Jay Russell (1) (1961–)

review of
Jay Russell's Brown Harvest
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 27, 2017

This is the truncated review, read the full one here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/527150-diarrhea-harvest?chapter=0

Having already reviewed Bruce Hale's The Malted Falcon (2003) ( rel="nofollow" target="_top">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3457691-the-malted-falcon ) & Anne Capeci's The Maltese Dog (1998) ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5078613-the-maltese-dog ) wch are both knock-offs of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1929) & Roy V. Young's Captains Outrageous Or, For Doom the Bell Tolls (1994) ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/416565.Captains_Outrageous ) w/ its at least titular references to both Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous & Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls I reckon I'm working toward becoming a minor 'expert' on this genre of derivative intertextual bks.

Of the related bks in this genre (of sorts) in my personal collection I still have Ben H. Winters's Android Karenina (2010) & Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) (there's even a 2016 movie from this one!) & Regina Jeffers's Captain Wentworth's Persuasion to go.. AND the "Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys in A Ghost in the Closet (1995) by Mabel Maney.. but I'm not in any hurry to read any of them. It's hard to believe that such bks have been around for at least 23 yrs now.

Actually, I suppose one cd date them even further back to things like Kathy Acker's work whose publishing dates back to 1972. I've only read her Blood and Guts in High School (copyrighted 1978 but not published until 1984) wch I hated but skimming thru it again now it looks more interesting than I remembered so I might give her another read. I see that there's a post-mortem publication by her entitled "Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective" (pub. 2002 from manuscript of 1973) that fits in even more neatly here. Then there's Stewart Home's series of novels that started w/ his Pure Mania (1989) knock-off of Richard Allen's skinhead novels.

SO, Brown Harvest, knock-off of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest (1929): Red Harvest is an important bk to me, Brown Harvest isn't.. but, still, I wanted to read it b/c I love Red Harvest so much. To quote the entirety of my capsule review of that:

"This subject is probably discussed at great scholarly length elsewhere (perhaps in Joshua Waletsky's 1999 documentary "Dashiell Hammett: Detective, Writer") but, at the moment, I'm not sure where, so I'll add my 2¢'s worth: "Red Harvest" is about a detective hired to 'clean up' a town who pits various gangsters against each other in the process & destabilizes the criminal community into a bloodbath, a Red Harvest. The detective becomes increasingly psychotic as he begins to enjoy the mayhem he catalyzes. NOW, Hammett was a Pinkerton. The Pinkertons were strike breakers & union busters - mercenaries for robber barons, capitalism's thugs. Hammett was a Pinkerton in the town where the Anaconda Copper Mining Company was busy exploiting workers, ruining the environment, & making huge wads'o'dough. An IWW (International Workers of the World) union rep came there to agitate for better conditions. He was murdered. What was Hammett's connection, if any, to all this? & did it inspire the writing of "Red Harvest"? Hammett later went to jail for refusing to snitch to HUAC (House Unamerican Affairs Committee). Hopefully, I haven't garbled this story too much. I'm writing these reviews mostly off the top of my head."

That Goodreads review was written December 26, 2007 when I was 1st starting to write reviews on Goodreads so it's very minimal & written long after I'd read the bk. To expand on it a bit here:

"On April 19, 1920, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Metal Mine Workers Industrial Union called for a strike in the mines around Butte. They hoped the strike would help secure higher wages, an eight-hour day, and end the use of the rustling card, a system that allowed employers to blacklist employees involved in union organizing, among other goals. The strike came at a weak point for the union movement in Butte. World War I had undermined the power of the Butte Miners Union and the mines around the town were open shops. Only six years earlier, in 1914, the Butte Miners Union Hall had been destroyed. Rising copper prices, fatal mining accidents, and recruitment by the IWW had further exacerbated tensions in the town. Three years before the strike, an IWW organizer named Frank Little was beaten and hanged from a railroad trestle by unknown assailants. Thus, the strike began in an atmosphere of tension." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Road_massacre

SO the IWW's Frank Little was murdered in 1917. Hammett "left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He served as an operative for Pinkerton from 1915 to February 1922, with time off to serve in World War I. The agency's role in union strike-breaking eventually left him disillusioned." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell_Hammett )

"The story goes that in 1917, Dashiell Hammett was offered $5,000 by an officer of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company to kill labor union organizer Frank Little, who had come to Butte, Mont., to stir up striking miners. Hammett, who was working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency as a strikebreaker, declined the offer. Little was killed, and it was believed that other Pinkertons may have been behind his lynching. Despite it all, Hammett stuck with the Pinkerton job.

