Read Online In Pursuit of Spenser by Otto Penzler - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Otto Penzler
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their mothers.
Two cars try to box him in on the highway. Spenser pushes her down on the floor, goes up on the curb to pass the car in front of him, scraping his bumper down its side, and gets away.
Spenser blames himself for letting them nearly box him in, feeling he should have noticed them sooner: “I was too busy arguing patristic nomenclature with you.”
Not bad for a man who just eluded two cars that tried to force him off the road in order to kill the woman he was protecting. The remark is clever, belittling and dignifying the subject at the same time, while demonstrating Spenser’s facility with language and the concept and mocking the discussion, him, and her by the use of the literate prose. Moreover, he does this with a short, descriptive sentence that is spot on. A trial attorney’s long-winded argument, citing precedent after precedent, could not convey more than his simple statement does.
Later, in the bar, Rachel describes the incident to her friend, Julie, suggesting that Spenser may have made up the whole thing: “Well, I was on the floor, and he swerved around a lot, and then the car behind us was gone. I can’t speak for sure myself. And if I were convinced no one were after me, Spenser would be out of work.”
Spenser retorts: “Aw, you’d want me around anyway. All you chicks want a guy to look after you.”
The comment is short, punchy, and effective, neatly dismissing Rachel’s insinuation by ignoring it, and using an outrageous barb particularly offensive to a feminist. The fact that Julie is Rachel’s lover adds yet another dimension to the wisecrack.
Spenser’s quips are often deceptively simple. “I’m going to beat your man,” Spenser tells Kevin Bartlett in God Save the Child , “so you’ll know it can be done.” Spenser needs to kill a fourteen-year-old boy’s admiration of the steroidal body builder. The only way to do it is by beating the guy senseless. Which he proceeds to do. But that simple declarative statement of intent, confident, assured, matter-of-fact, is probably as impressive as the actual act. And this is usually the way Spenser behaves: forthrightly, with little guile.
On the other hand, his humorous quips often have layers of meaning. When Rachel’s editor expresses surprise that Spenser has read the feminist book The Second Sex , Spenser says: “Don’t tell the guys down the gym. They’ll think I’m a fairy.”
He is joking, yet the remark is absolutely true. The guys at the gym would find his choice of reading matter effeminate and subject for ridicule. And yet the remark is still facetious, because, while this might be true, it would not bother Spenser one bit. The opinion of ignorant louts who know no better does not concern him. He would think nothing of reading a book in the aforementioned locker room, and if some steroidal blockhead took it as a sign of weakness and decided to pick on him, he would be confident he could put the jerk in his place. Though he wouldn’t feel it necessary to demonstrate his physical superiority, he would be quite content in issuing a verbal slap-down, whether his tauntercould understand it or not. In either case, he would be calm, controlled, and comfortable in his own skin.
Through comments like these, too, we begin to see who Spenser is. His remarks embody a whole philosophy, a whole lifestyle, an attitude toward the world. We see here, for instance, that he doesn’t care what (most) people think of him. The same is true in a strip club in Ceremony , where Spenser is looking for a teenage prostitute named April Kyle and is menaced by three toughs: “Come on, smart ass . . . We going someplace and see how tough you are.”
Spenser replies, “You can find that out right now. I’m tough enough not to go.”
It doesn’t matter whether these toughs believe Spenser can take them. He knows he can hold his own. And that’s all he needs.
That Spenser can sit calmly and wisecrack while being threatened just
Two cars try to box him in on the highway. Spenser pushes her down on the floor, goes up on the curb to pass the car in front of him, scraping his bumper down its side, and gets away.
Spenser blames himself for letting them nearly box him in, feeling he should have noticed them sooner: “I was too busy arguing patristic nomenclature with you.”
Not bad for a man who just eluded two cars that tried to force him off the road in order to kill the woman he was protecting. The remark is clever, belittling and dignifying the subject at the same time, while demonstrating Spenser’s facility with language and the concept and mocking the discussion, him, and her by the use of the literate prose. Moreover, he does this with a short, descriptive sentence that is spot on. A trial attorney’s long-winded argument, citing precedent after precedent, could not convey more than his simple statement does.
Later, in the bar, Rachel describes the incident to her friend, Julie, suggesting that Spenser may have made up the whole thing: “Well, I was on the floor, and he swerved around a lot, and then the car behind us was gone. I can’t speak for sure myself. And if I were convinced no one were after me, Spenser would be out of work.”
Spenser retorts: “Aw, you’d want me around anyway. All you chicks want a guy to look after you.”
The comment is short, punchy, and effective, neatly dismissing Rachel’s insinuation by ignoring it, and using an outrageous barb particularly offensive to a feminist. The fact that Julie is Rachel’s lover adds yet another dimension to the wisecrack.
Spenser’s quips are often deceptively simple. “I’m going to beat your man,” Spenser tells Kevin Bartlett in God Save the Child , “so you’ll know it can be done.” Spenser needs to kill a fourteen-year-old boy’s admiration of the steroidal body builder. The only way to do it is by beating the guy senseless. Which he proceeds to do. But that simple declarative statement of intent, confident, assured, matter-of-fact, is probably as impressive as the actual act. And this is usually the way Spenser behaves: forthrightly, with little guile.
On the other hand, his humorous quips often have layers of meaning. When Rachel’s editor expresses surprise that Spenser has read the feminist book The Second Sex , Spenser says: “Don’t tell the guys down the gym. They’ll think I’m a fairy.”
He is joking, yet the remark is absolutely true. The guys at the gym would find his choice of reading matter effeminate and subject for ridicule. And yet the remark is still facetious, because, while this might be true, it would not bother Spenser one bit. The opinion of ignorant louts who know no better does not concern him. He would think nothing of reading a book in the aforementioned locker room, and if some steroidal blockhead took it as a sign of weakness and decided to pick on him, he would be confident he could put the jerk in his place. Though he wouldn’t feel it necessary to demonstrate his physical superiority, he would be quite content in issuing a verbal slap-down, whether his tauntercould understand it or not. In either case, he would be calm, controlled, and comfortable in his own skin.
Through comments like these, too, we begin to see who Spenser is. His remarks embody a whole philosophy, a whole lifestyle, an attitude toward the world. We see here, for instance, that he doesn’t care what (most) people think of him. The same is true in a strip club in Ceremony , where Spenser is looking for a teenage prostitute named April Kyle and is menaced by three toughs: “Come on, smart ass . . . We going someplace and see how tough you are.”
Spenser replies, “You can find that out right now. I’m tough enough not to go.”
It doesn’t matter whether these toughs believe Spenser can take them. He knows he can hold his own. And that’s all he needs.
That Spenser can sit calmly and wisecrack while being threatened just
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