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A Flash of Green
A classic novel by John D. MacDonald with an exclusive introduction written and read by Dean Koontz.
A Flash of Green tells the gripping story of small-town corruption and two people brave enough to fight back, featuring many of the themes John D. MacDonald explored better than anyone in his legendary career as a leading crime novelist. The opportunists have taken over Palm City. Silent and deadly, like the snakes that infest the nearby swamps, they lay hidden from view, waiting for the right moment to strike. Political subterfuge has already eased the residents toward selling out. All that's left now is to silence a few stubborn holdouts.
James Wing is only trying to help a friend's widow. At least that's what he tells himself after warning Kat Hubble that the beautiful bay she and her neighbors have struggled to save is going to be sold to developers. He knows that he shouldn't have told her anything. He's a reporter, trained to reveal nothing. But he's falling in love with her. Now cutthroats have set their sights on Kat—and they'll do anything, use anyone, to stop her from interfering in their plans.
A Flash of Green tells the gripping story of small-town corruption and two people brave enough to fight back, featuring many of the themes John D. MacDonald explored better than anyone in his legendary career as a leading crime novelist. The opportunists have taken over Palm City. Silent and deadly, like the snakes that infest the nearby swamps, they lay hidden from view, waiting for the right moment to strike. Political subterfuge has already eased the residents toward selling out. All that's left now is to silence a few stubborn holdouts.
James Wing is only trying to help a friend's widow. At least that's what he tells himself after warning Kat Hubble that the beautiful bay she and her neighbors have struggled to save is going to be sold to developers. He knows that he shouldn't have told her anything. He's a reporter, trained to reveal nothing. But he's falling in love with her. Now cutthroats have set their sights on Kat—and they'll do anything, use anyone, to stop her from interfering in their plans.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
249 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
About the author
John D. MacDonald
567 books1,375 followersJohn D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
December 18, 2024
3 1/2 stars.
A pretty good story from the 60's about shady land development deals, environmentalism and political corruption that dragged on a bit, but terrific complex characterizations. They made this one into a movie
A pretty good story from the 60's about shady land development deals, environmentalism and political corruption that dragged on a bit, but terrific complex characterizations. They made this one into a movie
January 7, 2023
a Flash of Green
First published in 1962, later made into a 1984 movie, A Flash of Green is a lengthy novel about reality crushing your dreams. The surface story is about development on Florida’s coast and the flailing do-gooders who want to save the public land for its beauty against the progress of economic power. Jimmy Wing, crack reporter for the local paper, is sweet on Kat Hubble, his best friend’s widow, but he doesn’t want her to know he’s now in bed with Elmo Bliss, the power behind the development and who is the ambitious county commissioner out to become Governor.
Wing, whose wife has been institutionalized after losing her mind, is brought in by Elmo because he is close to some of the folks in Save our Bay and can softly convince them to back down. Trouble though is stopping the opposition calls for a tough hand, tougher than Wing has a stomach for, and the kind of swamp hick pressure that is brought to bear is more than anyone can bear including exposing an illicit relationship, exposing an art curator’s homosexuality, complete with secret recordings, endless threatening phone calls, and a public whipping of someone. In the end, the personal grief these people are made to suffer, the way they are one by one personally broken, drives them not only out of the political fight, but entirely out of town.
Wing was never one for tilting at windmills, but his involvement in the vicious personal attacks changed him. Suddenly, everything is dirty, everything is corrupted. The bright Florida sunshine can’t hide the darkness spreading over the land.
The story, which at times can feel a bit too lengthy, is all about the slow corruption of the soul and the awful compromises made in the name of progress.
First published in 1962, later made into a 1984 movie, A Flash of Green is a lengthy novel about reality crushing your dreams. The surface story is about development on Florida’s coast and the flailing do-gooders who want to save the public land for its beauty against the progress of economic power. Jimmy Wing, crack reporter for the local paper, is sweet on Kat Hubble, his best friend’s widow, but he doesn’t want her to know he’s now in bed with Elmo Bliss, the power behind the development and who is the ambitious county commissioner out to become Governor.
Wing, whose wife has been institutionalized after losing her mind, is brought in by Elmo because he is close to some of the folks in Save our Bay and can softly convince them to back down. Trouble though is stopping the opposition calls for a tough hand, tougher than Wing has a stomach for, and the kind of swamp hick pressure that is brought to bear is more than anyone can bear including exposing an illicit relationship, exposing an art curator’s homosexuality, complete with secret recordings, endless threatening phone calls, and a public whipping of someone. In the end, the personal grief these people are made to suffer, the way they are one by one personally broken, drives them not only out of the political fight, but entirely out of town.
Wing was never one for tilting at windmills, but his involvement in the vicious personal attacks changed him. Suddenly, everything is dirty, everything is corrupted. The bright Florida sunshine can’t hide the darkness spreading over the land.
The story, which at times can feel a bit too lengthy, is all about the slow corruption of the soul and the awful compromises made in the name of progress.
September 16, 2011
John D McDonald is one of readings guilty pleasures. Takes you back to the 1960's and the knights of old.
May 13, 2020
A 1962 novel about greed, political corruption, and conservation set in the sixties.
A taut, complex novel, strong plotted but focused on character. MacDonald presents recognizable people full of complications and contradictions. His development of even minor characters is deeply insightful. Also, somewhat surprisingly for the time of the novel’s writing, the women are strong and independent.
His style is clear and clean. His descriptions of Florida evocative and occasionally poetic. But the novel tells an ugly story and MacDonald spares no one in his condemnation of American capitalism’s headlong rush to make money which despoils the environment and crushes the people who stand in its way.
Carl Hiaasen’s books about South Florida and its curdled culture are companion works of sorts and owe a lot to MacDonald’s previous mining of this territory.
A taut, complex novel, strong plotted but focused on character. MacDonald presents recognizable people full of complications and contradictions. His development of even minor characters is deeply insightful. Also, somewhat surprisingly for the time of the novel’s writing, the women are strong and independent.
His style is clear and clean. His descriptions of Florida evocative and occasionally poetic. But the novel tells an ugly story and MacDonald spares no one in his condemnation of American capitalism’s headlong rush to make money which despoils the environment and crushes the people who stand in its way.
Carl Hiaasen’s books about South Florida and its curdled culture are companion works of sorts and owe a lot to MacDonald’s previous mining of this territory.
October 16, 2020
"You're bright and you're capable, James. And you've done very damn little with those qualities. You seem satisfied to stay where you are and be what you are. You're not hungry. There isn't anything you want badly enough to go after it. The best way to control men is through their hunger, whether it's for money, fame, importance, power, liquor, women, gambling, or what have you. You're a bored man, James."
"D**n it, Jimmy, I got a word for you. You're morose. You got the sour uglies most of the time. Look out there are that great big broad sunshiny world, crammed full of people having a time. It's a big world full of beaches and girls and sport cars. Full of bowling alleys and golf courses and cold beer. The things you get so broody about, why, they don't matter a damn to those folks. They want ball games, Westerns, the next drink, the next steak, the next roll in the hay. They can get a little jumpy about being blowed up with atom bombs, but aside from that one thing, you can hardly attract their attention. We'll just be another part of the entertainment business, Jimmy, after we really get rolling. You give those people a few laughs and a little excitement, and they'll love you forever."
It drives me nuts when people judge John D. MacDonald by his Travis McGee novels, those shiny little blasts of lazy entertainment, aspirational-lifestyle cigarettes that gave MacDonald that comfortable living after his better word, his standalones, slogged along, largely ignored by critics and not noticed enough by the buying public. Judging MacDonald by the shallow contrivances he was forced to write in order to make a decent living is like judging Bruce Springsteen strictly by his charting singles. The McGees began shortly after A FLASH OF GREEN, a truly great and ambitious American novel of big themes and beautiful writing, didn't find a place in the world worthy of its ambition and achievement.
