Welcome to Litsy!

Embarrassed to say this is my first Frazier since Cold Mountain. But really, how can you ever follow up such a phenomenal debut without some disappointment? This is no Cold Mountain, but I still found it mostly entertaining. If you‘re a fan of Raymond Chandler, the American West, or 1930s noir, you‘ll enjoy this little romp. There are shades of Gatsby, a Lady Eve, just don‘t take this mashup too seriously.

Set in the years of the Great Depression,the narrator Val,a young artist,gets his first job painting a mural in a post office in a Wyoming mountain town.He stays with the rich and charismatic couple John and Eve who commissioned the mural.Soon Val has a crush on Eve who is in her mid twenties-a free spirit,at times depicted like a femme fatale from a 1940s movie.Then Eve is gone and Val sent off to find her.Very slow pace,beautifully written.

Not a book I would normally pick to read . It was a gift. I did enjoy it. A slight mystery running through it. Set in the Depression in the US. Interesting comments on the political system. A young artist goes to a small town to paint a mural on the PO wall. Has to depict hope and promise about the town.

Have you ever read a book chosen solely for its cover?

Oh man. I really wanted it like this because the premise sounded so interesting, and that cover, WOW! But, 50 (extremely slow) pages in, I just can‘t keep going anymore. The author doesn‘t use quotation marks at all and he refers to John Long as ‘Long‘ so it‘s extremely confusing when you come across this: Long said. Nope, this one wasn‘t for me.