Bony and the White Savage

[ellenkushner]

In preparation for our trip to Australia, I've been reading the "Bony" (Inspector Bonaparte) mid-century mystery novels by Arthur Upfield, lent me by Mr. Henry Wessells of Temporary Culture (& James Cummins Booksellers).

They include such memorable passages as:

"While one counted ten, the sky at zenith above the ridge to the graveyard of the sun was a soiled pink drape, becoming as the wrapping of a five-thousand-year-old-mummy before night came to obliterate the obscenity."
and
"'My old man!  He could do anything with nothing but his sweat.'"

But I must admit my favorite bit is the Times Literary Supplement  quote on the back cover flap, which begins:

"Arthur Upfield has an extraordinary gift.  In many of the most elementary ways, he writes badly; and yet somehow in all his long series of books he conjures up, more vividly perhaps than any other popular writer, the feel of the Australian outback...."

Yep.  Go, TLS - tell it like it is.

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear it — I have to say that when I heard it was Australian I immediately thought, "Boy, I hoped it's not Americanized (http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/habo-the-rancher-and-the-vegetarian/)." (Yes — clearly I have been spending my Internet time in all the wrong places.)

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

It isn't, AFAIK, an actual catchphrase, but it hits a bunch of the right notes.