The story: Grassy Bay is a beautiful wildlife sanctuary on Florida's Gulf Coast. But it's also the last stretch of undeveloped beachfront in Palm County, and when well-connected local business and government leaders decide to band together to buy and develop it, they don't want any static from the organized opposition that stopped outside developers a few years before. Caught between those two forces is local-boy newspaperman Jimmy Wing, whose complacency is challenged when the widow he secretly pines for, Kat Hubble, asks him to help the Save the Bay cause however he can — even as Elmo Bliss, the silent partner steering the Palmland development scheme, asks Jimmy to do opposition research for pay, digging up dirt that can be used to keep the environmentalists quiet. Jimmy plays both sides as well as he can, bouncing from bungalows to beach clubs to backrooms with shambling aplomb, but inevitably his fence-straddling isn't artful enough to pass inspection with the dozens keeping an eye on him, and then he has to do the thing he's least interested in doing, which is stand apart and take a principled stand.
I could write pages about the brilliance of A FLASH OF GREEN, but I'll boil it down to bullet points:
1. If the hallmark of a great novel is its quotability, then A FLASH OF GREEN is one of the great books of all time. I highlighted 117 passages that gave me such pleasure, for their evocative expression as well as their human insight, that I know I'll reread them constantly and catch myself applying them in my real life to the people I know: the repressed, the avaricious, the complacent, the neurotic, the self-deceiving, the duplicitous, the shallow, the soft. John D. MacDonald knows every kind of person there is, and he knows how to use words as scalpels to cut through the soft tissue and get to the essential organs.
2. A FLASH OF GREEN, published nearly 60 years ago, is that rare novel that has complete relevance today. Who doesn't live in a community that hasn't, at some point, been put in the sniper-scope sights of gentrification? Who hasn't seen a historical building torn down for a parking lot or a condominium complex, or seen natural beauty clipped, boxed, shaved or filled to make way for some wealthy developer's personal growth obsession? The answer: damn near nobody. A FLASH OF GREEN should be part of the great canon of American literature, taught in college, as much for its clear eye on the continuing world as the piercing clarity with which that eye translates what it sees into words of shattering truth and beauty.
3. A FLASH OF GREEN proves that mystery and suspense can be cranked up to heights of excruciating pleasure without the formula pleasures of the crime genre. Like murders, or the boy who gets the girl, or the takedown of the evil genius. It is the rare novel that provides genre pleasures without feeding into genre-reader expectations. It is concerned with things so big that mere form cannot contain them, and that is nothing but a good thing in the hands of somebody with a steady whip hand. And John D. MacDonald has that kind of maestro control over tone, theme, character, plot and pace.
4. If you read A FLASH OF GREEN — and any of a dozen of MacDonald standalones just as good — you'll see the Travis McGee novels as the comparatively pallid, push-button, plastic pleasures they are. It's a good thing to know an artist is capable of doing work that connects with the prurient interests of a wide cross-section of the public. And it's a better thing to know that the artist's heart is somewhere else.
"People down here seem to despise natural beauty. It seems to make them terribly uneasy. They don't really feel secure until they can see asphalt in every direction, and they don't trust a tree unless they've grown it themselves."
"D**n it, Jimmy, I got a word for you. You're morose. You got the sour uglies most of the time. Look out there are that great big broad sunshiny world, crammed full of people having a time. It's a big world full of beaches and girls and sport cars. Full of bowling alleys and golf courses and cold beer. The things you get so broody about, why, they don't matter a damn to those folks. They want ball games, Westerns, the next drink, the next steak, the next roll in the hay. They can get a little jumpy about being blowed up with atom bombs, but aside from that one thing, you can hardly attract their attention. We'll just be another part of the entertainment business, Jimmy, after we really get rolling. You give those people a few laughs and a little excitement, and they'll love you forever."
It drives me nuts when people judge John D. MacDonald by his Travis McGee novels, those shiny little blasts of lazy entertainment, aspirational-lifestyle cigarettes that gave MacDonald that comfortable living after his better word, his standalones, slogged along, largely ignored by critics and not noticed enough by the buying public. Judging MacDonald by the shallow contrivances he was forced to write in order to make a decent living is like judging Bruce Springsteen strictly by his charting singles. The McGees began shortly after A FLASH OF GREEN, a truly great and ambitious American novel of big themes and beautiful writing, didn't find a place in the world worthy of its ambition and achievement.
The story: Grassy Bay is a beautiful wildlife sanctuary on Florida's Gulf Coast. But it's also the last stretch of undeveloped beachfront in Palm County, and when well-connected local business and government leaders decide to band together to buy and develop it, they don't want any static from the organized opposition that stopped outside developers a few years before. Caught between those two forces is local-boy newspaperman Jimmy Wing, whose complacency is challenged when the widow he secretly pines for, Kat Hubble, asks him to help the Save the Bay cause however he can — even as Elmo Bliss, the silent partner steering the Palmland development scheme, asks Jimmy to do opposition research for pay, digging up dirt that can be used to keep the environmentalists quiet. Jimmy plays both sides as well as he can, bouncing from bungalows to beach clubs to backrooms with shambling aplomb, but inevitably his fence-straddling isn't artful enough to pass inspection with the dozens keeping an eye on him, and then he has to do the thing he's least interested in doing, which is stand apart and take a principled stand.
I could write pages about the brilliance of A FLASH OF GREEN, but I'll boil it down to bullet points:
1. If the hallmark of a great novel is its quotability, then A FLASH OF GREEN is one of the great books of all time. I highlighted 117 passages that gave me such pleasure, for their evocative expression as well as their human insight, that I know I'll reread them constantly and catch myself applying them in my real life to the people I know: the repressed, the avaricious, the complacent, the neurotic, the self-deceiving, the duplicitous, the shallow, the soft. John D. MacDonald knows every kind of person there is, and he knows how to use words as scalpels to cut through the soft tissue and get to the essential organs.
2. A FLASH OF GREEN, published nearly 60 years ago, is that rare novel that has complete relevance today. Who doesn't live in a community that hasn't, at some point, been put in the sniper-scope sights of gentrification? Who hasn't seen a historical building torn down for a parking lot or a condominium complex, or seen natural beauty clipped, boxed, shaved or filled to make way for some wealthy developer's personal growth obsession? The answer: damn near nobody. A FLASH OF GREEN should be part of the great canon of American literature, taught in college, as much for its clear eye on the continuing world as the piercing clarity with which that eye translates what it sees into words of shattering truth and beauty.
3. A FLASH OF GREEN proves that mystery and suspense can be cranked up to heights of excruciating pleasure without the formula pleasures of the crime genre. Like murders, or the boy who gets the girl, or the takedown of the evil genius. It is the rare novel that provides genre pleasures without feeding into genre-reader expectations. It is concerned with things so big that mere form cannot contain them, and that is nothing but a good thing in the hands of somebody with a steady whip hand. And John D. MacDonald has that kind of maestro control over tone, theme, character, plot and pace.
4. If you read A FLASH OF GREEN — and any of a dozen of MacDonald standalones just as good — you'll see the Travis McGee novels as the comparatively pallid, push-button, plastic pleasures they are. It's a good thing to know an artist is capable of doing work that connects with the prurient interests of a wide cross-section of the public. And it's a better thing to know that the artist's heart is somewhere else.
"People down here seem to despise natural beauty. It seems to make them terribly uneasy. They don't really feel secure until they can see asphalt in every direction, and they don't trust a tree unless they've grown it themselves."
July 27, 2010
This book is flawed, but it hits some incredible peaks on the way to its somewhat disappointing conclusion. There are scenes that don't work, but there are also incredible insights into human nature and deep characterizations and observations. This was an ambitious novel for JDM and it has a lot of things to say to us today about issues that still concern humanity: prejudice, greed, small-town politics, journalism and its abuses/powers, rampant "development"... There are times in 'Flash of Green' when it seems as if JDM is describing the 'tea party' mentality of today. Sad, but true.
May 25, 2025
Pick Sides
I always pick a side in a book. The choice was easy in this one.
Bad
Eco-kooks and a newsman.
The Eco-kooks were pretty much what you'd expect, so I guess they were the same back in 1961. Sandal-wearing bird-watchers. Fat woman professors. Homo art-gallery types. Ex-army officers who still used their rank in their names. They were revolting. You'd almost think JDM wanted us to hate them.
The newsman was busy cracking up and saving the day. A complete moron, like Woodward and Bernstein, but not as stupid.
Good
Some real-estate developers.
I guess they've always been the same. They were crooked and loathsome, but they got the job done. I enjoyed Chapter Four, when the Chief Crook lays out his plans. JDM is good at this sort of thing.
