A DIET OF TREACLE
Lawrence Block
Leisure Books/Hard Case Crime
Thriller
ISBN: 9780843959574

It’s really too early to tell, but it appears that one of my favorite books of 2008 is one that was originally published in 1961. Re-released by Hard Case Crime, A DIET OF TREACLE by Lawrence Block is a title worth re-reading --- or discovering for the very first time.

The novel is set in mid-20th century Greenwich Village during what has been called the “Beat” era. Glamorized by the mainstream media, the reality for most was far darker and seedier than the down-at-the-heels glamour that was imputed to it. Block focuses on that dark side with a laser-like aim, injecting a set of characters into a web of excess of sex, drugs and violence with a subtle undercurrent of world-weary nihilism.

There are three principals in A DIET OF TREACLE, somewhat different people whose lives intersect with dire results. Joe Milani is a Korean War veteran who is attending college in New York on the G.I. Bill, and doing well, when he abruptly terminates his studies and sinks into the idle Beat lifestyle. He is living with, and supported by, Leon “Shank” Maston, a quietly sociopathic marijuana dealer who is content with the living arrangement for reasons never quite made clear (there are some mild, though not overt, homosexual overtones to their relationship).

The dynamic between the two men changes when Milani meets Anita Carbone, a college student living in “wop Harlem” with her grandmother. Carbone is the stereotypical good girl (she agonizes about smoking on a public street), and her life appears to be all planned out. She is on her way to getting a degree and is in some state of pre-engagement to a man on the fast track to success. However, she is bored and, as a result, is attracted to Milani, who is everything her boyfriend is not. Carbone abruptly moves in with Milani and Maston, embracing the Beat lifestyle wholeheartedly and without reservation. Interestingly enough, it is Maston, not Milani, who changes, and not for the good.

Maston begins dealing heroin, in addition to the marijuana he previously had been selling, and his psychopathic tendencies move even farther to the forefront of his personality, culminating in an angry and shocking encounter that will have lasting repercussions for the three of them. His impulsive actions put the trio suddenly on the run, involving them in a dilemma from which there seems to be no escape --- until Milani and Carbone find one that is as obvious as it is unexpected.

Block has appeared to be incapable of writing badly, yet A DIET OF TREACLE is stunning on so many levels --- its characterization, its setting, its plotting --- as to exist in a class all by itself. It is hard to believe that this work did not remain in print since its initial publication. So it is a tribute to Hard Case Crime that it’s available again, hopefully for good this time.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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