BEST BIOGRAPHY I'VE READ

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

It's Tom Nolan's critically acclaimed (and the critics did love it, they almost slobbered, ha) bio of Ross Macdonald (the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar).

Long considered one of the three greats of American detective fiction-- Chandler, Hammet, Macdonald-- Macdonald even built on his two predecessors' achievements by the profound psychological penetration of his novels, and his compassionate, complex, sensitive protaganist, "Lew Archer". (Paul Newman played him in two films based on Macdonald's books, "Harper" and "The Drowning Pool".)

In virtually every photo I've seen of Macdonald, there's pain back of the mild expression. And Nolan sensitively captures all that in his bio-- the desperately poor childhood, his parents' failures, the juvenile delicquency, the hidden vices and shame, the hunger for books and the ambition to be a writer. Then the almost unreal rocketing to fame, life in palmy Santa Barbara, where, when he died in the 80's, he was the most famous and lauded detective fiction novelist in America.

He was fractiously married to the eccentric Margaret Millar, another acclaimed mystery novelist. He longed to be a better parent than his own, yet their daughter, Linda led a chaotic life marked by tangles with the law, a teenage hit-and-run accident that caused death, and dangerous runaway episodes. All this endured in the limelight of his full blown literary success. He adored his daughter, and her episodes sent him into therapy and possibly, his one suicide attempt.

He had a loving relationship with, of all people, literary lioness Eudora Welty, and their letters to each other and few furtive meetings, are a revelation in the book.

The late, great Sue Grafton was among Macdonald's legion of admirers, and she wrote the introduction to the biography. I like how she summed up:

"From Ross Macdonald, we learned to see southern Carlifornia as we'd never seen it before. From him, we finally understood that the crime novel could be as challenging, as asute, and as rarefied as the sonnet... precise, perceptive and passionate... even while its fundamental subject matter remained rooted in crime and violent death...."

And briefly, the reviewer for the Chicago Tribune, D i c k Adler, lauds the beauty of this wonderful biography of Macdonald--

"Radiant, resonant and ultimately heart-breaking.... No thousand-word review can do justice to the depth of information and emotion in Nolan's epic biography".

I love it when the writer of a biography is fully up to writing the life of the great character he chooses to profile!

A superb, thought-provoking, beautifully-written read. I was too young when I first read Macdonald, but Nolan is driving me back to his works. He particularly recommends

"The Doomsters"; "The Galton Case"; "The Chill"; and "Sleeping Beauty" (which may be partly based on his daughter's troubled existence), among others. Here's a terrific interview with Tom Nolan on his subject:

https://crimereads.com/tom-nolan-on-the-enduring-legacy-of-ross-macdonald/