Of course, the newsman was Madly in Love with one of the Gretas and we had to plod through his "let me count the ways" musings on Love. It was pretty hard to stomach. As usual.
By now, I'm convinced that JDM wrote all the Harlequin Romance books too. He must have had some serious gambling debts.
If was satisfying to see the Eco-kooks lose big time.
I always pick a side in a book. The choice was easy in this one.
Bad
Eco-kooks and a newsman.
The Eco-kooks were pretty much what you'd expect, so I guess they were the same back in 1961. Sandal-wearing bird-watchers. Fat woman professors. Homo art-gallery types. Ex-army officers who still used their rank in their names. They were revolting. You'd almost think JDM wanted us to hate them.
The newsman was busy cracking up and saving the day. A complete moron, like Woodward and Bernstein, but not as stupid.
Good
Some real-estate developers.
I guess they've always been the same. They were crooked and loathsome, but they got the job done. I enjoyed Chapter Four, when the Chief Crook lays out his plans. JDM is good at this sort of thing.
Of course, the newsman was Madly in Love with one of the Gretas and we had to plod through his "let me count the ways" musings on Love. It was pretty hard to stomach. As usual.
By now, I'm convinced that JDM wrote all the Harlequin Romance books too. He must have had some serious gambling debts.
If was satisfying to see the Eco-kooks lose big time.
October 8, 2025
Ooph was this hard to finish. JDM is one of my favorite authors too. Plodding, bits of scenes that were engaging but overall blah.
November 19, 2022
Fantastic. Grim and pessimistic, but with an immense sympathy for and insight into its characters. Pretty special.
January 4, 2019
Point Blank Podcast Review (pointblankpodcast.com)
Our main topic for discussion is John D. MacDonald’s A Flash of Green, and, boy, did we muck this one up. Published in 1962, A Flash of Green precedes MacDonald’s best known creation — the character of Travis McGee, who doesn’t arrive on the scene until 1964’s The Deep Blue Good-bye
Per Amazon, MacDonald is credited with being one of the earliest to write on the effect of real estate booms on the environment, and his novel A Flash Of Green (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962) is a good example of this.
I love that MacDonald had the cojones and the awareness to see the effect of development on fragile ecosystems. I wish that he made a more exciting book on the topic.
OK — here’s what happens.
Jimmy Wing is a journalist in Palm City a sleepy town on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Elmo Bliss is the rich, powerful local real estate tycoon with political ambitions. He’s an asshole, but he’s also complex and interesting
Kat Hubble is the local gal with a heart of gold. She is a widow raising two kids and an activist with Save Our Bay.
Kat doesn’t want to see a new development get built in Grassy Bay (which is stand in for Sarasota Bay).
Boss Hog pays off Jimmy Wing to play the pro-development side on the local paper. This goes against Jimmy’s inclinations, but his wife is in a mental asylum and he’s depressed and so he tosses his moral scruples — if he had any to begin with — into the salt breeze.
He has a crush on Kat Hubble but she doesn’t like him, and her husband, who was his friend, just died. Pretty much the rest of the story is the battle between Elmo Bliss’s band of greedy locals and the white middle-class environmentalists of Save Our Bay.
Jimmy is super lame all the way though before becoming a bad ass at the very end of the story. Most of the story consists of long conversations.
Really: This book takes the danger and excitement of a confrontation of David vs. Goliath and replaces it with the most boring aspects of activism — long tedious meetings, the long game of gaining control of public perception by writing newspaper articles, and long conversations between characters that are not essential to the plot and seem mostly to fill up space and pass the time.
I mean, so many long conversations.
I get that MacDonald is a good writer of Dialogue, but Dialogue ceases to impress when it kills the momentum of a story. And this novel’s momentum — little there there ever is — is constantly stalled by conversations, by indecision, by the introduction of new and unnecessary characters.
I read it because I had to, but I swear to God I would have kicked this book to the curb at page 200 if I had the option.
And at 454 pages in length, this is a long book for nothing to really happen until page 350. And even then, things don’t really happen. And the main character doesn’t really do a good deed until the very end. And before he does that he essentially rapes Kat, the one relatable character.
Where were the editors?
If I were reading this as a mainstream fiction novel, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5. But I was reading it as a crime fiction novel and for this reason I give this book 2.5 out of 5, I’m sorry to our listeners for making you sludge through this Everglades-sized slough of molasses.
Looking forward to a terse thoughtful Travis McGee book to cleanse the palette of this clunker.
Our main topic for discussion is John D. MacDonald’s A Flash of Green, and, boy, did we muck this one up. Published in 1962, A Flash of Green precedes MacDonald’s best known creation — the character of Travis McGee, who doesn’t arrive on the scene until 1964’s The Deep Blue Good-bye
Per Amazon, MacDonald is credited with being one of the earliest to write on the effect of real estate booms on the environment, and his novel A Flash Of Green (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962) is a good example of this.
I love that MacDonald had the cojones and the awareness to see the effect of development on fragile ecosystems. I wish that he made a more exciting book on the topic.
OK — here’s what happens.
Jimmy Wing is a journalist in Palm City a sleepy town on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Elmo Bliss is the rich, powerful local real estate tycoon with political ambitions. He’s an asshole, but he’s also complex and interesting
Kat Hubble is the local gal with a heart of gold. She is a widow raising two kids and an activist with Save Our Bay.
Kat doesn’t want to see a new development get built in Grassy Bay (which is stand in for Sarasota Bay).
Boss Hog pays off Jimmy Wing to play the pro-development side on the local paper. This goes against Jimmy’s inclinations, but his wife is in a mental asylum and he’s depressed and so he tosses his moral scruples — if he had any to begin with — into the salt breeze.
He has a crush on Kat Hubble but she doesn’t like him, and her husband, who was his friend, just died. Pretty much the rest of the story is the battle between Elmo Bliss’s band of greedy locals and the white middle-class environmentalists of Save Our Bay.
Jimmy is super lame all the way though before becoming a bad ass at the very end of the story. Most of the story consists of long conversations.
Really: This book takes the danger and excitement of a confrontation of David vs. Goliath and replaces it with the most boring aspects of activism — long tedious meetings, the long game of gaining control of public perception by writing newspaper articles, and long conversations between characters that are not essential to the plot and seem mostly to fill up space and pass the time.
I mean, so many long conversations.
I get that MacDonald is a good writer of Dialogue, but Dialogue ceases to impress when it kills the momentum of a story. And this novel’s momentum — little there there ever is — is constantly stalled by conversations, by indecision, by the introduction of new and unnecessary characters.
I read it because I had to, but I swear to God I would have kicked this book to the curb at page 200 if I had the option.
And at 454 pages in length, this is a long book for nothing to really happen until page 350. And even then, things don’t really happen. And the main character doesn’t really do a good deed until the very end. And before he does that he essentially rapes Kat, the one relatable character.
Where were the editors?
If I were reading this as a mainstream fiction novel, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5. But I was reading it as a crime fiction novel and for this reason I give this book 2.5 out of 5, I’m sorry to our listeners for making you sludge through this Everglades-sized slough of molasses.
Looking forward to a terse thoughtful Travis McGee book to cleanse the palette of this clunker.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2019
A Flash of Green is a novel by John D MacDonald, and while it has some flaws, it is still well worth reading for fans of his work. The story is small and simple, a sleepy Florida community, having fought off outside developers of their bay now much contend with local businessmen wanting to do the same sort of development. MacDonald puts a lot of time into his characters, making the town feel real, and the story moves through dialogue for the first two third of the book. The final third shifts tone as well as lead character, and moves into high gear as the people behind the development wage war against those defending the natural splendor of their town.
MacDonald has a number of wonderful passages of world weary people giving their sad wisdom about like as well as an impassioned defense of the environment that is before any sort of “green” movement, as the book was published in 1962. It’s tempting to say that for the first two thirds of the book, nothing happens, but that would be to ignore the sense of mood as well as a capturing of a specific time and place that the author wrings his observations and inner truth from. It’s a shame that this was released as a potboiler, because I read through it not much caring as nothing happened. The prose pulled me along, and the sense of people with complicated lives dealing with the day to day permeates the proceedings.
