Pale Kings and Princes |
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Pale Kings and Princes |
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Latest Update 06 February 2004 by Bob Ames
| Hardcover Edition | |||||
| Published by: | Delacorte Press | ||||
| Publication Date: | 1987 | ||||
| ISBN: | 0-385-29538-3 | ||||
| Paperback Edition | |||||
| Published by:: | Dell Publishing | ||||
| ISBN | 0-440-200040 | ||||
| Large Print Edition | |||||
| Published by | Delacorte | ||||
| ISBN | 0-385-29555-3 | ||||
| Audio Cassette Edition | |||||
| Published by: | Books on Tape | Simon and Schuster | |||
| Read By: | Michael Prichard | David Purdham | |||
| Length | 5 cassettes, 300 min. | 2 cassettes, 180 min. | |||
The above information is from the online catalog of the Minuteman Library Network and my own collection.---Bob
"as always for Joan, and Dan, and Dave, and this time too, for Kathy"
Taken from the jacket flap of the hardcover edition
"A reporter who was prying into the cocaine trade the the central Massachusetts town of Wheaton has been murdered, and Spenser is called in to investigate. When he's rebuffed by the police and threatened by a Colombian produce dealer who may be the cocaine kingpin, it's apparent that Wheaton isn't just another small town, but a major center for the cocaine trade in the Northeast.
As Spenser digs deeper for evidence, he meets three women on whom the case seems to turn: Emmy Esteva, the wife of the reputed cocaine kingpin; Juanita Olmos, a young woman who'd been involved with the murdered reporter; and Caroline Rogers, the wife of the Wheaton Police Chief.
After another murder is committed and an attempt is made on Spenser's life, he turns for help to Hawk, whose special skills keep them all alive, and to Susan, whose psychological insights are more and more necessary as the chase moves away from cocaine and appears to hinge more on older and more basic problems - jealousy, passion, and hate.
Pale Kings and Princes, the fourteenth Spenser novel, takes us into the cutthroat, multibillion-dollar cocaine business, where drugs are valued above all and human life is frighteningly dispensable"
Taken from the back cover of the paperback edition:
"A young hotshot reporter was dead. He had gone to take a look-see at 'Miami North'--little Wheaton, Massachusetts--the biggest cocaine distribution center above the Mason/Dixon line.
Spenser's job was to find out if the kid died for getting too close to the truth...or to a sweet lady with a jealous husband. But when he showed up in Wheaton, he faced both crooked cops and the kind of muscle only money can buy. Even with Hawk's help and Susan's sharp eye, the prognoses for this case was guarded...deadly in extremis for a detective caught in a snowstorm of drugs, passion, and hate."
"My opinion: have you every felt the dense skull and heavily muscled neck of an adult Rottweiler? That dog ain't dead, he's just restin' a spell."
The Humane Society will be glad to know that no fictional animals were harmed during the typing of this novel.
I'm not sure of the reference here. The poem itself: "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (French: "The Beautiful Merciless Lady"), is about a young man pining away for love of an elf-maiden.
However, Peter Nover writes:
The title of Pale Kings and Princes: Parker's novel is an exploration and expansion of the themes that are to be found in Keats' poem. For a very fine article on the multiple layers of meaning that Keats' poem offers for an interpretation of RBP's novel, see: D.M. Bakker, "In Thrall to 'La Belle Dame sans Merci: In Pale Kings and Princes, Robert B. Parker struggles to reconcile a poetic sensibility with harsh reality", The Armchair Detective 25 (3) (Summer 1992), 296-300. Ms Bakker writes: "[...] we must now consider in more detail what 'la belle dame' or 'the fair lady' represents. In the novel, as in the poem, the 'fair' lady takes on many guises. In Keats' poem, she is, on one level the faerie creature who ensnares the knight. Similarily, in Pale Kings and Princes, cocaine might be seen as such a faerie creature. Cocaine [...] is the mistress of Wheaton. It is the 'White Lady' and 'Snow Queen' to whom all pay homage. [...] [T]he pale kings and princes of the knight's dream are, in Parker's novel, the kingpins of Wheaton's cocaine trade. The lines, 'I saw pale kings and princes, too/Pale warriors, death pale were they all,' aptly describe Wheaton's cocaine merchants. Their pale visages remind us of the pale powder or 'snow' they sell; Parker's use of 'snow' as a euphemism for cocaine, and the 'snowmen' to refer to the dealers, serves to remind us of the coldness of Keats' lonely hillside - his allusion to death".
