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Friday, May 2, 2014

Friday's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book: THE RUBBER BAND (1936) by Rex Stout

Cover art: Winifred E. Lefferts

I've been touting Rex Stout (hey, it sort of rhymes!) since the very inception of this blog so why should I stop now?

These days (and those past), I'm usually re-reading a Nero Wolfe book during meals.

"You might learn if Miss Lindquist and Mr. Walsh will care to wash before dinner. It will be ready in five minutes."

She [Clara Fox] shook her head. "We don't need to eat. Or we can go out for a bite."

"Great hounds and Cerberus!" He [Wolfe] was about as close to a tantrum as he ever got. "Don't need to eat! In heaven's name, are you camels, or bears in for the winter?"

She got up and went to the front room to get them.

Not that I'm as finicky a gourmet (gourmand?) as Wolfe is, of course. He would shudder in horror at some of my food favorites. But it's the spirit of the thing.

Right now I'm re-reading THE RUBBER BAND written in 1936 which, despite the occasional anachronism, makes for mighty fine re-reading. In fact, this book actually improves with age. The more I re-read it, the more I like it. This is the one where Wolfe hides suspect Clara Fox under a bunch of sphagnum moss in the plant rooms upstairs. Remember?

He [Wolfe] sighed. "You understand, Miss Fox, this is something unprecedented. It has been many years since any woman has slept under this roof. Not that I disapprove of them, except when they attempt to function as domestic animals. When they stick to the vocations for which they are best adapted, such as chicanery, sophistry, self-adornment, cajolery, mystification and incubation, they are sometimes splendid creatures.

Well, if you don't remember, that's okay. Read (or re-read) the book anyway, or listen to it on audio.

According to the very excellent mystery/thriller author Nelson DeMille who wrote the forward on the paperback copy I own: The Rubber Band has a Holmesian quality to it that can't be missed; old secrets from a far off time and land, a pact signed in blood, unpaid debts, revenge, murder, and finally restitution....So settle into an easy chair and an easy state of mind, light a fire or at least pretend to, and welcome to the brownstone on West Thirty-fifth Street.

Yup, it has all of that and more, it also has Archie revealing some of his finest Archie-isms.

When I leave my waking up in the morning to the vagaries of nature, it's a good deal like other acts of God - you can't tell much about it ahead of time. So Tuesday at six-thirty I staggered out of bed and fought my way across the room to turn off the electric alarm clock on the table. Then I proceeded to cleanse the form and the phiz and get the figure draped for the day. By that time the bright October sun had a band across the top fronts of the houses across the street and I thought to myself it would be a pity to have to go to jail on such a fine day.

'...the form and the phiz.' Love it.

Don't forget to check in over at Patti Abbott's blog, Pattinase, to see what other forgotten or overlooked books other bloggers are talking about today.

31 comments:

  1. Hello Yvette:

    Now 'The Rubber Band' must surely fall into the category of an 'overlooked' book as Rex Stout possibly qualifies to be an 'overlooked' writer. But how fascinating all of this sounds and, apart from all else, how well it serves as a social commentary of the inter war years.

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  2. Absolutely, dear Jane and Lance. This is a book undeservedly overlooked by those few who have not read Rex Stout. But I forgive you. :) Stout is definitely an American taste. He wrote up until the 1960's, Wolfe and Archie adapting to the time but mostly staying the one fixed points in an otherwise changing century. In fact, one of the best Nero Wolfe books, THE DOORBELL RANG (Wolfe takes on the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover), was published in 1965.

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  3. I thought I had read all of Stout but don't remember this one.

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    1. So maybe it's time to get re-acquainted. :)

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  4. Phiz! Does Archie not think much of his looks? I haven't read enough of Stout's books to know. This is one of the few Rex Stout first editions I still own. I sold a small boxful of them years ago. Still haven't read it. At a book sale a while ago I picked up a bagful of Nero Wolfe paperbacks of all the highly rated titles (SILENT SPEAKER, AND BE A VILLAIN, BLACK ORCHID and some others) and all the Tecumseh Fox books a few years ago with the intention of indulging myself in Stout. But...that's right. Still haven't dived in.

    I liked your post for all the samples of Stout's writing. It's certainly making me lean towards a Nero Wolfe for my next Golden Age book for the Bingo Reading Challenge.

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    1. OMG, you have a first first??? I wish you'd sold them to me when I still had money. Ha! If you don't read any Rex Stout then you're denying yourself one of the best, John. Hop to it.

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  5. The Rubber Band is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe books. (I have a lot of favorites, though.) I love Clara Fox and the whole story is very good. I have got to make time to read more of these books.

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    1. Yes you do. :) Need to make time, I mean. I had forgotten just how much I like THE RUBBER BAND. Even if Cramer lights his cigar and Archie goes on to forget that in later books.

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  6. I remember this one -- hiding her under the moss in the plant room is one of the classic scenes in Nero Wolfe.

    You know I started reading Rex Stout because of your blog. I've been reading them, off and on, in chronological order. Up to the late 1950s. Great stuff.

