Levon Helm has left us

Levon Helm has left us, at the age of 71.  I want to remember him with some words from Bob Dylan:

When you’re sad and when you’re lonely
And you haven’t got a friend
Just remember that death is not the end
 
And all that you’ve held sacred
Falls down and does not mend
Just remember that death is not the end
Not the end, not the end
Just remember that death is not the end

When you’re standing at the crossroads
That you cannot comprehend
Just remember that death is not the end
 
And all your dreams have vanished
And you don’t know what’s up the bend
Just remember that death is not the end
Not the end, not the end
Just remember that death is not the end

When the storm clouds gather ’round you
And heavy rains descend
Just remember that death is not the end
 
And there’s no one there to comfort you
With a helpin’ hand to lend
Just remember that death is not the end
Not the end, not the end
Just remember that death is not the end

Oh, the tree of life is growing
Where the spirit never dies
And the bright light of salvation shines
In dark and empty skies
When the cities are on fire
With the burning flesh of men
Just remember that death is not the end
 
And you search in vain to find
Just one law-abiding citizen
Just remember that death is not the end
Not the end, not the end
Just remember that death is not the end

 

Copyright © 1988 by Special Rider Music

The Weight (The Band with the Stables Singers)

http://youtu.be/sjCw3-YTffo

The Weight (with John Hiatt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPIdTchEd00

Ophelia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcgxuGiI7wU

An interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cnAfSsk2wc&feature=fvst

Eilis Dillon's Death in the Quadrangle and Rue Morgue Press

This is another of those times when I thank whatever gods there may be for Tom and Enid Shantz and Rue Morgue Press.  The world is a better place, particularly for lovers of mystery fiction, because of them, and a lesser place now with Enid no longer with us.

In the large batch of books I recently got from Rue Morgue were all three mystery novels by Eilis Dillon, an Irish author and academic, who, among her 50+ books wrote three mysteries,, in chronological order, Death at Crane's Court, Sent to His Account, and Death in the Quadrangle.  The recurring characters are Professor John Daly, retired from King's University, Dublin, and Mike Kenny, Inspector in the Guardia.  The first is set in a retirement home in Galway, the second in County Wicklow, and the third at King's University; it is one of the finest academic mysteries I have ever read.

Academic mysteries can be a problem.  Too often, the authors don't seem to know quite enough about how universities work to make the settings believable.  When they do work [as in Carolyn Heilbrun/Amanda Cross's work, or as in Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night (also here)], however, they can be (especially for those of us who are academics) especially fulfilling.  Death in the Quadrangle begins with Prof. Daly being asked back to King's to deliver a series of scholarly lectures; in reality, however, the University's President, Professor Bradley [whose first name, oddly enough, we never learn...but, for that matter, Daly's first name comes up almost in passing, and the first names of the other male faculty are also lacking (we do learn Professor O'Leary's first name--Mary)...they are referred to solely by their last names] wishes Daly to look into threatening letters he has received.  And without involving the police.  Of course, the first thing Daly does is to bring Inspector Kenny in (incognito).

While Dublin itself is just a place, and not even particularly convincingly evoked--much as Oxford and Cambridge, both large manufacturing towns, often seem to be quaint villages--, the University is alive (although you really don't get much sense of the size of the place; only 7 of the faculty get mentioned, and the students are just props).  The relationships among the faculty do not seem contrived, either.  And if the conclusion is somewhat forced, and perhaps somewhat too easily foreseen, the narrative swept me along.  I think that Dillon kept the length about right--about 160 pages.  Had it been longer, the additional length would have been padding.

If you can't tell, despite some reservations I have voiced here, I found Death in the Quadrangle absorbing.  I wish she had found to desire to write more mysteries.  But the three we have are worth our time and attention.