"This is a reference to General Douglas McArthur who smoked a corncob pipe
and said, when he left the Philippines, 'I shall return.'"
Howard Hawks directed the movie. I found this at http://www.imdb.com:
"Hemingway had bet Hawks that Hawks couldn't film this novel. Hawks did it by deleting most of the story, including the class references that would justify the title, and shifting to an earlier point in the lives of the lead characters." In other words he borrowed the title and prestige of the author and went off in another direction entirely.
Of course any film that includes a musical number by Hoagy Carmichael gets an automatic one-up in my book.
And for fans of Terry Pratchett's
Discworld novels there is the internal dialogue of Sam Vimes and the
unheard voice of DEATH in Night Watch:
"Who really knew what evil lurked in the heart of men?
ME
Who knew what sane men were capable of?
STILL ME, I'M AFRAID."
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
"A 1987 Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R. http://www.emeraldsearch.com/starion/87starionad.jpg
I am absolutely 100% sure of this, as I am a bit of an expert on these particular cars. This was the only Japanese turbo-intercooled car with digital climate and steering wheel audio controls available in the US at the time. I also owned one and knew the car immediately from Mr. Parker's description in the book."
"Heatter (1890-1972). Broadcaster with instant fame in 1936 and a nightly following during WWII. 'Ah, there's good news tonight,' was his opener."
"Refers to the jazz standard composed by Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke (1947), with lyrics by none other than Johnny Mercer (1954)."
See Lyrics
"William Pynchon: c.1590-1662, American colonist and theologian, b. England. An original patentee and assistant in the Massachusetts Bay Company, he migrated to America in 1630, where he helped found Roxbury and served as treasurer of the colony (1632-34). In 1636 he settled, and was commissioned to govern, a plantation at the confluence of the Connecticut and Agawam rivers, which he called Agawam but which was renamed Springfield in 1641. Through a flourishing fur trade he increased an already considerable fortune. While visiting England (1650), he published The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, which expressed his liberal views of the
atonement. The book was denounced as heretical and ordered burned in Massachusetts. Relenting somewhat but refusing to retract all of his opinions, Pynchon left his property to his son John and other children and returned permanently (1652) to England."
"This should be 'silence and slow time,' and is from Ode to a Grecian Urn by Keats."
Very well done, Brenda. The oft-mentioned poem is on the Poetry page.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication; And upon her forehead was a name written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Chapter 35: "I have promises to keep." - Robert
Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. See
Oft Quoted and
Poetry.
Interestingly, Mark Collins wrote in to note that they changed this line in
the TV movie version:
"I recently saw the adaptation of Pale Kings and Princes and at the end just before Spenser shoots Esteve he says "I have miles to go before I sleep."
"'Could we focus on Wheaton a little more,' I said.
'Focus,' Rita said, 'they don't even know us.'"
"'Listen...Spenser. You start asking around in that neighborhood and you'll end up with your balls missing too.'
- 'League of Women Voters would sponsor a day of mourning,' I said."
"'I don't give a fuck,' Rogers said.
'Bailey, I believe you. That's probably the departmental motto. But it's no help to me.'"
"'Tell me one thing, though, before we hang. Do you admire my restraint even more than you admire my sinewy body?'
'Yes,' Susan said.
'Let me rephrase the question,' I said.
Susan's laugh bubbled. 'Ask me if I love you,' she said.
'Do you love me?'
'Yes, I do.'
'Do I love you?'
'Yes, you do.'
'What a happy coincidence,' I said."
"Both pairs of reflectors pointed at me. I could see myself in all four lenses. I put my face a little closer to J.D. so I could see my reflection better, and pulled my lips back and examined my teeth.
'You think you're a real jokester, don't you,' J.D. said.
'Yes,' I said. 'Good teeth, too. It;s the flossing mostly I think that accounts for it. If you do it after every meal...' I used a forefinger to pull my upper lip back to examine the left molars. J.D. pulled his head to the side.
'Cut it out,' he said.
'You can scoff,' I said, 'at oral hygiene if you want to...'"
"'Hey, Wally,' I said, 'you wouldn't know where I might score a little coke in town here, would you?'
A new approach.
'Do I look like Frosty the fucking snowman?' Wally said.
Actually, Wally looked considerably like a toad, but I didn't think it would help matters to tell him that."
"When she travels Susan packs for all eventualities. An intimate dinner at the White House; a barbecue at the King Ranch; cocktails with Halston; white water rafting. She had them all covered. Not only outfits for all possibilities but full accessories, panty hose, shoes, lingerie, jewelry, hats, coats, gloves, belts. Her suitcase was like the clown car at the circus that keeps disgorging occupants far beyond any possible capacity it might have."