The final conclusion is both realistic and complicated, as MacDonald doesn’t give any easy answers. This isn’t a book where the good guys win by outsmarting the bad guys, the hero gets the girl or anyone lives happily ever after. It just shows that small town politics is as brutal as it has always been, people tend to get more scars as they live their lives, and as time goes on, we are a collection of the choices we make for good or ill. A book about corruption becomes a meditation on aging and the loss of idealism. Many plot threads are dropped or fade into the mist, it takes almost half the novel before things start to happen, but I enjoyed my time with the book.
MacDonald has a number of wonderful passages of world weary people giving their sad wisdom about like as well as an impassioned defense of the environment that is before any sort of “green” movement, as the book was published in 1962. It’s tempting to say that for the first two thirds of the book, nothing happens, but that would be to ignore the sense of mood as well as a capturing of a specific time and place that the author wrings his observations and inner truth from. It’s a shame that this was released as a potboiler, because I read through it not much caring as nothing happened. The prose pulled me along, and the sense of people with complicated lives dealing with the day to day permeates the proceedings.
The final conclusion is both realistic and complicated, as MacDonald doesn’t give any easy answers. This isn’t a book where the good guys win by outsmarting the bad guys, the hero gets the girl or anyone lives happily ever after. It just shows that small town politics is as brutal as it has always been, people tend to get more scars as they live their lives, and as time goes on, we are a collection of the choices we make for good or ill. A book about corruption becomes a meditation on aging and the loss of idealism. Many plot threads are dropped or fade into the mist, it takes almost half the novel before things start to happen, but I enjoyed my time with the book.
January 2, 2020
A long-time fan of MacDonald's Travis McGee books, I have recently begun to read his other (usually earlier) works. A good writer, MacDonald brings the Florida of the 50s and 60s to life. I found "A Flash of Green" to be bit overlong, but the story was interesting and the tragedy didn't fit my preconceived notions of how it would play out. MacDonald's observations of personal interactions might reveal stereotypes that no longer apply, but his insights into human interactions are generally spot on and fascinating.
February 21, 2020
John D is one of the best writers I've had the pleasure of reading in my lifetime (having read every Travis McGee book he wrote). He's on his game in this book, as with every other, tackling a topic as depressingly relevant and immediate today as it was when he wrote the book nearly 40 years ago.
December 19, 2014
something like #8 from macdonald for me. title comes from that belief that at the moment of sunset...usually into water...the sun flashes green. there's a brief story...two old men fishing...discussing the idea...one from michigan...real estate flash...(of green).
time,place, scene/setting
the time is summer of 1961 and the story is told for the most entirely within that time period...say july through a month or two later...though there are side trips to the recent or distant past for a character or two.
the setting is palm city, florida in palm county florida
story opens:
when she heard the rattle of the old tin wheelbarrow, kat hubble knew it was after four. on tuesdays, after he finished up at the lessers', and on fridays, when he was through at the cable home, barnett mayberry would do on extra hour of yard work at her house before getting into his stuttering old car and driving back home to pigeon town, the negro community on the far side of palm city.
okee dokee, then, as the good doctor said...onward and upward.
update, a day later, 16 dec 14
this story does not have the multitude of conflict/storyline that other'n does, One More Sunday, and there are no bodies deceased on stage, as yet...page 125 of 336...and if there will be a dead body on the page, it could very well be grassy bay, a shallow portion of inland water that provides access (and a view) of the larger body of water nearby. there are a number of what i call peripheral characters, scene/setting characters, and they are always a plus. this story, like many...if not all...of the previous 7 stories i've read from macdonald have that element of town politics...although in this one...it is not organized mob behind the wheel...but locals who are still every bit as organized. it's the way we live and we never get off the playground. someone is always "it" and someone is always "king of the hill".
characters, major and minor
*katherine "kat" hubble: husband died recently, two children, is a member of the s.o.b.s (save our bays, inc) and is the focus of jimmy wing's long anticipated glee/happiness
*barnett mayberry: local poor man, odd jobs, gardening, etc...has a daughter who is going north to college
*van hubble: deceased although he is presented often on stage...was instrumental in saving grassy bay from development in the recent past
*martin cable: the third...kinda owner/manager of the local bank where kat works, cable bank and trust company
*colonel thomas lamson jennings: ex-military emphasis on the military, on the executive committee of save our bays, inc.
palmland development company
*five majority partners: burton lesser, leroy shannard, doctor felix aigan, william gormin, buckland flake
*elmo bliss...if there is a "bad guy" here, elmo is...owner of bliss construction company...former bad kid who rehabilitated his image, married well...inherited some...scratched and grabbed for more...is also behind the scenes...is a kind of partner w/the above and has his eye on the governor's seat
*dellie bouchant: she becomes dellie bliss...heh!...one of the bouchant girls...more than four...five or six...and she like so many others in this story has a bitt-part...one stage for a moment or two
*other bouchant girls, frannnie, ceil, belle
*steve lupak: belle's husband
*major harrison lipe: ex-military, focus on the military, also a member of the s.o.b.s
*dial shinnat: also a member of the sob's...described as virile...a real he-man, philanderer, early 50s, and he is the mouthpiece for population-control...or the gas chamber in polite language..."billions of new bodies corrupting god's world". this is interesting to me...the ideology...as found in literature and elsewhere...as i recall grade school...hearing the horror stories of "hell"...as presented by the new priesthood of teachers...lesser priests of the hierarchy found in the american academy where is developed the ideology used to control us. "di" or dial is also married, they have some children i believe
*claire shinnat married to dial, friends with kat,
*morton dermond: member of the sob's...a big waxy young man, apelike in appearance...museum director, lecturer and art historian. executive director of the palm city art center
*doris rowell: member of sobs...60s, an ample billowy woman...member of sob's...will coordinate with university studies...biologists...state federal conservation authorities...and she is a.k.a. in a previous life as doris hegasohn...she plagiarized another work...was caught...fled when excluded
*wallace lime: member of sob's...described as a pansy by another on the other team...has mannerisms...a pipe, mustache, slight limey acent, early 40s, will organize letters to commissioners
*jackie halley: member of sobs...tall, gawky, spirited, attractive blonde...will be with kat on the phone brigade
*ross halley: jackie's husband...they are childless...unable...and he is a photographer...he also present the argument...western union is for messages...was a previous marcher, chanter, this that the other, the chicago cops beat him...he tells kat to get out of the s.o.b.'s
*roy and alicia...kat's and van's children
*james "jimmy" warren wing: works for the newspaper and he is hired by bliss to keep him updated, informed and more on the other team, the s.o.b.s he is a major character...has family...has a wife i think who is...a vegetable...just a body in a place...has a sister...friends to all...is attracted to kat
mitchie mcclure: she and jimmy almost got married...or something...if only someone had loaned them a car...and she comes in late in the story and i wondered wth was going on...until the business with the car was repeated...otherwise, her inclusion at the end was off-setting...so, watch for it
*sandra straplin: works for bliss...has since she was 18...
