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"Sweet Sunday" was Norman Mailer's answer to the
madness of New York life. When Mailer ran as a candidate for mayor
he wanted statehood for New York City, local government at the
block level, and peace every Sunday to be achieved by switching
off the electricity supply. As one of John Lawton's characters
says, it wouldn't have worked. Much as New Yorkers may have wanted
an end to the mad rush of life, they would have objected as soon
as they found their iceboxes defrosting and their air-conditioning
failing to condition. Even the best plans go awry. On a much
bigger canvas that is what SWEET SUNDAY is all about - but
narrator Turner Raines has to go through a lot before any one (and
that includes the reader) realises it.
John Lawton has left England and Inspector Troy behind. His new
protagonist is a mature, failing lawyer whose main occupation is
advising the rebellious youth of America how to avoid the draft.
Turner Raines, from Texas but working in New York City, is too old
to be at threat himself. He is also the off-spring of a
millionaire, who has had the ear of LBJ, but Raines has turned his
back on all that and his natural milieu is on the edges of the
counter-culture. He knows Mailer, he knows Abbie Hoffman; he has
been around the edges of the Yippies. His best-friend is an
investigative journalist on an underground newspaper.
For a short time at least.
Then Mel Kissing turns up dead. Stabbed with an icepick. In
Raines's office.
And Raines is in the slammer.
But just for a short while - having been in hospital, having
been stabbed himself - by one of his draft dodging punks in
Canada. It's a perfect alibi. And it happens to be true.
A day or two later some sort of insight comes courtesy of the
US Mail. Mel had had doubts about what he was learning, and now a
tape drops on Turner Raines's desk. Raines starts to investigate -
and quickly learns that Mel was trying to talk to the New Nineveh
Nine, a nonette of grunts who were over in 'Nam and then out.
The New Nineveh Nine soon cease to be basis of a counting
system - landmines in Asia, the effects of Agent Orange when they
get home, and some nastier work. Part of it, but only part starts
to come together when Raines manages to put a face to the mystery
voice on Kissing's tape. In turn, the voice puts Raines through
some of the horrors felt in Vietnam.
There are deaths, there is double-crossing, there is evidence
of government skulduggery, there is proof that the government is
acting against said skulduggery. And there is Raines's home life.
SWEET SUNDAY is not a straight-forward narrative, but given the
background and life of Turner Raines it couldn't be. It is also a
"literary" thriller - partly because the protagonist,
Raines, is always a peripheral character - he was never in
Vietnam, he did not lead the Yippies in Chicago, he did not appear
on the stage at Woodstock. These things happen to people he knows,
though he is the one left trying to clean up the consequences. As
a narrator his voice constantly has to emphasis the central roles
of his colleagues even while he tells his story (like Chandler's
Marlowe stories this is told in the first person).
Lawton's series character, Troy, has a comparable role, as his
father and brother are active in post-war politics, but Troy
himself is fully occupied as a detective while Raines seems partly
intent on writing an autobiography. On the other hand, a detective
novel sympathetic to the American liberal point of view is
difficult to achieve. The late Gordon DeMarco was one American who
tried but failed to achieve a well-known status. Lawton, though,
names a character "DeMarco", indicating his own
appreciation. As Turner Raines recognises, you have to try.
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