{"id":17630,"date":"2022-12-15T19:26:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T00:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17630"},"modified":"2022-12-15T19:26:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T00:26:36","slug":"the-beach-girls-by-john-d-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17630","title":{"rendered":"‘The Beach Girls,’ by John D. MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The breeze died. The high white sun leaned its tropic weight on the gaudy vacation strip of Florida\u2019s East Coast, so that it lay sunstruck, lazy and humid and garish, like a long brown sweaty woman stretched out in sequins and costume jewelry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another classic John D. MacDonald book<\/strong>, non-Travis McGee variety, from The Murder Room. The Beach Girls<\/a><\/em> is an interesting, often impressive tale stressing humans and society more than crime (though there\u2019s some crime). These old paperbacks were intended for a male audience, so there\u2019s also quite a lot of sex, though it\u2019s not explicit. Very little monogamy is on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stebbins\u2019 Marina in Elihu Beach, Florida is a marginal operation. Its owner, an amiable widow, can\u2019t afford to maintain it properly, and local interests are pressuring her to sell it to developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the marina is home to a motley group of boat owners \u2013 local fishermen, poor boat bums and rich yacht owners. There are a couple stinkers among them, but most of them get along happily in a live-and-let-live way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Leo Rice shows up looking for work, something seems off about him. He\u2019s nice enough, and he\u2019s willing to learn and to work hard. There\u2019s no arrogance about him. But he doesn\u2019t seem to match the story he tells about himself. He has the look of a man used to bigger things, greater responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo has a secret. He\u2019s got an issue with one of the residents, one of the bad types nobody likes. He came for revenge, but now he can see that he\u2019s not tough enough for that job. And he\u2019s suddenly interested in Christy, one of the marina residents, a girl who\u2019s been damaged in the past and put on a clown\u2019s persona. Is he willing to die trying to get justice, or does he have a future with Christy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beach Girls<\/em> offers a very fine author\u2019s human insight, empathy, and powers of observation. The mores of the time it describes are very different from ours, and will probably disturb conservatives and liberals alike. The sex is pretty free and easy in this little community, but there\u2019s also a passage that seems to defend wife-beating (in an extreme case). Approach such passages with your sense of history in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The breeze died. The high white sun leaned its tropic weight on the gaudy vacation strip of Florida\u2019s East Coast, so that it lay sunstruck, lazy and humid and garish, like a long brown sweaty woman stretched out in sequins and costume jewelry. Another classic John D. MacDonald book, non-Travis McGee variety, from The Murder … Continue reading ‘The Beach Girls,’ by John D. MacDonald<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3868,4466],"class_list":["post-17630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-john-d-macdonald","tag-the-beach-girls"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17631,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630\/revisions\/17631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}