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    1. I'm thrilled that I introduced you to Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe, M.M. :) I've actually lost track of how many times I've read and re-read my Wolfe books.

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  7. Yvette, I have to play catch-up as far as Rex Stout's books go. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. I hope you come across a few here and there, Prashant. They are well worth looking for. Somehow, the older I get, the better the Wolfe books get. :)

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  8. Seems interesting, Yvette but I don't think I have seen a copy anywhere.

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    1. Maybe one day that will change, Neer. This is definitely one of the best mystery series ever written.

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  9. My favorite, most times I think about it - The Doorbell Rang - but I read others and they become my favorite. I think I have read all of them at least three times.

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    1. I too love THE DOORBELL RANG. But I think my favorite, at least for now is OVER MY DEAD BODY. There are very very few (if any) clunkers in this series, that's for sure.

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  10. How do you find all these great books? Yvette the Derby is on todat at 5 and there is a horse running named Wicked Strong, after the BOSTON BOMBING. Sure hope he wins. yvonne

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    1. Well, I've known about the Nero Wolfe books for ages, Yvonne.
      It's one of my favorite series.

      GO WICKED STRONG!!!

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  11. "This is the one where Wolfe hides suspect Clara Fox under a bunch of sphagnum moss in the plant rooms upstairs. Remember?" Yep.

    I love the selections you shared, and that cover art is gorgeous. You made my day.

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    1. Thanks, C.W. I love 'making your day'. :)

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  12. I don't think I've read this one.

    I started reading Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books while a teenager back in the Middle Ages. It was a series read by my father, a mystery fan.

    For decades I didn't read the books, but then when I fortuitously happened upon this blog,: Voila! Great posts about this series and reviews of some excellent books, so I began to read the series again, to my great enjoyment.

    I have not read all of the books, but when I read one I enjoy it (with a few exceptions due to language), but many times when I'm stressed out and tired or need a complete distraction, I pick up one of these books and enjoy it. (Or else the Precious Ramotswe series, too)

    So, this post reminds me to return to the series, and at least to find this book and read it.

    P.S. Whoever likes these books MUST see the TV series with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Absolutely hilarious, but it's helpful if one is familiar with the series, the characters, Wolfe's idiosyncracies. (Friends who don't read the books don't get the TV shows, and give up).

    The TV episodes are fast paced, repartee is quick, lots of art deco furnishings, fast-paced music, including drum rolls.

    Maybe I should buy it so I have it on hand!

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    1. Well, think of the joy waiting for you, Kathy, when you pick up THE RUBBER BAND. :) I have watched the show now and then over the years, an episode here, an episode there, but I still do enjoy the books more. I have my favorite Nero Wolfe books that I return to again and again and again. Enjoy writing about them too.

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  13. Yvette, as you may recall, I love the Nero Wolfe books as well as ones from TV starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton, so I was pleased to see you were blogging about THE RUBBER BAND! Now you've got me wanting to catch up with my collection (I confess I don't have all of this...yet! :-) Thanks for bringing them back in my radar so I can catch up! Warmest wishes to you and your lovely family, my friend! :-D

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    1. Thanks, Dorian. I'm always glad to chat with another Nero Wolfe groupie. :) Or as Caftan Woman and I like to say: Fan-girls. While I am a bigger fan of the books than the show, I still recommend both. I was especially taken, on the show, with the guy who played Saul Panzer. ;)

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  14. Not sure I've read this one in English actually - hurrah, another Wolfe book to add to the pile - thanks Yvette.

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    1. You're welcome, Bloody. :) Even if you did read it, read it again. There's no such thing as reading too many or too much Nero.

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  15. I am so annoyed with myself. When we moved to Philadelphia, I got rid of about twenty-five or thirty Rex Stout paperbacks that I'd bought at yard sales and library sales. I hadn't read them all but I figured I could always get them from the library. Now that you often blog about Rex Stout, I wish I'd kept them!

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    1. Oh, how could you!?? It's slap on the wrist time, for sure, Joan. Ha., I have a slew of paperbacks and a couple of anthologies so Wolfe is always on hand at Chez Yvette. Anthologies are a great way to go if you don't like to have a bunch of paperbacks on the shelves.

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  16. Hmmm. Have to figure out a way to get The Rubber Band. The library only has it in ebook format or -- their latest annoyance -- they have only one paper book, available only at the 42nd Street main library, not for circulation.

    So a person has to go up there, find their way in, find the book, find a place to sit, etc. So, this is really not something most people can do.

    So I'll try to find a copy at Abe Books, one that isn't printed in a tiny font, which I gave up trying to read years ago. I need the big font for those of us with more experienced eyes.

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  17. Kathy, bad luck at the library. I have trouble with the system in my part of the state which has very VERY FEW vintage books on their shelves. I love that Abe Books has a lot of free shipping so I use them a lot. But luckily for me, I bought most of the Nero Wolfe paperbacks
    years ago when a local bookstore was going out of business.

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  18. Smart move, that buying up the Wolfe books. One never knows when one might need a dose of Wolfe and Goodwin banter -- good to have on hand for those emergency cravings.

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