I have a few Spider paperbacks (and one pulp facsimile edition) on my shelves, but I haven't read them yet. I think I knew Page was Stockbridge at some point, but had forgotten.

-M

The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy

The second in Ellroy's first L.A. Quartet.  It's 1950 and Communist witch hunts are the order of the day.  But America, being the home of the brave, has more than just Communists to be terrified of.  There are homosexuals.  And minorities.  And pretty much anyone who isn't a complete white-bread and mayo All-American Boy.  Ellis Lowe is back from The Black Dahlia, still a very ambitious deputy DA who is forming a grand jury to investigate Communist infiltration in to the film industry.  Also returning is Buzz Meeks, still working for both Howard Hughes and Mickey Cohen, and now part of the DA's investigative unit along with Malcolm Considine, a war hero and on tap to become the youngest Captain in LAPD history, and Danny Upshaw, an up-and-coming Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, who is obsessed with a serial string of homosexual killings while struggling with his own sexuality.  Added to the mix is Dudley Smith, an old-fashioned Irish cop, whose corruption is, ultimately, legendary. 

Ellroy weaves together the Red Scare, the Lavender Scare and the legendary corruption of both the LAPD and the LACSO.  He also manages to make the Sleepy Lagoon "Murder" Case from 1942 and the ensuing Zoot Suit Riots a focal point of the book.  Ellroy, being Ellroy, ratchets almost everything up to 11.  The violence, the homophobia, the misogyny.  Ellroy is NOT for the faint of heart.  One finds oneself wishing, just for a minute, that there was a character in the book who wasn't completely fatally flawed.  But you know that isn't going to happen with Ellroy and that's okay.  This is a powerful novel that shows an ugly time in America that is remembered far too fondly by far too many people.  

I actually find that noir and neo-noir are pretty much my preferred fiction genre at this point.  I've struggled mightily with SF and fantasy the last decade or so to the point I read very little of either at this point.  

Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman

The impact of Franklin Roosevelt on the United States can barely be overstated.  And his impact on the Federal judiciary was simply enormous.  Roosevelt appointed eight Supreme Court justices (and elevated Harlan F. Stone to Chief Justice).  Of those eight, four certainly stand out because of their personal legal philosophies, their longevity, and their impact on the Court and American law.  Feldman focuses on these four, Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas and Robert H. Jackson, giving us mini-biographies of each man and looking at their interactions on The Court, their feuds and the development of their legal philosophies.  

For a person who is used to the Court as it has existed for at least the last 50 years this is a revelation.  One of many things that struck me is that, at this point, the Court was still not really the ultimate prize that it is today.  You'd never consider a sitting Justice leaving to do something besides retiring.  But Charles Evans Hughes left to run for President and was later re-appointed as Chief Justice.  William O. Douglas spent his first decade and a half on the Court jockeying for either the Vice Presidency or a Presidential nomination.  Black considered returning to the Senate.  James F. Byrnes, a Roosevelt appointee resigned to work in a couple of high level war related administrative offices and later was Secretary of State and Governor of South Carolina.  

Anyone who watches the Court recognizes that the legal philosophies of a lot of Justices evolve as they sit on the high bench.  But that evolution was particularly interesting in these four.  Felix Frankfurter, one of the most liberal attorneys and law professors in the nation at the time of his appointment, a member of the board of directors of the ACLU became a staunch conservative and advocate of "judicial restraint" to the point of believing the Court should defer to the legislature in almost all cases.  Hugo Black, a former member of the KKK, became possibly the foremost advocate of Freedom of Speech.  Douglas became, probably, the greatest advocate for personal liberties that has ever sat on the Court, but still, wrongly, voted with the majority in Korematsu v. United States.  Robert Jackson, who while on the Court also acted as U.S. Chief of Counsel for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.  

Feldman does a lot to humanize these outsize figures.  Frankfurter, the Jewish immigrant from Austria, made America and the law his religion.  Black, with his deep sense of Southern honor was quick to feud with anyone (his feud with Jackson was legendary).  Douglas, positioned himself as the western outsider, while having a deeply troubled personal life.  Jackson never quite seemed comfortable with his achievements seemingly always wanting to have done just a bit more (he seemed to deeply desire the Chief Justice position).  

The endcap of the book is the decision in Brown v. Board of Education...and rightly so.  Jackson would die shortly after the decision was handed down.  Frankfurter was marginalized on the Warren Court.  That Warren was able to get unanimity on that case with the overwhelming differences in legal philosophies and overwhelming egos was an absolute triumph.  

For an attorney and Court watcher this is a must read.  For someone who is just generally interested in U.S. history I'd also highly recommend it.  

Jackson is a fascinating figure; his opinion in the Barnette case is a landmark that I hope will stand despite the challenges it and similar decisions will face in these frightening days. Among his great lines: "Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."

And of course, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion... or force citizens to confess by word their faith therein.”

Hear those lines, DeSantis?

I've found myself reading a lot more short fiction this year than I anticipated, lately in the "weird tale" oeuvre, and am dipping in several collections at the same time. While doing so, I am trying to explore some writers whom I haven't read a lot of. Briam Lumley was one such writer, whom I knew of, but hadn't read any of, so I dove into and just finished a collection of his Mythos tales, Haggopian and other Stories



as with any collection, there will be stories that resonate with you better than others, and this was the case here. I really liked some stories, was meh on some others, but didn't dislike any I read. Lumley has some recurring characters (Titus Crowe and others) and some recurring motifs (the Primal Lands) running through several stories, and while doing Lovecraftian fiction, his preferred era to set stories seemed to be the 50's rather than the 20s (though stories range from the 50s-more contemporary times (one of the later stories in the collection is set at an rpg convention where Call of Cthulhu games are the core attraction, so at least the 90s though the timeframe isn't quite specified). I do want to explore more of Lumley's other stuff, but I don't own any (nor did I own this as it was a volume form the local library), so it will be a matter of tracking some of it down before I read more.

-M