Over the past few years, I have read an absurd
amount of John D. MacDonald books and have grown to envy the way his stories
flow so beautifully. He makes writing seem easy. It’s not. But then MacDonald
worked diligently at being an author, in a disciplined, professional sense, which
is partly why he was almost ridiculously prolific and why there are still
plenty of his books left for me to read. He certainly could spin a cracking
yarn, and some of his novels I would rate up there with the very best.
A particular favourite is A Flash of Green, a book dedicated to “Sam Prentiss, Jim Neville, Tom Dickinson, and all others opposed to the uglification of America.” It is essentially an environmental protest tale, with a strong theme of populist political corruption, and even some easily manipulated violent far-right Christian fundamentalists, so when reading it you can easily lose track of the fact it was published in 1962 rather than in the present-day. And it’s not without precedent in the author’s extensive canon, as 1959’s misleadingly titled The Beach Girls touches on the relentless tide of redevelopment threatening to tear the heart and soul out of a Florida marina community.