*brian haas: also works at the newspaper, is a drunk, drinks...on and off the wagon
*sammy deegan: tried to throw the make on kat...she bopped him with a hammer, drew blood, married, kids, so forth so on
*natalie shinnat: daughter of di/claire
*nan haas: married to brian haas...a receptionist
*eloise cable: wife of the banker
*the sinnat twins...other children of dial/claire
*laura : sister of jimmy wing
*gloria: wife of jimmy wing...became sick...is an invalid in some place
*melissa soong mei wan jennings : second wife of colonel jennings, almost 25 years younger...tom had grown children by 1st, melissa and tom have 3 boys, 12, 14, 17
*leroy shannard: lawyer, 40s, partner with gil stopely...lives with his mother...tireless and successful seducer or restless wives
*buck flake: about 25, newcomer to the area from new jersey...acquaintance of elmo bliss...as are the two lawyers above
*major and ardelia thatcher: work full time for the bliss family
*charity prindergast: came to florida for spring break, liked the gin, never left...works for buck flake...is sent packing...and she goes to las vegas, jimmy drops her off at airport...and she'll become "charity holmes"
*si & donna armstrong...donna called by kat/jackie to join s.o.b. again...no go...si owns appliance store
*hilda...won't join s.o.b. this time
*jigger: burt lesser's son...described as large, sensitive, and worried that he is homosexual because...i believe we're to understand a homosexual a practicing homosexual high school teacher threw the make on him...among others...and jigger and natalie hit it off...their time is a storyline, a conflict among the larger conflict of the fate of grassy bay
*mr burt borklund:owns, actually he runs the newspaper, but he does not own it...it is owned by another...and he is father of jigger who diddles natalie, the sinnat daughter
*sally ann borklund: wife of above, mother of jigger
*frank durley & frank pritchard & gil: names associated with the hotel where natalie and jigger go to have sex
*experanza...floss : claire/dial sinnat's maids/nannies
*bobby nest: 18-yr-old employee of newspaper...cheap labor
*judy barnsong: aunt middy tries to match up jimmy wing with this lady...23-year-old, couple kids, good hips, widow of claude
*dennie mcgowan: elderly guard at the bank where kat works
*rev. darcy harkness coombs: man in charge of some so-called church or group, the army of the lord, extremists
*helen: is cable's secretary at the bank
*a man: anonymous, who enters the bank to rent a box his inclusion in the story is curious for the links back to stories i've read...The Silent Wife...Lock In and others...this box-metaphor...in this case, a safety deposit box...see other stories for the mix
*august "gus" makelder: one of the palm county commissioners....chairman of the board
*commissioners stan dayson & horace lander
*genevieve harland: old woman, attends meeting of board, makes complaint, leaves
*commissioner bassette
*steve merry: county attorney
*calvin lupin: courthouse custodian
*ben & carol killian: portrayed as the rich, apathetic...ben owns/operates gulfway marine designs...is handy with boats/design...and there's some to-do about zoning, being under that knife...while carol sets by the pool and is cute
*jake cooper: "he heads up that big trailer park group...fighters for constitutional action." see...this is what is so damn interesting about this story...from 1960...we were drawing the lines, defining the different then and now...they're all in this story...well worth a read.
*mr. hotchkiss: has 1,500 acres near gl/grassy bay...is an alternative to filling in the bay
*loella: hotel maid
****there are many others...but this gives you the flavor
update, 16 dec 14, tuesday tuesday
there is a nice scene...pages 176 before and after, jimmy wing our hero meeting with aunt middy...a salty kind of character, there forever, and she tells of the flash of green. at sunset. didn't last over 10-15 seconds. sheets of green. like...i was under the impression it was a "flash"...a second, if that...and too, you make a wish!
and mrs. doris rowell is provided opportunity to take the stage and expound on the need...implied...to cut down on the number of people on the globe. to control that number...this layman scientist. curious scenes w/her and jimmy wing...she is portrayed as a solitary figure...intelligent...this that the other...though i do not think she, at any time...is in any way religious. science is her god, knowledge is her be-all...but in the end, there exists someone at the pinnacle making the decisions, the king of the hill...and that spot is reserved for those in the know, whether they know or not...she'd argue they do know. man is too numerous. he is poisoning the air and waters of the earth. he is breeding beyond reason. he is devouring the earth and the other creatures thereon. but it will come to an end of course.
macdonald provides doris rowell with the declaration that the poisoners have killed five thousand tons of songbirds while trying to eradicate fire-ants. there is "something invincibly professorial about mrs. doris rowell, something of the attitude of the professional lecturer." not all characters are blessed with romanticized hues...i'm thinking we all ought to head over to pigeon town, sit on the porch, and watch the sun go down.
update, wednesday wednesday, 17 dec 14
there is an interesting group in the story, the army of the lord, headed-up by a rev. coombs...and as yet...to page 202 0f 336...they do not appear on stage save in the words of other characters...they did this...they did that. but...this is what is interesting...they, the army of the lord...are doing these things because they are opposed to that which is not moral. they are said to have beaten a woman who had an affair with a married doctor.
don't know what to make of the "show me, don't tell me" aspect of the inclusion...do we blame macdonald for not developing the army the reverend?...or will that be coming, later on? that other story, One More Sunday, has a religious group as the focus of the story. here...we're told...not shown...as yet.
but...the interesting thing...and i dunno if this was macdonald's intent...but the reader needs to ask, how is the army of the lord different from the s.o.b.'s? the s.o.b.s are headed up by ex-military, military metaphors are used to describe their setting...they are doing battle, much as the army of the lord. is one the good guy? or another form of good guy? the save our bay group is credited with standing against the plague of man...one sees lights at night from a flight, and the lights marked the long angry sore in its hide...the hide of earth.
i'd hazard that macdonald is indeed asking the reader to look at the equation and our take on the matter defines us as much as macdonald has defined the stand one can take. i don't see much difference, ethically, in the save our bays group and the army of the lord. or the planned development group, for that matter. they are all made of the same cloth. a character tells a story of a mountain in this telling...one on the mountain...ten come...more...the mountain is flattened to make room...eventually it is only 40 feet high. the first man to present his case seems right until another comes forward...and the poor will always be with us. barnett will trim the hedge when he has time.
update, finished, 17 dec 14, 7:59 p.m. e.s.t.
done. i really liked it. part of that like includes much that is wrong, that is off, about the telling. bliss is the "bad guy" in the telling, but the bad part is taken by a multitude of others in this telling. that, in a sense, is unfair to some. often, the "bad man" is a name only, a face, a caricature...with all the stereo-types that have come to fit the narrative. macdonald dedicated this story to three names...sam, jim, and tom..."and all others opposed to the uglification of america." i'd hazard that the uglification has nothing to do with the forest...orglassy grassy bay in the story...or the lack of a bay or a tree or a forest and everything to do with what we do to each other in the name of the playground rules we accept. and in that sense, this story succeeds beyond any measure.
making the index list of characters...i wondered how easy it was for macdonald to trot a character onto the stage...never to return to them. there are a pile of peripheral characters...and many of them would have had a larger stage presence in another type of story...perhaps...family of some...of bliss, for sure...his wife is seldom on the page. bliss, even, for that matter...there is an incredibly long list of people in this one...and that is well, good...and it is also...what? flawed? in a sense, yes...because some of the "bad" characters become nothing more than caricatures...stereotypes.
the hero...jimmy wing...is both hero and villian in this piece...this story, really, is his story...not kat's...not elmo bliss's...this is jimmy's story.
ummmm...there's a lot to like about this one...since the story has so much going on that is happening today and now. if anything, we've become more ugly in our dealings with each other. and we have the internet to rally around and with...things are so much easier today. to continue the uglification of america. and each and every party can feel righteous doing so. hallelujah. onward and upward.
i think this story could be ranked as a favorite from macdonald...it has so much going for it, including the bad...treasure the bad...and because in a sense it foreshadows so much of the fashionable ideology we have come to accept...it has drawn the battle lines...you get a sense that the country was defining who we were, who we were to become. all the world's a playground and you, gentle reader...are it.
time,place, scene/setting
the time is summer of 1961 and the story is told for the most entirely within that time period...say july through a month or two later...though there are side trips to the recent or distant past for a character or two.
the setting is palm city, florida in palm county florida
story opens:
when she heard the rattle of the old tin wheelbarrow, kat hubble knew it was after four. on tuesdays, after he finished up at the lessers', and on fridays, when he was through at the cable home, barnett mayberry would do on extra hour of yard work at her house before getting into his stuttering old car and driving back home to pigeon town, the negro community on the far side of palm city.
okee dokee, then, as the good doctor said...onward and upward.
update, a day later, 16 dec 14
this story does not have the multitude of conflict/storyline that other'n does, One More Sunday, and there are no bodies deceased on stage, as yet...page 125 of 336...and if there will be a dead body on the page, it could very well be grassy bay, a shallow portion of inland water that provides access (and a view) of the larger body of water nearby. there are a number of what i call peripheral characters, scene/setting characters, and they are always a plus. this story, like many...if not all...of the previous 7 stories i've read from macdonald have that element of town politics...although in this one...it is not organized mob behind the wheel...but locals who are still every bit as organized. it's the way we live and we never get off the playground. someone is always "it" and someone is always "king of the hill".
characters, major and minor
*katherine "kat" hubble: husband died recently, two children, is a member of the s.o.b.s (save our bays, inc) and is the focus of jimmy wing's long anticipated glee/happiness
*barnett mayberry: local poor man, odd jobs, gardening, etc...has a daughter who is going north to college
*van hubble: deceased although he is presented often on stage...was instrumental in saving grassy bay from development in the recent past
*martin cable: the third...kinda owner/manager of the local bank where kat works, cable bank and trust company
*colonel thomas lamson jennings: ex-military emphasis on the military, on the executive committee of save our bays, inc.
