Tue 27 Jan 2015
Reviewed by Mark D. Nevins: JOHN D. MacDONALD – The Green Ripper.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
JOHN D. MacDONALD – The Green Ripper. J. B. Lippincott, hardcover, 1979. Fawcett Gold Medal, paperback, 1981. Reprinted many times since.
I noted in my review of the previous entry in the Travis McGee series, The Empty Copper Sea, that the overall tone of the books seemed to be changing — and with The Green Ripper, the change is really palpable.
To start, this book follows directly from the prior: one lovely lass in danger in Copper actually lived through that book’s climax (“Travis Girls” have even less likelihood of survival than “Bond Girls”), and by the beginning of Green, Travis is starting to think “she’s the one.”
Of course, that doesn’t last long, and the main plot trajectory is McGee going undercover to infiltrate a religious cult that’s up to no good. (I’m avoiding spoilers that you can probably guess.)
Published in 1979, this story feels a lot more current and “real” than the Gold Medal vibe of the first 3/4ths of the series: the story is plausible (and foreshadows events like Waco, Texas); Travis comes alive as a character in his anger and frustrated helplessness; and the overall feeling is much more Nightly News than Drug Store Spinner Rack: it’s like the Polaroid colors of the rest of the series snap into something more like digital focus in Green.
In some ways I miss the nostalgia of the earlier series, but the verisimilitude and violence in this one show MacDonald working at a new level. This is a fine thriller, and would work great as a stand-alone for a new reader; but in the context of the 21-book series (with, I am lamenting, only 3 more to go) The Green Ripper is a real high point as well as a powerful inflection point.
Since one of the things that pleases me most about this series is MacDonald’s “literariness” via McGee’s voice, I’ll again share a passage I dog-eared:
and
January 27th, 2015 at 9:38 pm
The last line of this one still sticks with me. Up to this book I had liked MacDonald’s non McGee’s better in general, but this one changed my mind. A mature book and as stated above one that not only stands alone, but in many ways could have been a brilliant thriller without McGee.
What amazes me about the literary voice, I always think of it as novelistic, is that it never sounds false to McGee. It never feels like MacDonald putting things in McGee’s mouth that McGee wouldn’t think or know.
From the beginning McGee felt authentic, but from this point on he became something more. He became a moral conscience, and not always an easy one for himself or readers. His self recognition here and in later books is at times devastating.
January 28th, 2015 at 12:38 am
I haven’t read all of the books in the Travis McGee series, and those I have read, I don’t remember the details all that well any more.
What I do remember is reading this one and being blown away. If this one isn’t the best one, then any of the ones that are better are doozies.
Both Mark and David have nailed it. I’m glad you agree with me!