"The story has become pivotal for many people attempting to understand Hammett and his work, which includes the novels “Red Harvest,” “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Thin Man,” and many short stories. Hammett’s longtime lover Lillian Hellman once called the tale “a kind of key to his life,” and novelist James Ellroy linked the episode to “the great theme of [Hammett’s] work.”

"Trouble is, the story probably isn’t true.

"And that’s not news, by the way. Hammett’s biographer Richard Layman called the story “implausible” in his 1981 book “Shadow Man,” and Ellroy has labeled it “mythic.” But in his new book, “The Lost Detective,” Nathan Ward analyzes and dismantles the claim in more detail, part of an extensive bid to clarify Hammett’s early years and his transformation into one of the most influential crime writers of all time." - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/separating-fact-from-fiction-in-dashiell...

I don't necessarily believe the above assertion of 'implausibility' but, then, I haven't read The Lost Detective. Be that as it may, Red Harvest has always struck me as a critique of detectives rather than a glorification of them. Red Harvest strikes me as a deeply felt story rooted in actual personal experiences while Brown Harvest is more of a literary exercise detached from direct detective experience. I don't respect it nearly as much as I do Red Harvest. Still, I enjoyed it.

Of course, the thing's full of literary references & a big part of the fun of reading it is to recognize them. Chapter I is entitled "A Man in Brown and a Woman in White": I don't know whether "A Man in Brown" is a reference or not & I'm not going to look it up b/c that wd spoil the process of relying on my own memory for me. "a Woman in White" is, presumably, a reference to Wilkie Collins's 5th novel, 1859, & considered to be one of the earliest mystery novels.

The protagonist is returning to his once small hometown after a 20 yr absence. He'd been the boy detective, the son of the police chief, & the smartest-boy-in-town (or so it was thought at the time). Life ain't what it usta be (or never really was) & his town's had its name changed by his archnemesis from childhood, a greedy unscrupulous man who owns a big software company:

"WELCOME TO IDEAVILLE
Our past is your future
sponsored by Black X Software,
a Blackwell Unlimited Company

"Ideaville.

"They'd gone and changed the town's name to something out of some Stalinist wet dream." - p 2

Chapter I of Hammett's Red Harvest is called "A Woman in Green and A Man in Gray". It's 1st paragraph is this:

"I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit. I didn't think anything of what he had done to the city's name. Later I heard men who could manage their r's give it the same pronunciation. I still didn't see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make richardsnary the thieves' word for dictionary. A few years later I went to Personville and learned better."

"richardsnary" seems to be quasi or faux Cockney Rhyming Slang. Anyway, "Ideaville"'s a nice touch, a seemingly optimistic name for a town that's as bogus as any other PR that covers vicious competition & other ruthless business practices. In 'Poisonville' it was gangsters competing, in Ideaville it's video game companies.

Our grown-up boy detective notices the changes around town:

"Clearly the current population of Ideaville need never go in want to low-calorie frozen yogurt or blueberry bagels or one-hour photo processing (with double prints)." - p 12

"I walked up Pinkwater Avenue instead, tried" [to] "not get depressed by the enormous Blockbuster Video that stood where a row of stores, including the old taxidermy shop, used to be." - p 16

Blockbuster managed to last for 28 yrs before they closed in 2013. It seems to me that "one-hour photo processing" was long gone by then. After local processing stopped, I'd send film to Dwayne's. Then, also in 2013:

"But now Kodachrome, the first commercially successful colour film, has become history itself after it was developed for the last time yesterday.

"Dwayne's Photo, a family-run business in Parsons, Kansas, was the last place in the world where the 75-year-old Kodak product could be developed.