"'You want wine with your dinner?' the waitress said.
- 'No thank you,' I said. I'd checked out the wines listed on the back of the menu. They ran to Andre and Cribari."
"I consulted my chicken potpie.
'What a disappointment,' I said to Susan.
'Canned?' Susan said?
'No, I was hoping for canned. I think they made this themselves.'"
"Susan had a new car, a bullet-shaped red Japanese sports car with a turbo-charged engine that would go from 0 to 5 million in 2.5 seconds. She blazed around in it like Chuck Yeager, but it scared me half to death and whenever I could I drove it with the cruise control set to fifty-five so it wouldn't creep up to the speed of light on me when I glanced at the road."
"As I drove west the late afternoon sun slanted directly in through the windshield, and even with sunglasses on and my Red Sox cap tilted way over my nose, I had trouble seeing the road. The car had a button to push so that the radio would scan the dial locating the local stations. It had a thermostatic heater/cooler so that you set the temperature digitally and it stayed that way winter and summer. It had cruise control and turbo intercooling and a beeper to remind you that your fly was open. But if you drove west in the late afternoon, it couldn't do a goddamned thing about the sun. I kind of liked that."
"After a while the guy in the cashmere coat said, 'Do you know who I am?'
'Ricardo Montalban,' I said.
They looked at me some more. I looked back.
'I loved you in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,' I said.
Cashmere glanced at Celtics Jacket. Celtics Jacket shrugged.
'My name is Felipe Esteva,' Cashmere said.
'I'll be goddamned,' I said. 'I'm never wrong about Ricardo. I saw him once outside the Palm on Santa Monica Boulevard. He was driving a Chrysler LeBaron and wearing a white coat just like that.' I shook my head. 'You sure?' I said.
The guy in the Celtics jacket leaned forward over the table and said, 'You are going to be in very big trouble.'
'Trouble?' I said. 'What for? It's an easy mistake to make. Especially with the white coat.'"
"'Lieutenant Healy says you could probably help on this,' he said. 'Says you used to be a police officer.'
- 'Says they fired your ass, too,' Henry said. Lundquist's eyes shifted very briefly from me to him and back
'And it came out here and made captain,' I said."
"So far so good. I had a recently widowed mother and her orphaned son crying hysterically. Maybe for an encore I could shoot the family dog."
"'How'd Caroline feel about you,' I said.
- 'Ambivalent,' Susan said. 'She's suspicious of shrinks. She'd rather you had been there.'
'Un huh.'
- 'She is under the impression that you can leap tall buildings at a single bound.'
'Well,' I said, 'not really tall buildings.'"
"'Your car's back at the motel,' Hawk said to Susan.
'Yes. So are my clothes and my makeup. My God, my entire face is in the motel room.'
'No,' I said. 'Stay out of the motel room. If they got hold of you they'd use you to get me.'
'My entire face,' Susan said.
I said, 'Forget the face.'
We were all quiet for a space as the wipers made their idiosyncratic sweeps of the windshield.
'Okay,' Susan said. 'But you can't look at me again.'
'I'll stare only at your body,' I said."
"'I come out here to whack a couple of dope pushers and I end up in encounter therapy,' Hawk said. 'Like hanging out with Dr. Ruth.'
'You'll get your turn,' I said.
''Spect I will,' Hawk said."
"...a young man and woman pulling a child on a sled. The child was so bundled up that its gender was a mystery and in fact its species was only a logical guess."
"Susan and Hawk and I went back to Boston, in Hawk's car.
'Shoulda got me a cap,' Hawk said. 'And practiced up saying yassah and opening the car door.'
'Leather puttees,' Susan said, 'I think you'd be simply scrumptious in leather puttees.'
'Yassum,' Hawk said."
"'Do you think you can get Caroline a job in Boston?'
'I'm going to talk to a man I know at Widener Library. It would be good, I think, to get her out of Wheaton.'
'Maybe she care to try my famous African beef injection,' Hawk said.
'Oh, oink,' Susan said.
'Yasum,' Hawk said."
"'There is, you know, also a therapy featuring Irish beef...'
'I'm familiar,' Susan said, 'with the treatment.'"
"'Those mittens look pretty dumb,' Lundquist said.
'Everybody knows we gets cold easy,' Hawk said. 'We needs to bundle up.'
'That because of your African heritage?' I said.
'Naw,' Hawk said. 'Cause we got much bigger dicks than you honkies. More skin surface to keep warm.'
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