Time for a good amateur sleuth novel! And when is it not?
I'd heard of Harry Kemelman's Rabbi David Small novels, but hadn't read any before. It's possible the somewhat gimmicky title format (____day the Rabbi Did X) put me off. But I eventually succumbed and have been reading the first of the Rabbi novels, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late.
It's interesting to compare and contrast with G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. Judaism and Catholicism have different philosophies, of course. At one point Rabbi Small discusses the way the afterlife isn't central to Jews with Sgt. Lanigan, the Irish Catholic detective who's sort of the series' secondary protagonist. In addition Small is much younger than Fr. Brown here, and still sometimes prone to errors in judgment. And some differences may stem from Kemelman having grown up in the Jewish Faith, while from what I recall Chesterton was a later convert to Catholicism.
The story is gripping. A young maid (that's what they call her, although to me she seems more like a nanny) is murdered, and also happens to be pregnant. The fictional setting of Barnard's Crossing is a small town, but it's situated near Lynn, which is itself a suburb of Boston, so it feels like it could be a real place.
2 comments:
It's been quite a while since I read any of the Father Brown stories but I do remember their style well enough; however, even though I've never read any Rabbi Small books you make them sound interesting. A thoughtful, philosophical young rabbi could prove to be an enjoyable protagonist in a mystery book. Apparently Harry Kemelman won an Edgar award the year it was published so it must be as good as you say. I'll see if I can find a copy.
Chesterton, coming from a different age and background, was probably more serious about religion and ethics. Besides the Father Brown books he wrote a large volume of other compositions as I'm sure you're aware. Comparison between him and Kemelman can only be made through the character's religious practices. I can see how that could be an intrguing exercise when it comes to evaluating their fictional detectives.
To be added to the large volume of 'Things I Never Knew': Chesterton was friends with a man who invented a poetical form called clerihews - four line biographical descriptors. Chesterton wrote some too and illustrated Edmund Clerihew Bentley's first collection:
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul's."
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ps: Charles De Gaulle was the first Western leader to establish ties with China when he went there in 1964. I still can't find a reference to van Gulik - maybe I imagined it..
It seemed a natural point of comparison. Of course as clergymen they have different roles as well. That's another thing Small talks about in the book, the difference between priests, ministers and rabbis. Surprisingly it is not illustrated with a trip to the bar. Anyway, I'll be reading another book in the series pretty shortly. Kemelman also wrote short stories about an armchair detective named Nicky Welt, which had already gotten some attention before he created the Rabbi.
I've read some of Chesterton's political and philosophical writings as well as his fiction. He was a witty writer, and his observations about how unlimited state power and unlimited market power would lead to the same unfortunate ends have proven prescient. Among his non-Father Brown stories I greatly enjoy his novel The Man Who Was Thursday, which stands up well to rereading.
That's right, the poetic form of the Clerihew. In addition to them EC Bentley also wrote mystery novels, starting with Trent's Last Case. I read it and it wasn't bad, although I think he did some trash-talking of Arthur Conan Doyle, which doesn't really put me in his corner.
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It makes sense that De Gaulle would establish ties with China, what with their being part of the far Eastern front in World War II and him being a war general. You were probably right about van Gulik being interested in it. He wrote a lot about China, obviously, so trying to find another reference to him and China is kind of in "needle in a haystack" territory.
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