650-mile pilgrimage over the Spanish Pyrenees he shared with his wife. Block is a compulsive man, and when he took up racewalking again after the turn of the century he picked up right where he left off two decades earlier – and then some. No longer content with a mere handful of marathons per year, he was soon competing in “ultras,” races of at least 24-hour duration during which runners and walkers completed as many miles as possible.

The world of competitive racewalking Block describes is an interesting one, and anyone familiar with “fun runs” will easily identify with the aches and pains he has to overcome in order to get himself to so many starting lines. However, the most memorable part of the book is Block’s frank take on his reaction to the aging process when, try as he might, he could no longer set “personal bests” in the events he entered. The realization that time would make no exception in his case threw him into a depression so deep that he lost not only the desire to racewalk, but maybe even the desire to write again.

Although Step by Step is autobiographical, it is not long on details, something the more rabid fans of Lawrence Block will regret. No one, however, can quarrel with the frank way that Block describes his addictions, his compulsive personality, and his personal battle with a crippling bout of depression seemingly triggered by the aging process. Lawrence Block has a life’s work to be proud of whether or not he ever writes another word. If he decides to take Matt Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr into a well-earned retirement with him, he can look back in pride. After all, life is a road best covered step by step.

Rated at: 4.0

A Person of Interest

Recently widowed, Felicia Fontenot has moved back into her childhood home in order to care for her elderly mother and she finds that not much has changed in the old neighborhood. Her mother’s neighbors are older than she remembers them but they are still keenly aware of what is happening on their street. Felicia is quick to notice one change, however - her first serious boyfriend, Luther Jackson, now lives with his wife and little boy directly across the street from her mother.

One morning, soon after her arrival, Felicia looks out her bedroom window to discover that the Jackson house has become a crime scene. Luther, out all night, has come home to find the badly burned bodies of his wife and son. Someone has murdered them, and it soon becomes obvious that Luther is the most logical suspect. Felicia refuses to believe that the man she loved so many years before could have had anything to do with the brutal murders of his own family and, when Luther’s aunt asks for her help, she decides to do whatever she can.

As the official investigation proceeds, and things begin to look worse and worse for him, Luther refuses to offer more than a minimal defense for himself. Felicia, puzzled by Luther’s silence, but still determined to prove his innocence, is dismayed to find that everything her own private investigator turns up makes it seem more likely that Luther is guilty of the murders.

Ernest Hill uses alternating chapters from the points-of-view of Felicia and Luther to tell his story, rarely bringing the two of them into contact with each other. In fact, Luther, who seems almost determined to sabotage his own defense, is just barely aware of the time and money Felicia is spending on his behalf. Felicia, ever the optimist, is as determined to save Luther as he seems determined to doom himself.

And that leads to my problem with the novel. I cannot decide if Luther Jackson is one of the most unlikable characters I have encountered lately or if he is just one of the most unbelievable. I think, actually, that he is a bit of both. His passiveness in the face of all that has happened to him is irritating; his refusal to defend himself in order to hide a personal secret (a rather common one) is not believable. Throw its way over the top melodramatic ending and stereotypical characters into the mix and A Person of Interest becomes a major disappointment despite its promising early chapters.

Rated at: 2.0

Day Three at ROMP 2009

ROMP 2009 moved to Yellow Creek Park yesterday for its final two days, two of the hottest days I've ever experienced in Owensboro. The temperature supposedly hit 96 degrees yesterday and the humidity is very high - a bad combination for folks staying outdoors for 10 or 12 hours, many of those hours in direct sunlight.

It appears that the heat may have kept some of the locals from coming out this year because the crowd appeared smaller than in past years, especially early in the day. Here is a look at the park as folks gradually trickled in for the performances:






That's the legendary Bobby Osborne (with Rocky Top X-Press) in the last two pictures, of course. The crowd enjoying Bobby's music was considerably larger than it appears to be from these photos because most people were farther back, taking advantage of the shade line offered by the trees in the park.

Today's events include appearances by The Dixie Bee-Liners, The Special Consensus, Grasstowne, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and The Dan Tyminski Band. It will be another hot day - but a good one. There's just no such thing as a bad day at a bluegrass festival. I make my drive back to Houston on Sunday and will have a whole lot more next week to say about my four days in Owensboro.

Still Alive

The RiverPark Center - on the Ohio River, Owensboro, KY - Concert center for much of ROMP 2009 Bluegrass Music Festival

Just a quick note to say that I'm still alive.

It has been non-stop music for the last two days and by the time I get back to the hotel there's barely time to recharge batteries for the camcorder, digital audio recorder and camera before it''s time to crash for about six hours of sleep. That hasn't left much time for reading or writing but the break is doing me good - I'm recharging my own internal battery, too, I think.

I'm writing this note over a quick breakfast at Panera before heading out for 12 more hours of music - this time all of it outdoors in bright sunshine and 95 degree heat.

Thanks for checking in while I'm out. (More detail (including pictures), for those interested, can be found at Bluegrass & Honky Tonks.)

Road Trip - The Drive

A few miles down the highway from Texarkana, Arkansas

The driving went so well yesterday that I decided to drive straight on through rather than to break the drive into two days. I ended up driving 933 miles, arriving in Owensboro just over 15 hours after I left my driveway. I've made this drive four times now and, for whatever reason, drivers seemed more laid back and willing to drive the speed limit than ever before. In the past, I've seen a few crazy ones on the road who seem determined to lead each little pack of vehicles they encounter - regardless of the fact that there's always a new pack just ahead of them. That didn't happen this time.

I also noticed there were far fewer truckers on the road yesterday than in previous years. I-40 is usually packed with them; this year they didn't seem to be nearly so numerous and that helped to keep things moving at the speed limit - and just beyond it. Maybe the economy really is having an impact on truckers.

It's still early in the morning but the music starts at 11:00 when a bunch of regional bands begin the festivities across the street from the Museum at Woodward's Cafe. Six bands are scheduled to perform up to about 5:00 and then there's a two-hour break before the big show with Mike Snider, Marty Stuart, and the Del McCoury Band.

Everything is indoor's until Friday when the two days at Yellow Creek Park start - and it is Hot, with a capital "H." And Humid deserves a capital of its own. Reminds me of home.

I didn't get much reading done - just 26 pages all day long, and that was before I left home. I'm well into Lawrence Block's memoir about his walking expereriences and I'm enjoying the book more and more. It started off a bit to slowly and, for just a couple of seconds, I was tempted to toss it aside. I'm happy that I didn't.

I plan to have lots of pictures, and some video, about the festival. Most of it will probably not be on Book Chase, however. If you're interested in that kind of thing, take a look at Bluegrass & Honky Tonks, my second internet home. Hope to see some of you there - now it's off to get this day started for real...

Road Trip - On the Road Again!

Just a quick note to tell everyone that I will be "on the road again" beginning tomorrow morning. I'm heading back to Owensboro, KY, for four glorious days of bluegrass music presented by the International Bluegrass Music Museum there.

I plan to get in a lot of music, a little reading, and some blogging while I'm away. Much of the blogging is likely to be on my other blog, Bluegrass & Honky Tonks, but I won't completely disappear from here either because I'm dragging at least half a dozen books with me and hope to actually finish a couple of them.

I won't arrive back in Houston until June 29 so things will be a little ragged for a while. I feel sort of like this little guy:




BTW, the Kate Atkinson review I posted this afternoon was my 1000th post on Book Chase and that is a great excuse for a book giveaway. I'll think about it this week and we'll do something when I get home.