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A Diet of Treacle (1961)

von Lawrence Block

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Anita Carbone was a good girl--and it bored her. That's why she took the long subway ride down to Greenwich Village, home of the Beats and the stoners, home to every kind of misfit and dropout and free spirit you could imagine. It was where she met Joe Milani, the troubled young war veteran with the gentle touch. But it was also where she met his drug-dealing roommate--a man whose unnatural appetites led to murder.… (mehr)
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Treacle is a British term for molasses. A treacle tart is a traditional English dessert. Treacle is also a medicinal compound used as an Antidote for poison. It is also mentioned in Chapter 7 of Alice in
Wonderland. It is an interesting title for block's 1961 novel about the Beat generation as they evolved into hippies. Perhaps it's an allusion to the characters aversion to working for a living. Perhaps its a reference to their drug use. In any event, Block doesn't romanticize the Beats the way Kerouac did. Their lives aren't filled with the glory of discovering the beauty of the world. Instead, in this novel, their lives
are a descent into hell. Three youths drop out of society and end up in the East Village together. Shank is a bit of a psychopath. He deals first pot and then heroin. Joe returns from a stint in military service and rooms with Shank. He spends his days sitting in the park. Getting
stoned, and picking up chicks such as Anita. She left her square life and square boyfriend to come to the village. Eventually she moves in with Joe and shank who scares the crap out of her. Drugs, public sex, parties, are their lives as they descend into rape murder junk and
running from the law. Truly, a dark portrayal of the beatniks and
hippies in 61. It is well written and easy to read. Block wrote well even in his early days. ( )
  DaveWilde | Sep 22, 2017 |
Twenty year-old Shank ends up in Greenwich Village after finding himself to be a burden in his mother's new marriage. His roommate Joe is a little older, but lives off Shanks earnings as a small-time pot dealer. Joe has no desire to do anything but be a bum, even after he meets square Anita, whose desperation to escape her predictable future leads her to latch onto Joe and move into their dirty apartment. Their lives as Beats leads them to the fringes of society, a world of heavy drug use, prostitution, orgies, and murder.

"The people he gravitated to smoked marijuana or gobbled benzedrine or drank cough syrup or chewed peyote. They talked with each other, walked with each other, sat with each other and slept with each other. They listened to jazz, deep and grinding hard bop, and they spoke their own language, the inner language of Hip."

Originally published in 1961, this has been re-issued as part of the Hard Case Crime series. It's an interesting book, gritty pulp that includes somewhat graphic scenes that would have been scandalous back then. The word "Beat" is used a few times, but "Hip" is the preferred term, as it implies that a hip person is somehow more intelligent and free than a square. As one party guest recites poetry, you can practically hear the fingers snapping. ( )
  mstrust | Mar 22, 2016 |
An alternate title could have been “Drugs Are Bad” or “Hasty Decisions are not Recommended”. While they’re not as eye catching or as hip as “A Diet of Treacle”, they still sum up the story pretty accurately.

Joe and Shank have a strange living arrangement. Sharing an apartment in the West Village, Shank supports Joe financially by peddling pot to a steady stream of customers. Both are subscribers to the hip lifestyle of the 60s, meaning that they’re not interested in getting a nine to five pencil pushing desk job, instead opting to wax philosophical about life and ridicule the squares that live uptown. All things considered, they had a good thing going until Joe decides to pick up an attractive woman, Anita, on a bet.

While there’s no immediate connection at first, Joe bumps into Anita later on and is shocked to discover that she wants to move in with him. Not really knowing how to take this, Joe tries to push her away, insisting that she’s simply not built for his lifestyle. When she fails to yield her offer, the two end up between the sheets and a domestic relationship follows. While Shank initially insists he’s OK with his new roommate, a darker side has recently begun brewing deep inside him and is threatening to come to the surface.

I never understood Anita’s rationale for moving in with Joe. While it’s made known that she’s uninterested in the whole getting married, having kids and living the life of financially secure housewife, her quick decision to jump into bed with this guy she barely knows – yes, I’m aware that one night stands are a thing – then wanting to live in his rundown, disgusting apartment (roaches literally crawling across the floor) was a bit of stretch considering her upbringing and stance on drug culture. It was too much of a 180, even for someone wanting to dramatically shake up their life.

