"Skirt the rules but don’t break them."

February 8, 2016 8:26 PM

People who move to New York always make the same mistake. They can’t see the place. This is true of Manhattan, but even the outer boroughs too. Whether Flushing Meadows in Queens or Red Hook in Brooklyn. They come looking for magic, whether evil or good, and nothing will convince them it isn’t here. This wasn’t all bad though. Some New Yorkers had learned how to make a living from this error in thinking. Charles Thomas Tester for one.

an excerpt, The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle
posted by the man of twists and turns (10 comments total)

welp I pre ordered it

thanks!
posted by Gymnopedist at 8:39 PM on February 8, 2016

Ma Att actually leaned forward as if he’d landed a hook into her lip. But Tommy said no more.

That's...outstanding. I'm in.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2016

Woo hoo! I'm now 4 out of 4 holds on the on-order copies at my very awesome local library. Having been this early a couple of times before, I will have the fresh library copy, never before lent out. I will use a bookmark, as I do, and return it in pristine condition for the next person. Thank you, libraries and librarians.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:54 PM on February 8, 2016

"O friend and companion of night, thou who rejoicest in the baying of dogs and spilt blood, who wanderest in the midst of shades among the tombs, who longest for blood and bringest terror to mortals, Gorgo, Mormo, thousand-faced moon, look favourably on our sacrifices!"

This is great -- it's clearly a reworking of H. P. Lovecraft's "The Horror At Red Hook," whose main characters are Robert Suydam and Thomas Malone, and the lantern-jawed PI is almost certainly intended to be HPL. The original was a rambling mess of a story, one of his weakest. Lovecraft himself didn't think it was very good, so I'm glad to see someone turning it inside out with a whole new protagonist.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 9:39 PM on February 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Victor LaValle is a treasure
posted by janey47 at 10:22 PM on February 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I will use a bookmark, as I do, and return it in pristine condition for the next person.

You're a saint. Ever since I started working for a library I've been astonished by the things people do to books.
posted by teponaztli at 11:59 PM on February 8, 2016

oh boy! it has been too long a wait!!! (Though I have honestly wondered if Samantha Irby is a LaValle creation - she helps this reader deal with the long spells)
posted by drowsy at 5:07 AM on February 9, 2016

There's a thing for Jazz Age/Prohibition era NY magic right now, and I'm reading all of it. Also it's a lot easier to justify $3 Kindle novellas than a lot of full novels.
posted by immlass at 9:11 AM on February 9, 2016

"He shared the crib"

Anachronisms take me out of the writing so quickly, and this was in the second paragraph!
posted by wyndham at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2016

I don't think that that use of crib is an anachronism. You can easily find google hits of similar usages of crib at least back to early early jazz age New Orleans.
posted by rdr at 6:09 PM on February 9, 2016