All the Ms: MacKay to Mackenzie

Mackay, Malcolm: How a Gunman Says Goodbye is a hitman story in Glasgow. Gangs/assassins with noir nobility. Engaging. But the truth is, “gangs” and all related topics are kind of a blind spot in my brain. I can't locate my interest. (I did enjoy Red though!)

Mackay, Shena: A collection of short stories. From Dreams of Dead Women’s Handbags, I read “The Stained-Glass Door,” which is depressing modern life made poetic. And I began to ponder if short story writers inevitably write depressing short stories with contemporary settings. There are plenty of sci-fi and romance short stories out there, but frankly, it is harder to write a short story with plot than a rambling depressing story with supposed meaning. 

Mackel, Kathy: Alien in a Bottle is a book about a kid who wants to blow glass and gets help from aliens. Not a plot I ever would have thought of!

Makechnie, Amy: Ten Thousand Tries has a great first-person narrator in the person of a twelve-year-old boy with attitude who wants to be the best soccer player ever. The book starts out strong and is one of those I can imagine coming back to.

MacKenzie, J.R.: A Temptation Tale: A Father Tom Novel is a novel about Catholic priests in which a cat plays a character.

Despite being a cat-lover, I don’t really get these types of books, books where felines tell part of the story or provide reflections. I adore A Man and His Cat, the manga series, but I think the reasons for my adoration are two: (1) the cat is not a reflective human in cat skin; the cat is a weird cat that does weird things, even scattering its litter and poop on the floor; (2) the series, by the second volume, expands to cover the main character’s entire world: his best friend, his rivals, his students, his children, his past—including his dad and, most importantly, his wife who has died. Everyone bonds over cats!

In fairness, A Temptation Tale is also about a community. But the cat seems oddly irrelevant, and I moved on.  

MacKenzie, Ian: Feast Days is contemporary self-awakening in Brazil (Americans in Brazil). The writing is very contemporary: vignettes as story, at least in the beginning. I did like the line in the first chapter, “Every man tells himself he could have been a spy in another life.” 

Mackenzie, Jassy: Random Violence begins with the death of the victim. Although Columbo episodes start this way (or rather with the murderer’s plan), I don’t care for the approach in books. And even with Columbo, I sometimes just skip to the parts where Peter Falk shows up. The actual investigation interests me more (even with Matlock, I sometimes skip the court scenes–again, the actual investigations interest me more).