"The die was cast after Kodak announced in June last year that it would stop making the chemicals needed to develop Kodachrome in a round of cost-cutting after the company reported a £84million loss."

- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1343015/Last-roll-Kodachrome-film...

SO Both one-hour photo processing & Blockbuster are things-to-be-remembered-w/-nostalgia now - a mere 16 yrs after this bk was published. Nonetheless, the process of corporatization is still ongoing. Every local hardware store I went to in my area is now out-of-business having collapsed from the Home Depot competition.

"On up Industry Street, I recognized nothing at all. The mom-and-pop storefronts of my youth had all given way to the familiar franchise names that litter mains streets everywhere, offering the comfort of the dull, the easy, the familiar and monstrously corporate." - p 14

Russell's 70 yrs later dystopia is no longer so obviously the domain of the local crime bosses, as it was in the time of Red Harvest, it's now the domain of the metaphorical absentee landlords, the people who won't even spend their vast wealth locally.

Chapter II is "The Little Sister", "The Little Sister" is the name of Raymond Chandler's 5th novel (1949), another great one. Our hero continues to note the changes to his home town:

"The pool hall across the street was, at least, still a pool hall. Way back when, it had been the hangout for a pack of local greasers who called themselves the Lions. They were a "gang" who were a few years older than me and were serious enough about juvenile delinquincy (jeez, does anybody even use that phrase anymore? Other than me, I mean?) that even I knew better than to tangle with them. Of course, in the modern context of Crips and Bloods, with their Glocks and hookers and Columbian coke connections, the Lions' zip-guns seem as quaint as powder horns and muskets." - p 26

I'm pickin' up what he's puttin' down. When I was in high school in the late 1960s & early 1970s kids in my school stabbed each other w/ pins. That was about as bad as it got there. At the 'bad' school, Pimlico High, near the horse race track, the kids used knives. Ahh.. in another 20 yrs people will be nostalgic about automatic weapons in high school once the innovators bring in biological weapons & dirty bombs. (DO NOT DO THIS, PLEASE!!)

"The doughnut machine started spitting out blobs unbidden. One after another, little squirts of heaven were ejaculated from the nozzle and plopped into the hot fat, The counter man started punching at the off button, but the machine wouldn't respond, just kept spurting out sinkers." - p 73

Ok, that's got to be a reference to one of my favorite kids bks: Robert McCloskey's Homer Price (1943). Just as w/ the reference to Blockbusters & one-hour photo processing, even though this bk was published in 2001, it already seems dated. That's how much the world has changed in 16 yrs.

"I had to pass through a metal detector inside the door, beneath the unhappy gaze of a uniformed officer. My loose change set off the alarm, so I had to empty my pockets and go through a second time. It held up the line and evoked a few more muttered curses from behind.

""You really have security problems here?" I asked, depositing my money back in my pockets.

""Can't be too careful," the guard said, and shrugged." - p 75

The 1st time I remember going thru a metal detector was in 1978 when I went to the MOVE 9 trial in Philadelphia. Their prosecution shd've just been called a persecution since that's all it ever was. Anyway, I think the above quote shows that the bk was written pre-9/11 b/c the idea of even questioning "security problems" has practically disappeared. The hero was lucky he didn't have to take his shoes off.

The other Hammett knock-offs I've already read & reviewed, The Maltese Dog & The Malted Falcon were kid's bks. Brown Harvest definitely isn't. Our hero's dad, who our hero didn't realize was corrupt when he was a kid, has been demoted to "Drug Czar", a mocking title for his presumed duties as an investigator of illegal drug activities. Way back when, he was exposed for fucking underage girls, including ones even younger than his son.

"he was the invisible hand of decency that kept even a quiet Midwestern burg from crossing too far over the already unsteady line of its own uncertain moral disorder.

"Until, that is, he started taking kickbacks from property developers.

