Bookish: A RETRO GLANCE (3#) -

shards from the rear view mirror . . .

This is the time of year for annual reviews. Some are not so much written as compiled and consist mostly of a catalog of items which are supposed to be memorable for some reason or other. But some year-end reviews are too long and tedious.

I liked what Sun-Sentinel Book Columnist Chauncey Mabe wrote: it was mercifully brief and more personal than just a catalog. But something he mentioned just set me off:

"It may not be precisely accurate to call Richard Price's Lush Life a crime novel, but it does follow the conventions of the police procedural on its way to literary excellence."

To say that I was merely offended when this book was announced, just doesn't cover it; I felt quite hurt in a personal way.

Lush Life is the name of a well known song by Billy Strayhorn, which has touched many people quite deeply. It is embedded in the very fabric of my life. It constitutes the backdrop or some of the soundtrack of my life. When I hear it or even remember it, I remember people and places from my past.

The song Lush Life is quite poignant. And it has a haunting quality somewhat like Laura, the title song from the 1944 Hollywood movie of that name. What Strayhorn effectively captured in that song was a mood and an esprit de temps.

It also bothered me a lot that Billy Strayhorn was somehow erased from this situation in most of the mainstream media. Lush Life and Billy Strayhorn are related to a web of other music, movies and culture.

I have nothing against writer Richard Price. I haven't read any of his books, but I've seen Sea of Love, a movie he wrote, which I enjoyed.

Clayton Moore is the only writer I have come across who even mentions this unfortunate conjunction.

Whose Lush Life is it anyway?

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