palmland development company
*five majority partners: burton lesser, leroy shannard, doctor felix aigan, william gormin, buckland flake
*elmo bliss...if there is a "bad guy" here, elmo is...owner of bliss construction company...former bad kid who rehabilitated his image, married well...inherited some...scratched and grabbed for more...is also behind the scenes...is a kind of partner w/the above and has his eye on the governor's seat
*dellie bouchant: she becomes dellie bliss...heh!...one of the bouchant girls...more than four...five or six...and she like so many others in this story has a bitt-part...one stage for a moment or two
*other bouchant girls, frannnie, ceil, belle
*steve lupak: belle's husband
*major harrison lipe: ex-military, focus on the military, also a member of the s.o.b.s
*dial shinnat: also a member of the sob's...described as virile...a real he-man, philanderer, early 50s, and he is the mouthpiece for population-control...or the gas chamber in polite language..."billions of new bodies corrupting god's world". this is interesting to me...the ideology...as found in literature and elsewhere...as i recall grade school...hearing the horror stories of "hell"...as presented by the new priesthood of teachers...lesser priests of the hierarchy found in the american academy where is developed the ideology used to control us. "di" or dial is also married, they have some children i believe
*claire shinnat married to dial, friends with kat,
*morton dermond: member of the sob's...a big waxy young man, apelike in appearance...museum director, lecturer and art historian. executive director of the palm city art center
*doris rowell: member of sobs...60s, an ample billowy woman...member of sob's...will coordinate with university studies...biologists...state federal conservation authorities...and she is a.k.a. in a previous life as doris hegasohn...she plagiarized another work...was caught...fled when excluded
*wallace lime: member of sob's...described as a pansy by another on the other team...has mannerisms...a pipe, mustache, slight limey acent, early 40s, will organize letters to commissioners
*jackie halley: member of sobs...tall, gawky, spirited, attractive blonde...will be with kat on the phone brigade
*ross halley: jackie's husband...they are childless...unable...and he is a photographer...he also present the argument...western union is for messages...was a previous marcher, chanter, this that the other, the chicago cops beat him...he tells kat to get out of the s.o.b.'s
*roy and alicia...kat's and van's children
*james "jimmy" warren wing: works for the newspaper and he is hired by bliss to keep him updated, informed and more on the other team, the s.o.b.s he is a major character...has family...has a wife i think who is...a vegetable...just a body in a place...has a sister...friends to all...is attracted to kat
mitchie mcclure: she and jimmy almost got married...or something...if only someone had loaned them a car...and she comes in late in the story and i wondered wth was going on...until the business with the car was repeated...otherwise, her inclusion at the end was off-setting...so, watch for it
*sandra straplin: works for bliss...has since she was 18...
*brian haas: also works at the newspaper, is a drunk, drinks...on and off the wagon
*sammy deegan: tried to throw the make on kat...she bopped him with a hammer, drew blood, married, kids, so forth so on
*natalie shinnat: daughter of di/claire
*nan haas: married to brian haas...a receptionist
*eloise cable: wife of the banker
*the sinnat twins...other children of dial/claire
*laura : sister of jimmy wing
*gloria: wife of jimmy wing...became sick...is an invalid in some place
*melissa soong mei wan jennings : second wife of colonel jennings, almost 25 years younger...tom had grown children by 1st, melissa and tom have 3 boys, 12, 14, 17
*leroy shannard: lawyer, 40s, partner with gil stopely...lives with his mother...tireless and successful seducer or restless wives
*buck flake: about 25, newcomer to the area from new jersey...acquaintance of elmo bliss...as are the two lawyers above
*major and ardelia thatcher: work full time for the bliss family
*charity prindergast: came to florida for spring break, liked the gin, never left...works for buck flake...is sent packing...and she goes to las vegas, jimmy drops her off at airport...and she'll become "charity holmes"
*si & donna armstrong...donna called by kat/jackie to join s.o.b. again...no go...si owns appliance store
*hilda...won't join s.o.b. this time
*jigger: burt lesser's son...described as large, sensitive, and worried that he is homosexual because...i believe we're to understand a homosexual a practicing homosexual high school teacher threw the make on him...among others...and jigger and natalie hit it off...their time is a storyline, a conflict among the larger conflict of the fate of grassy bay
*mr burt borklund:
*sally ann borklund: wife of above, mother of jigger
*frank durley & frank pritchard & gil: names associated with the hotel where natalie and jigger go to have sex
*experanza...floss : claire/dial sinnat's maids/nannies
*bobby nest: 18-yr-old employee of newspaper...cheap labor
*judy barnsong: aunt middy tries to match up jimmy wing with this lady...23-year-old, couple kids, good hips, widow of claude
*dennie mcgowan: elderly guard at the bank where kat works
*rev. darcy harkness coombs: man in charge of some so-called church or group, the army of the lord, extremists
*helen: is cable's secretary at the bank
*a man: anonymous, who enters the bank to rent a box his inclusion in the story is curious for the links back to stories i've read...The Silent Wife...Lock In and others...this box-metaphor...in this case, a safety deposit box...see other stories for the mix
*august "gus" makelder: one of the palm county commissioners....chairman of the board
*commissioners stan dayson & horace lander
*genevieve harland: old woman, attends meeting of board, makes complaint, leaves
*commissioner bassette
*steve merry: county attorney
*calvin lupin: courthouse custodian
*ben & carol killian: portrayed as the rich, apathetic...ben owns/operates gulfway marine designs...is handy with boats/design...and there's some to-do about zoning, being under that knife...while carol sets by the pool and is cute
*jake cooper: "he heads up that big trailer park group...fighters for constitutional action." see...this is what is so damn interesting about this story...from 1960...we were drawing the lines, defining the different then and now...they're all in this story...well worth a read.
*mr. hotchkiss: has 1,500 acres near gl/grassy bay...is an alternative to filling in the bay
*loella: hotel maid
****there are many others...but this gives you the flavor
update, 16 dec 14, tuesday tuesday
there is a nice scene...pages 176 before and after, jimmy wing our hero meeting with aunt middy...a salty kind of character, there forever, and she tells of the flash of green. at sunset. didn't last over 10-15 seconds. sheets of green. like...i was under the impression it was a "flash"...a second, if that...and too, you make a wish!
and mrs. doris rowell is provided opportunity to take the stage and expound on the need...implied...to cut down on the number of people on the globe. to control that number...this layman scientist. curious scenes w/her and jimmy wing...she is portrayed as a solitary figure...intelligent...this that the other...though i do not think she, at any time...is in any way religious. science is her god, knowledge is her be-all...but in the end, there exists someone at the pinnacle making the decisions, the king of the hill...and that spot is reserved for those in the know, whether they know or not...she'd argue they do know. man is too numerous. he is poisoning the air and waters of the earth. he is breeding beyond reason. he is devouring the earth and the other creatures thereon. but it will come to an end of course.
macdonald provides doris rowell with the declaration that the poisoners have killed five thousand tons of songbirds while trying to eradicate fire-ants. there is "something invincibly professorial about mrs. doris rowell, something of the attitude of the professional lecturer." not all characters are blessed with romanticized hues...i'm thinking we all ought to head over to pigeon town, sit on the porch, and watch the sun go down.
update, wednesday wednesday, 17 dec 14
there is an interesting group in the story, the army of the lord, headed-up by a rev. coombs...and as yet...to page 202 0f 336...they do not appear on stage save in the words of other characters...they did this...they did that. but...this is what is interesting...they, the army of the lord...are doing these things because they are opposed to that which is not moral. they are said to have beaten a woman who had an affair with a married doctor.
don't know what to make of the "show me, don't tell me" aspect of the inclusion...do we blame macdonald for not developing the army the reverend?...or will that be coming, later on? that other story, One More Sunday, has a religious group as the focus of the story. here...we're told...not shown...as yet.
but...the interesting thing...and i dunno if this was macdonald's intent...but the reader needs to ask, how is the army of the lord different from the s.o.b.'s? the s.o.b.s are headed up by ex-military, military metaphors are used to describe their setting...they are doing battle, much as the army of the lord. is one the good guy? or another form of good guy? the save our bay group is credited with standing against the plague of man...one sees lights at night from a flight, and the lights marked the long angry sore in its hide...the hide of earth.