"And blow-jobs from underage whores." - p 81

Russell ends Brown Harvest w/ "Acknowledgements". Truly telling about how much life has changed since the '50s is the last paragraph of this:

"And Rosie, if ever you read this goofy book, remember that your dad promises to never be like the Czar, though you'll always be his little czarina." - p 341

The father-son have a little talk.. after 20 yrs of separation:

""Getting much these days?" I asked.

"He frowned in puzzlement, then followed my gaze to the stickers. A wave of anger passed across his face, but it dived off just as quickly into the fresh glass of gin.

""Probably as much as you got in prison," he slurped. "'Cept I don't have to bend over to get mine."

""Son of a . . ."

""Didn't think I knew about that, huh? You ain't got the patent on knowing, sly boots. What was it now? Three years in a . . . medium-security facility, was it? Computer fraud, right?"

"I felt a fury in my gut, tried not to let it show. "I was a hacker," I said as calmly as I could." - p 83

Chapter V is named "Continental Ops" referring to what I think of as Hammett's earliest short-story collection. Our hero's childhood love, Sandy, whose funeral he's come back for, is revealed as having betrayed him in a way that set off the chain of down-uppance:

""You were set up, loser!"

""What are you saying?"

""Who told you about that deal? Where did you get your, as it turned out, very bad information from?"

"I hadn't thought about any of this in years. I didn't like to think about it. But I cast my mind back to the details of that final, awfui case and . . .

""Sandy," I gasped." - p 95

The Hardy Boys always solve their case & come out solid. Our boy detective gets used, fucks up, & comes out diarrhea.

Chapter VI is "Farewell My Lovely", the title of Chandler's 2nd novel (1940).

Russell's critique of what was contemporary American society way back when in 2001 includes the eeriness of what I call Professional Smilers:

""My name is Vi. Welcome to the Boxcar."

""Uhhh . . . . nice to be here."

""Yes it is, isn't it. It's so nice. So very nice."

"She reached up and pulled on a string which dangled just behind my left shoulder. A dinner bell, fashioned out of a large, dented tin can, rang out with a tome as true as the finest Stradivari.

""All aboard!" she called out and everyone in the place looked our way. Each and every diner had a big smile plastered on his face. A few even nodded at me. I looked around for Rod Serling but couldn't spot him." - p 116

How long before "Stradivari" is too obscure a cultural reference? My spellcheck doesn't recognize it, of course. How long before "Rod Serling"'s something no-one I personally know will recognize. That may already be the case w/ anyone under 40.

"west of town at Miller's Crossing" (p 142): I think of the Coen Brothers movie w/ that one. I've seen "Miller's Crossing" but I didn't even realize it was based on Hammett's The Glass Key (1931). Duh.

Chapter VII is "Playback", the title of Chandler's last novel (1958).

Given that Ideaville is a gamer town, there're bound to be gamer addicts:

""Den's a gamer, isn't he?" I said.

"Sand shrugged, half-nodded.

""How bad?"

""You see how he looks," she said, matter-of-factly.

""Terminal?"" - p 165

Fatal gaming. Too much of a good thing.

"["]You mean that they killed her, right?"

""Oh, yeah."

""And they know that you know? How could they let you live?"

"Sandy turned away again. I do things for them. All kinds of things."

""So they've helped you set all this up?"

""Yes. They use me in their fight against Roach and Blackwell."

""Good. That'll work for us."" - p 172

Let's cf that to the beginning of chapter IX of Red Harvest, shall we?:

"We had another drink.

"She put her glass down, licked her lips, and said:

""If stirring things up is your system, I've got a swell spoon for you. Did you ever heard of Noonan's brother Tim, the one who committed suicide out at Mock Lake a couple of years ago?"

""No."

""You wouldn't have heard much good. Anyway, he didn't commit suicide. Max killed him."

""Yeah?"

""For God's sake wake up. This I'm giving you is real. Noonan was like a father to Tim. Take the proof to him and he'll be after Max like it's nobody's business. That's what you want, isn't it?"

""We've got proof?"

""Two people got to Tim before he died, and he told them Max had done it. They're both still in town, though one won't live a lot longer. How's that?"

"She looked as if she were telling the truth, though with women, especially blue-eyed women, that doesn't always mean anything."… (mere)