Cocktail Talk: Kill and Tell
After the longish (or just plain long) Tom Waits post below, I thought I’d slip in a short couple of quotes from a book that almost echoes Waits (a book which is definitely the inspiration for the “ethics” scene in the Coen brothers’ film Miller’s Crossing, too), in that there are some shady and weird characters and everyone ends sad, dead, or drunk–a book called Kill and Tell. The first one’s about going into a bar, and the second about drinking at home (cause I wanted to cover the bases).
The bar was a fine old piece of imitation mahogany, and there was a fine old imitation Irishman in a white coat behind it.
We lifted our glasses to each other; the wine was cool and dry. I kept refilling our glasses while we ate, and when Jake brought the coffee Catherine asked him for some brandy. We were celebrating; each of us understood that.
“I think I’m drunk,” she told me.
“I’m drunk, too,” I said.
—Kill and Tell, Howard Rigsby
phismi said:
As long as his name is “Mike” I don’t care how Irish the bartender is.
Rebecca said:
I don’t know if this qualifies, but I bought my first “pulp” book the other day: The Gin Palace by Emile Zola. Okay, it’s Zola, so not 100%n sure if it’s legit in this category… but I thought of you and your blog when I bought it! (I think that counts for something… A for effort?)
admin said:
The Gin Palace is at least noir-y, and gin-y, and Zola would probably be happy to be called pulp (or at least be read in a bar). A big A for you.
And Phi, all bartenders should be named Mike. I’m calling them that from now on, at least.