i'd hazard that macdonald is indeed asking the reader to look at the equation and our take on the matter defines us as much as macdonald has defined the stand one can take. i don't see much difference, ethically, in the save our bays group and the army of the lord. or the planned development group, for that matter. they are all made of the same cloth. a character tells a story of a mountain in this telling...one on the mountain...ten come...more...the mountain is flattened to make room...eventually it is only 40 feet high. the first man to present his case seems right until another comes forward...and the poor will always be with us. barnett will trim the hedge when he has time.
update, finished, 17 dec 14, 7:59 p.m. e.s.t.
done. i really liked it. part of that like includes much that is wrong, that is off, about the telling. bliss is the "bad guy" in the telling, but the bad part is taken by a multitude of others in this telling. that, in a sense, is unfair to some. often, the "bad man" is a name only, a face, a caricature...with all the stereo-types that have come to fit the narrative. macdonald dedicated this story to three names...sam, jim, and tom..."and all others opposed to the uglification of america." i'd hazard that the uglification has nothing to do with the forest...or
making the index list of characters...i wondered how easy it was for macdonald to trot a character onto the stage...never to return to them. there are a pile of peripheral characters...and many of them would have had a larger stage presence in another type of story...perhaps...family of some...of bliss, for sure...his wife is seldom on the page. bliss, even, for that matter...there is an incredibly long list of people in this one...and that is well, good...and it is also...what? flawed? in a sense, yes...because some of the "bad" characters become nothing more than caricatures...stereotypes.
the hero...jimmy wing...is both hero and villian in this piece...this story, really, is his story...not kat's...not elmo bliss's...this is jimmy's story.
ummmm...there's a lot to like about this one...since the story has so much going on that is happening today and now. if anything, we've become more ugly in our dealings with each other. and we have the internet to rally around and with...things are so much easier today. to continue the uglification of america. and each and every party can feel righteous doing so. hallelujah. onward and upward.
i think this story could be ranked as a favorite from macdonald...it has so much going for it, including the bad...treasure the bad...and because in a sense it foreshadows so much of the fashionable ideology we have come to accept...it has drawn the battle lines...you get a sense that the country was defining who we were, who we were to become. all the world's a playground and you, gentle reader...are it.
September 17, 2021
Another fine work by MacDonald. Some of my favorite passages below.
On random tragedy of others:
There was always a carnival flavor about roadside death in the hot months. Flashing lights, the distant melodies of car radios, the abrupt nervous laughter at macabre jokes, the hot gaseous stink of engines mingling with the trampled fragrance of the grass, recognitions, greetings and farewells in the night, sirens coming and going, the holiday awareness of knowing strangers were dead, not you.
On crimes against nature:
In the criminal campaign against fire ants in this country, the poisoners have slain an estimated five thousand tons of small birds. Tons, Mr. Wing. Thirty to forty million in specific areas. Believe me, I am not snuffling over what happened to the dear, dear little songbirds. This is not a situation where sentimentality is applicable. This was nonselective elimination, taking the healthy and sick, the predators and sapsuckers, destroying not only that generation but all possible subsequent ones from that conglomerate of basic strains. It is a thoughtless ecological abomination, Mr. Wing. It is like rubbing out one factor in a vastly complex equation. Due to the interrelationship of bird life, insect life and plant fertilization, the known characteristics of that area will change. To what? We do not know. We only know it will be different. I recognize a deity of interrelationships, of checks and balances and dependencies. Acts such as this are like spitting in the face of God. It is a dangerous temerity, Mr. Wing. It is, in its essence, stupidity, nonknowing, the most precarious condition of man.
On the appreciation of art:
There’s something we can’t say to the public because it sounds so arrogant it makes people screamingly angry. Work like this is like mirrors. Cruel mirrors. They can’t reflect a substance which doesn’t exist. A person who is nothing will look at these and see nothing. They’ll be baffled, angry, indignant. They’ll think they’re being had. They say a child could have done it, or a monkey. They’ll think the whole world of modern art is some vast conspiracy. We tell them to make an effort to understand. That’s nonsense, actually. They can’t suddenly become actual people through an effort of will. This is a world they can’t enter, so they claim it doesn’t really exist. But it is more real than anything they can ever know. Dear God, if a man looks at a meadow and sees only a drainage problem, or something he thinks he can kill, why should he think he should be able to look at a painting? That’s what angers them, Jimmy. They sense their limitations, and defend themselves by accusing the rest of us of fraud.
On random tragedy of others:
There was always a carnival flavor about roadside death in the hot months. Flashing lights, the distant melodies of car radios, the abrupt nervous laughter at macabre jokes, the hot gaseous stink of engines mingling with the trampled fragrance of the grass, recognitions, greetings and farewells in the night, sirens coming and going, the holiday awareness of knowing strangers were dead, not you.
On crimes against nature:
In the criminal campaign against fire ants in this country, the poisoners have slain an estimated five thousand tons of small birds. Tons, Mr. Wing. Thirty to forty million in specific areas. Believe me, I am not snuffling over what happened to the dear, dear little songbirds. This is not a situation where sentimentality is applicable. This was nonselective elimination, taking the healthy and sick, the predators and sapsuckers, destroying not only that generation but all possible subsequent ones from that conglomerate of basic strains. It is a thoughtless ecological abomination, Mr. Wing. It is like rubbing out one factor in a vastly complex equation. Due to the interrelationship of bird life, insect life and plant fertilization, the known characteristics of that area will change. To what? We do not know. We only know it will be different. I recognize a deity of interrelationships, of checks and balances and dependencies. Acts such as this are like spitting in the face of God. It is a dangerous temerity, Mr. Wing. It is, in its essence, stupidity, nonknowing, the most precarious condition of man.
On the appreciation of art:
There’s something we can’t say to the public because it sounds so arrogant it makes people screamingly angry. Work like this is like mirrors. Cruel mirrors. They can’t reflect a substance which doesn’t exist. A person who is nothing will look at these and see nothing. They’ll be baffled, angry, indignant. They’ll think they’re being had. They say a child could have done it, or a monkey. They’ll think the whole world of modern art is some vast conspiracy. We tell them to make an effort to understand. That’s nonsense, actually. They can’t suddenly become actual people through an effort of will. This is a world they can’t enter, so they claim it doesn’t really exist. But it is more real than anything they can ever know. Dear God, if a man looks at a meadow and sees only a drainage problem, or something he thinks he can kill, why should he think he should be able to look at a painting? That’s what angers them, Jimmy. They sense their limitations, and defend themselves by accusing the rest of us of fraud.
March 21, 2018
At the same time I'm slogging through Infinite Jest on an e-book, I've managed to read several other books in other formats including David Mitchell and this John D. MacDonald - two authors and their books that show that good literature and incomprehensible are not inseparable, and good literature and genre fiction are not mutually exclusive. Don't be fooled by the color in the title, this is not part of the similarly-named Travis McGee series. This stand-alone 1962 novel (which predates the McGee series entirely) is THE Florida novel of its decade - where the lone man with principals takes up the cause of a friend's widow against greedy corporate men who would damage the ecology. It's so well-written and engaging.
January 19, 2018
I'm a fan of MacDonald's Travis McGee series and I loving reading old vintage paperbacks. I picked this one up thinking it would be in the same vein as the McGee books, but it's quite different. Instead of the anti-hero exploits of McGee, this is more of a soap opera. In Palm City, Florida, a group of determined local businessmen, politically backed by a corrupt county commissioner, propose to infill a beautiful bay and build hundreds of suburban homes. The SOBs (Save Our Bays) group is staunchly opposed, and a battle ensues. Stuck in the middle is local newspaper reporter Jimmy Wing, who works undercover for the commissioner, digging up dirt on the SOBs. Of course he's conflicted, because he lusts after Kat, one of the SOBs. Things get ugly, and Jimmy is faced with a dilemma. MacDonald touched on his displeasure with the greedy, privileged elite, political corruption, suburban sprawl and the "uglification of America" in philosophical outbursts in the McGee series. This novel precedes the first McGee book by 2 years, before he decided to use McGee as a vehicle for these opinions. He has some astute observations on journalism and the newspaper business here too.
Despite the teasing tag lines on the book cover, the story is fairly tame for those who are used to more hard boiled fare. This is a long, dramatic (often melodramatic) novel. A little too long, I think. If this were leaner, with a little more grit, and a little less drama, I would have liked it more.
