Peking Duck

Moses Wine #3

by Roger L. Simon

"Wine is the latest in an unbroken line of popular private eyes-molded by Dashiell Hammett in the '20s, psychoanalyzed by Ross Macdonald in the '50s and '60s and now dragged kicking and screaming into a new decade's cultural crunch." -Los Angeles Times Book Review "Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes out not to be what they meant, other men have to fight for what they meant under another name." -William Morris "A fun detective novel you just don't get enough of anymore...there is a certain style reminiscent of those 1950s Mickey Spillane novels when men were men and private investigators were 'private dicks'...definitely recommended reading." -West Coast Review of Books With a new introduction by Roger L. Simon A guided tour of the People's Republic, Aunt Sonya had said: U.S.-China Friendship Study Tour Number Five, arranged by the China Friendship Society, an organization in which she was involved. Why not get away from it all? Moses Wine figured. At least it would get him away from personal injury cases, murder investigations, and the insistent feeling that boredom and alienation were about to become his constant companions in his middle age. But China has a way of springing surprises, and soon California's hippest ex-radical detective is chasing down the priceless Han Dynasty Peking Duck, falling for a gorgeous dragon lady in a Mao suit-and fighting for his life across a vast, mysterious land he barely knows... Ever restless, ROGER L. SIMON has spent his life moving between books and movies, gaining distinction in both. In books, he is best known for the seven Moses Wine detective novels, which have won prizes in the U.S. and Great Britain and been published in over a dozen languages. In film, most prominent among his six produced screenplays-including his adaptation of The Big Fix-is Enemies, A Love Story, for which Simon was nominated for an Academy Award.

Genres: Mystery

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[John Culuris · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a review last year I felt I needed to clarify, if only for my own peace of mind, the often used but inconsistently defined term “dated.” It seemed to be most commonly used to mean “old.” I needed something more specific and finally settled on this: “A work of literature is dated when its subject matter, initially explored as new and original, has become common knowledge.” It worked just fine--as far as it went. With the reading of Peking Duck, I realize I should have also considered the reverse of the circumstances above, and added: “. . . or when situations, condition, philosophies, etc., once common knowledge, has been erased by the passing of time.” The need for a revised definition should not have surprised me. Roger L. Simon’s protagonist, Moses Wine, is known as The Hippie Detective.

Hippie in itself is something of a misnomer too. What does a hippie have to detect? “Hey, man, who took my weed?” does not make for a compelling story. When we first meet Moses Wine in The Big Fix in 1973, he still believes in Liberal causes and smoking pot but his days of protest marches and picket lines are behind him. A divorced father of two children, responsibility has been forced upon. He is drawn back into the world of Causes (with a capital C) through the death of a woman he once loved. It’s a novel worthy of all the accolades it received. Even in the follow-up, Wild Turkey, Causes still saturate the novel, this time through analogs of real life figures of the day. There is enough information present that only rudimentary knowledge of the era is enough to know who is who, and even without such detail you can tell what’s happening; you can still enjoy the novel. Without a personal connection for the hero, though, it lacks the impact of the debut.

The same cannot be said of Peking Duck. At a point in his life where Moses is feeling his idealism turn to ambivalence, he reluctantly allows his aunt to drag him into her tour group, which is about to visit China. His reluctance is brief and only for show. The China of 1979 espoused and promoted equality among all of its people, with a minimum of bureaucracy. Moses feels he needs exposure to such values in order to break out of his malaise and find a direction in life. It fits with the series to that point, which has been a left-leaning chronicle of social history through the life of a private detective.

If only history had cooperated. For the most part history records only seismic shifts, with occasional nods to the more vital of precipitating events. Seldom are individual skirmishes recorded for posterity. Can anyone name a single argument Barack Obama made on the Senate floor? His presidency is full of them. Similarly, Peking Duck opens with individual situations and lifestyles that no longer exist and were never important enough to preserve. It makes for an uninvolving beginning. Luckily the bulk of the novel takes place in China, where examination of an entire country provides a big enough canvas to eliminate confusion. China also helps to cover Simon’s biggest weakness: he is an inexact writer. A foreign country forces accurate if not necessarily enthralling descriptions. And yet, when Moses is pressed into service with the theft of a statue that gives the book its title, Simon only describes its beauty and how everybody is captivated by it. At no point are we given its size and weight, important facts considering it was stolen from a public display. (Although I’ll freely admit I might have missed a line somewhere; when the story and/or narrative is not particularly engaging, I catch my mind wandering. The point concerning his prose remains.)

What China gives, China also takes away. Moses arrives as part of a tour group. That’s 13 characters, all introduced more or less at the same time, plus tour guides, plus officials. The publisher provides a list of those on the tour but constantly flipping back and forth can get tedious. It also allows the experienced reader to identify the thief without much difficulty. It’s what I think of as an “exterior deduction.” We don’t figure out who is guilty by clues or through characters or situations, but rather by the writer’s execution. The most well-drawn character had to be guilty. And the few others that had secrets buried were also the more fleshed out characters. As it had to be. The reader would feel cheated if one of the walking caricatures were responsible. As it is there’s still an element of dissatisfaction with the conclusion. How Moses Wine avoids being locked away in a Chinese jail for the rest of his life involves information he did not yet have when he began his plan. But it is an extremely minor element, a nagging inconsistency hovering in the background, like a missed note by a member of an orchestra; though noticeable it is quickly swept up by the power of the moment.

I intend to continue with the series despite Peking Duck’s lack of success. These books are easy reads and Moses is a likeable enough character. I am also aware that there are Edgar nominations down the line. Most of all, though, I believe this book was a success when it was originally published--and not just because of covers littered with at least a half dozen enthusiastic blurbs from some fairly well respected writers. I believe time has muddled a lot of the nuances that once made this ride enjoyable and its ending more acceptable. Conversely, I also realize there is no guarantee that future editions will not be similarly dated. A nominal risk, I think, considering that the two works preceding this one were not. It should be worth sticking around to see if the tremendous promise of The Big Fix is fulfilled.

[Fer Tostado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro agradable si te interesa China dado que transcurre mayormente en éste país. No lo llamaría thiller, ni misterio, es simplemente una historia con desenlace poco esperado pero que tampoco te volará la cabeza.