Cocktail Talk: The Hot Spot
I’ve only had one other Charles Williams quote on Spiked Punch, and it was only a bonus quote along with a recipe for the Zazarac. Admittedly, it is one amazing quote. Really, go read it. Or you’ll be sad. And don’t fret, I’ll wait.
Okay, that was great, yes? The below quote may not have the umph, but it’s also good, and from the book The Hot Spot, which was originally titled Hell Hath No Fury and which was, oddly enough, made into a movie with Don Johnson of the well-feathered hair. Don’t hold that against it–if you dig the noir country of fiction it’s a must read. Williams walked the same 50s and 60s noir and hard-boiled aisle as James M. Cain and Cornell Wollrich (all three I’d read all day, if it was up to me), though he has his own voice and style and particular brand of relentlessness and bleak beauty and drinks that sometimes do flow. I picked this particular set of lines, though, because it’s coming on summer and many are dreaming of sand, beaches, and escape.
And you could get away from the rat-race for a long time with that kind of money, with a brown-eyed girl on the beach somewhere in the Caribbean, sailing a cat boat and going fishing off the reefs and drinking Cuba Libres where it’s always afternoon . . .
–Charles Williams, The Hot Spot