When I look at MacDonald's bibliography, I am astounded at the output. Must keep reading!
Despite the teasing tag lines on the book cover, the story is fairly tame for those who are used to more hard boiled fare. This is a long, dramatic (often melodramatic) novel. A little too long, I think. If this were leaner, with a little more grit, and a little less drama, I would have liked it more.
When I look at MacDonald's bibliography, I am astounded at the output. Must keep reading!
February 6, 2020
The characters come to life
The book isn't. a fairy tale with a happy ending. I thought I'd read it before but the details didn't fit what I remembered. In a way it is a story about the'plague'of people, and the need to hold onto one's dreams even as we disappoint ourselves from time to time. It is life is what happens to you when you are making your plans. I know MacDonald was disappointed by the development that he saw go up around him when he lived in Sarasota. I don't believe he saw Wing as his alter ego but did want to portray ways society and government can steamroller people. By titling it Flash of Green he was saying don't give up hope but remember sometimes that hope is a fairytale for children and tourists, but that sometimes patience and persistence and keeping the dream alive can make it come true.
The book isn't. a fairy tale with a happy ending. I thought I'd read it before but the details didn't fit what I remembered. In a way it is a story about the'plague'of people, and the need to hold onto one's dreams even as we disappoint ourselves from time to time. It is life is what happens to you when you are making your plans. I know MacDonald was disappointed by the development that he saw go up around him when he lived in Sarasota. I don't believe he saw Wing as his alter ego but did want to portray ways society and government can steamroller people. By titling it Flash of Green he was saying don't give up hope but remember sometimes that hope is a fairytale for children and tourists, but that sometimes patience and persistence and keeping the dream alive can make it come true.
May 6, 2024
This one was recommended to me by a guy at a used bookstore when he saw me picking up an armful of noir novels. I like getting out of the blue recommendations, but I should have turned this one down. I found it to be a boring read. It is all about a land development deal and dirty shenanigans and municipal politics. It is melodramatic as all get out. In the end, nothing g really happens, but boy-oh-boy! There are feelings! The story reads like a Douglas Sirk melodrama from the 1950s. I can’t stand Sirkian melodramas and this book has all of the plot points, low stakes and over-the-top reactions that are the hallmarks of Sirk’s films. I struggled to get through it hoping that it would get better, but I was disappointed. Thanks fir the suggestion, stranger at the bookstore, but this one was a miss.
April 3, 2022
I am a huge fan of the late John D. MacDonald, having long ago read all the Travis McGee novels. MacDonald had a flowing, narrative style with just enough description mixed in to flesh out his characters and scenes. All of that is on full display in A Fashion of Green; however, the story here is just not one that peaked my interest, and the characters, for the most part, are not very sympathetic. This book is 60 years old, and there is one particular scene between the two main characters that has not aged well at all. Looking at the list of MacDonald’s work at the front of the book made me realize that he was much more prolific than I realized. There are lots of intriguing titles on that list, and I intend to check out a few of them.
August 5, 2025
'Clever men can use the laws to cheat all of us and make it sound as if they're doing us a big favor.'
'In this split second of time in which we are living, things have been too favorable for man. With science he has suppressed too many natural enemies. He is too numerous. He is poisoning the air and waters of the earth. He is breeding beyond reason.'
'It is, in its essence, stupidity, nonknowing, the most precarious condition of man.'
John D. MacDonald 1961/62
'Mr. MacDonald's work gives the reader deep and abiding pleasure for many reasons, not the least of which is that it portrays the contemporary life of his day with as much grace and fidelity as any writer of the period, and thus it also provides compelling social history.'
Dean Koontz 2013
'In this split second of time in which we are living, things have been too favorable for man. With science he has suppressed too many natural enemies. He is too numerous. He is poisoning the air and waters of the earth. He is breeding beyond reason.'
'It is, in its essence, stupidity, nonknowing, the most precarious condition of man.'
John D. MacDonald 1961/62
'Mr. MacDonald's work gives the reader deep and abiding pleasure for many reasons, not the least of which is that it portrays the contemporary life of his day with as much grace and fidelity as any writer of the period, and thus it also provides compelling social history.'
Dean Koontz 2013
December 28, 2022
Dated in some ways [written in 1962 before computers and cell phones] but also very timely.
Corrupt politician s are pushing for purchase of public property (a low tide bay on ocean) to put up houses after dredging creates 'new' land. This is the land that shifts and liquifies, like the recent collapse of a Florida condominium. He calls it he "plague of man" destroying all they touch in the name of progress. He highlights the venality of those in power who resort to blackmail, intimidation, beatings, to defeat those who seek to protect the environment.
Corrupt politician s are pushing for purchase of public property (a low tide bay on ocean) to put up houses after dredging creates 'new' land. This is the land that shifts and liquifies, like the recent collapse of a Florida condominium. He calls it he "plague of man" destroying all they touch in the name of progress. He highlights the venality of those in power who resort to blackmail, intimidation, beatings, to defeat those who seek to protect the environment.
August 14, 2025
This excellent book, written over 60 years ago, is depressing because it could have been pulled from today’s top news stories.
Corruption, money manipulating politics and the average citizen being screwed over and convinced that they wanted it by a press owned by the very same corrupt bunch of rich people.
Sadly, Florida has no monopoly on corruption or scandalous people doing horrible things and convincing people to vote for them by claiming patriotism or just lying to justify their actions. Sigh.
Corruption, money manipulating politics and the average citizen being screwed over and convinced that they wanted it by a press owned by the very same corrupt bunch of rich people.
Sadly, Florida has no monopoly on corruption or scandalous people doing horrible things and convincing people to vote for them by claiming patriotism or just lying to justify their actions. Sigh.
October 24, 2018
A sad tale of political corruption accompanied by greed & ambition. Jimmy Wing is a reporter for the local daily and joins with an evil man, ostensibly to protect someone he loves. Many lives are ruined, people are treated as objects, harassed, tortured, scarred, and driven out of town or to suicide in order to get the votes to approve the filling in of a local bay which is of an unique ecology.
June 1, 2019
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's been a long time since I've read a MacDonald novel. It struck a sympathetic chord with me with its opposition to money-grubbing developers and slimeball politicians. However, it dragged in places and it ended nowhere near where I thought it might. In some passages, I was completely in awe of MacDonald's descriptive writing. Some of it seemed to come right from inside the character. I'm glad to have read this book. I only wish I had read it years ago.
September 16, 2019
I am a huge MacDonald fan and am slowly working through his older works. This one has been my least favorite so far.
The story is long and has a daytime soap opera feel to it. The action is almost non-existent. I had trouble slogging my way through this one. There were passages and times when MacDonald's writing made me keep turning the pages but these were short lived and did not occur often enough.
The story is long and has a daytime soap opera feel to it. The action is almost non-existent. I had trouble slogging my way through this one. There were passages and times when MacDonald's writing made me keep turning the pages but these were short lived and did not occur often enough.
February 28, 2025
Palm City Florida is about to have its bay filled for a luxury home subdivision and Kat and her Save Our Bay group is about to take on some powerful local developers. The story is full of corruption and heavy handed tactics to take down anyone who opposes them. This is a common theme for MacDonald, the wreaking of Florida natural habitat in the sake of greed. While I generally enjoy MacDonald's writing, the is too many speeches by the author that really do not move the story along.
April 2, 2025
Enjoyed a lot more than I expected. Real estate development crime set in fictional Sarasota town. A lot of time spent on numerous characterization which was fascinating as a snapshot at the time. Lots of female characters with agency was another surprise. Also enjoyed figuring out local landmarks from descriptions.
January 3, 2020
Good, but not his best
Few writers are better at creating atmosphere and this book is an excellent example. It's a good story well told, but not his best story or most compelling characters.
Few writers are better at creating atmosphere and this book is an excellent example. It's a good story well told, but not his best story or most compelling characters.
July 11, 2021
The first environmentalist
This is a depressing book in many ways but reality often is. Local politics, grift and the way things work to our detriment. Those that have, both money and power , are never satisfied with their rape.
This is a depressing book in many ways but reality often is. Local politics, grift and the way things work to our detriment. Those that have, both money and power , are never satisfied with their rape.
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