Monday, July 24, 2017

Whose that Author?


He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony. 

His very paternity was obscure, although the village of Gavrillac had long since dispelled the cloud of mystery that hung about it. Those simple Brittany folk were not so simple as to be deceived by a pretended relationship which did not even possess the virtue of originality.

When a nobleman, for no apparent reason, announces himself the godfather of an infant fetched no man knew whence, and thereafter cares for the lad’s rearing and education, the most unsophisticated of country folk perfectly understand the situation. And so the good people of Gavrillac permitted themselves no illusions on the score of the real relationship between Andre-Louis Moreau—as the lad had been named—and Quintin de Kercadiou, Lord of Gavrillac, who dwelt in the big grey house that dominated from its eminence the village clustering below.

12 comments:

The Dude said...

Writing like that will scare the mustache right off my face.

ricpic said...

I know mustache is the clue but I'm going with either Balzac or Victor Hugo. Maupassant? Jules Verne? No, Jules Verne is a silly guess, SILLY. I mean who the aitch hails from Brittany? That miserable wet hole. Flaubert? I think he was a Norman from Normandy. STOP!

Trooper York said...

I know.

That is why he is one of my heroes.

Trooper York said...

You are on the right track ric but more obscure.

The clue is in the photo.

It's a Kevin Bacon clue but still it works.

ricpic said...

Kennedy's Press Secretary Pierre Salinger? Hey, so I'm making a fool of myself, so what. Did Salinger have a mustache? I...Don't...Think...So.

The Dude said...

I finished watching all 6 seasons of Justified - the Florida scenes looked like they were filmed in Florida, also I couldn't think of any part of southern California that looks like that, not that that proves anything.

Now I am watching Bosch - the writing, so far, seems better than Justified, and I think it is actually shot where it is set - LA. But who knows - maybe they actually film it in Hong Kong - those crazy film makers being crazy film makers and all.

Trooper York said...

Bosch is a very well done show. Titus Welliver is one of those character actors like Sam Elliott or James Remar or Robert Forster who never get a chance to carry a show.

I think all of the streaming services miss a bet when they don't take a series written by a great mystery writer. Michael Connelly is a consultant and writer on the series just the same way Elmore Leonard was on Justified.

I would love to see them do the works of John D MacDonald or Lawrence Block or Loren Estleman.
The did an ok job with the Jesse Stone Movies by Robert B. Parker but I wish they would revisit Spencer.

Trooper York said...

As far as the Florida scenes in Justified go.....I want to have an alligator like they did to feed nasty people to when they come to visit me. Just sayn'

The Dude said...

I can see you fitting right in down there. Do you have a cousin named Dilly?

After watching Justified I started looking at folks around here a bit differently. I saw a guy at the store the other day who looked exactly like Dewey Crowe. Creeped me right out.

Sam Elliot does not look right without his mustache - he seriously did not know how to hold his mouth. Very odd. And the fact that Sam Malone's wife got blasted - who says there are no happy endings?

When they went up into the hills of "Harlan" county and encountered nothing other than Ponderosa pine and sugar pines growing in dust, with no understory trees or shrubs, well by golly, just who was buying that? They said there were cannibals up there - well duh, they were in the Sierras, so maybe they were talking about the Donner party. And the snow scenes towards the end - really? Need I continue? Mining? Right. Gold mines, not coal mines.

On the other hand, Santa Clarita, where many of the scenes were filmed looks very nice.

Oh, I know - I was watching Bosch and by golly not only did the trees in the canyon outside of LA look exactly right, they looked exactly like the ones in Justified. Laughin' my ass off here...

edutcher said...

I was thinking Moliere, but what do I know?

PS Elliott, when he was a doctor on "Mission Impossible", looked pretty good without a 'stache, but he must have been 25.

And Forster did have a couple of series back when he was you, but the first died at midseason and the second was a midseason replacement.

Amartel said...

Ed mentioned the author very recently.

edutcher said...

Too bad my aphasia's kicking in again.