- Black Money
Black Money is a
novel by US Americanmystery writerRoss Macdonald . Published in 1966, it is, according toMatthew Bruccoli and other critics, among the most powerful of allRoss Macdonald 's novels. It was his own personal choice as his best book.Fact|date=July 2007Plot summary
The plot is typically convoluted: the jilted boyfriend of wealthy Virginia Fablon hires
Lew Archer to investigate the background of her inamorata, one Felix Cervantes, presently her husband. The resulting inquiries take the reader through levels of society from the homeless to the wealthy, a canvassing seen in other Macdonald novels. Except for brief forays into Las Vegas—the title refers to cash skimmed by casino operators to avoid taxes—and the environs of Los Angeles, the action takes place around Montevista, in private clubs, homes, clinics, the academy, and seedy and luxurious hotels; the implications, however, reach beyondCalifornia , as the edges of the story extend toCentral America andEurope , whose cultures and economies the book sees as inextricably tied to American life.Style
Written in understated style, with dry wit and occasional aphorisms ("What you do to others you do to yourself. That's the converse of the golden rule") and without the sentimental biases that sometimes mar the author’s other books, "Black Money" maintains the speed of a thriller at the same time as it manipulates the reader’s understanding of its characters so as to render them icons of their classes and to lay bare their psychological tropes and moral dimensionsWho|date=July 2007. In this respect the book owes much of its vision to
F. Scott Fitzgerald ’s "The Great Gatsby " (1925), and it is no accident that Fitzgerald is mentioned once in the text itself: Cervantes and Virginia Fablon share something of Gatsby and Daisy Fay BuchananWho|date=July 2007. As in Fitzgerald, the glittering surface conceals profound corruptionWho|date=July 2007. The denouement is darker than Fitzgerald's work, however.The compression of the writing augments its emotive force, notably in the complex final scene, which, without having the “jolt” (to use the author’s own word) of "The Chill" (1964), has an accretive force that gives it even greater power—that of tragedy.Who|date=July 2007
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