A reason to cheer up after that last post

Father's Day is coming up and Donald E. Westlake has a new Dortmunder novel out.

What's So Funny?

Gilbert Sorrentino's last courageous words, "Enough of this bullshit," are wise in their way, but for sheer practicality and getting through the day, nothing beats this piece of wisdom from the unluckiest thief in the world, John Dortmunder, "a man on whom the sun shone only when he needed darkness":

"Whenever things sound easy," Dortmunder said, "It turns out there's one part you didn't hear."

Comments

[Linkmeister]

OOH! Let's play "quote from your current book!" Lance was first, so I'll go next!

Ruminating on crime and criminals, Anna Pigeon in Nevada Barr's Liberty Falling says, "The root cause of this was that most criminals were not all that bright. Agatha Christie was bright. P.D. James was bright. Dick Francis was bright. Criminals were thugs. Not very creative. Not ingenious. Opportunists who'd flunked long-range planning. Hence non-fictional crimes tended to be fairly straightforward."

Disconcertingly but not offensively, the author photo on the back of this library edition has Ms. Barr seated on a bench across the harbor from the Manhattan skyline, with the WTC filling the background. (The book was published in 1999.)