Shank’s change in attitude, while gradual, did seem rushed, if that makes sense. There are glimmers of violent tendencies early on when he speaks about the power his switchblade carries, how it drops women’s inhibitions, even hinting that he may take some by force. However, there’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s a psychopath. It probably didn't help that he shared a room with Joe and Anita dancing the horizontal mambo. In his twisted world view, Anita was insatiable and it was his turn whether she liked it or not. Whether his progression is rushed or not, Shank’s truly a horrific monster that Block tries his damnedest to make sure the reader doesn't forget.

It’s worth noting that there’s some strong writing here – as if I have to tell you that when it’s a Lawrence Block novel. Joe’s musings about life and his distaste for dropping into the system, becoming a cog in the great wheel of society, were easy to identify with. He almost felt like a more focused, older and wiser Holden Caulfield. I would have probably enjoyed a whole book written in that style alone, tossing out the crime elements that were mixed in.

I’m not sure if this one will stick with me as strongly as my first Block Hardcase Crime book, [b:Grifter's Game|380569|Grifter's Game (Hard Case Crime, #1)|Lawrence Block|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348009179s/380569.jpg|3261476], but it’s a short read that you could most likely blast through in one sitting. ( )
  branimal | Apr 1, 2014 |
This early novel by Lawrence Block is volume 39 from the Hard Case Crime imprint and sees the novel’s first publication in close to fifty years. It was originally published in 1961 by Beacon Books as "Pads Are For Passion" ("A Diet of Treacle" having been deemed too arty by the publisher), with Block writing under the pen name Sheldon Lord. The story is set in Greenwich Village and is contemporaneous to the emergence of the "Beats". Joe Milani is a Korean War vet, who has dropped out of college and eased himself into the Beat lifestyle. He's living with and supported by sociopathic pot dealer, "Shank” Maston, who is graduating into dealing heroin. When bored, good-girl Anita Carbone hooks up with Joe he persuades her to move into the flat he shares with Shank and before too long she's embraced the drugged-up Beat lifestyle. Shank's heroin dealing soon attracts the attention of the police and after a violent encounter with a drug squad detective in their communal flat the three find themselves on the run. Although this is an early work from Lawrence Block it still bears all his hallmarks of great characterisation, brilliantly realised settings and an effortless narrative style. The plot of the story is fairly sparse, with character details driving the narrative, until we get to the final quarter of the book when the story sparks into speedy kinetic life. This sudden change of pace and momentum gives the overall book an oddly uneven feel – perhaps an allusion to the switch between low level pot-smoking and dealing into the far more twitchy world of heroin dealing. Although there is plenty of drug-taking dotted throughout and the occasional allusion to free sex, the Beat lifestyle is surprisingly coyly described and it is never clear whether Block is sympathetic or antagonistic. The odd living arrangements between Joe and Shank, where Shank provides for and looks after Joe isn't commented on in any detail although the homosexual overtones are fairly obvious – perhaps that would have been a step too far even for a sleaze novel from a bottom-feeder publisher in the early sixties. All that said "A Diet of Treacle" is an excellent early work from a great writer. It provides a first class snapshot of a time and place and has a highly enjoyable free-flowing narrative style. ( )
  calum-iain | Mar 16, 2014 |
Kind of a slow setup and then with a rushed ending. A lot of it reads like "Reefer Madness" or something. ( )
  ptdilloway | Nov 21, 2013 |
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AutorennameRolleArt des AutorsWerk?Status
Block, LawrenceAutorHauptautoralle Ausgabenbestätigt
Pyle,ChuckUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt

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Anita Carbone was a good girl--and it bored her. That's why she took the long subway ride down to Greenwich Village, home of the Beats and the stoners, home to every kind of misfit and dropout and free spirit you could imagine. It was where she met Joe Milani, the troubled young war veteran with the gentle touch. But it was also where she met his drug-dealing roommate--a man whose unnatural appetites led to murder.

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