Pasttime by Robert B Parker

I read Robert B Parker‘s Early Autumn a couple of years ago because my husband likes the Spencer cases. At the time I kept being appalled by the masculine writing. Turns out he’s a man. Since then I’ve read Percy and Eco; Spencer is a lightweight. Men notice physical details – thighs. Women notice lingering glances. Both make the other uncomfortable. Now I understand why JK Rowling could never have been a man. That I thought she could’ve been makes me the naive one.

All that to say, I sat down with Pasttime, expecting to be startled and wasn’t. Parker has a straightforward, cool style I appreciate, like a fast drink on a hot day. He is literary, but he also isn’t going to stick around long.

Spencer is a detective playing the father to boy he rescued a decade before. Early Autumn asked what it is to be a man and this

one asks what it is to be a father. Commitment is never counted, if commitment is showing up before God to say you will. Showing up counts for Spenser. Every time.

He is the second born son who says he won’t do the work and then shows up and does the entire job in high heat. It is never what you say you will do; It is only what you actually do.

Pasttime is the book that is supposed to give up the goods on what made Spenser the man he is. Here’s the deal, its a let down. There is no dark secret. His education was a dad and two uncles always showing up, sitting in the tiny desks at school on parent’s day, dinner every night as a family, and Winnie the Pooh before bed.

Shock and secrets don’t make a good man, steadiness does.

So when the kid he protected in Early Autumn shows up at his door, trying to find his mom again, the question is not the missing woman, but what it does to a kid for your parents to always be AWOL. The boy is a man, and has to become one. He has to show up for his own fiancé, but it takes Spenser showing him he can for it to happen.

The big bad guy tries to turn his son into a man fit to take over the mob and it ends up killing him instead. You don't make a man by controlling everything he does or trying to shocking him into it.

The only thing tougher than Spencer is a man who commits to one woman for life before God, and does what he says he’s going to do.

It’s soft to have it all in his feelings.

As it is, there isn’t any risk.

He gets everything. She gets nothing.

It will destroy them, or would in real life.

Keeping Early Autumn and Pastime,

Looking forward to the next Parker.

Further Up and Further In

Pasttime by Robert B Parker

I read Robert B Parker‘s Early Autumn a couple of years ago because my husband likes the Spencer cases. At the time I kept being appalled by the masculine writing. Turns out he’s a man. Since then I’ve read Percy and Eco; Spencer is nothing. Men notice physical details – thighs. Women notice lingering glances. Both make the other uncomfortable. Now I understand why JK Rowling could never have been a man. that I thought she could’ve been after reading her shows my own naïveté. Ginny has nice skin?

All that to say I sat down with Pasttime, expecting to be startled and wasn’t. Parker has a straightforward, cool style I appreciate, like a fast soda on a hot day. He is literary, but he also isn’t going to stick around long.

Spencer is a detective playing the father to boy he rescued a decade before. Early Autumn asked what it is to be a man and this

one asks what it is to be a father. Commitment is never counted, if commitment is showing up before God to say you will. Showing up counts for Spenser. Every time.

He is the second born son who says he won’t do the work and then shows up and does the entire job in high heat. It is never what you say you will do; It is what you do.

Pasttime is the book that is supposed to give up the goods on what made Spenser the man he is. Here’s the deal, its a let down. There is no dark secret. His education was a dad and two uncles always showing up, sitting in the tiny desks at school on parent’s day, dinner every night as a family, and Winnie the Pooh before bed.

Shock and secrets don’t make a good man, steadiness does.

So when the kid he protected in Early Autumn shows up at his door, trying to find his mom again, the question is not the missing woman, but what it does to a kid for your parents to always be AWOL. The boy is a man, and has to become one. He has to show up for his own fiancé, but it takes Spenser showing him he can for it to happen.

The only thing tougher than Spencer is a man who commits to one woman for life before God, and does what he says he’s going to do.

It’s soft to have it all in his feelings.

As it is, there isn’t any risk.

He gets everything. She gets nothing.

It will destroy them, or would in real life.

Keeping Early Autumn and Pastime,

Looking forward to the next Parker.

Further Up and Further In

Adam’s Second

The cave gaped open,  the Door passed through.

The path was laid, the Way walked new.

In the dark of night, the Light broke in.

The Vine drank the cup all the way to the end.

The end was the beginning; The Word remade the world,

What He spoke, He became, a story to unfurl.

The Bread removed the yeast, The Reed remade the river.

The Lamb was the Priest; The Gift was the Giver.

Lazy man, stay. There is a Lion in the streets.

Boiled in mother’s milk; He hung upon a tree.

He became the dusty bones, then remade Adam again.

Son of God and Son of Man. How can it be? Tell me again.

The Last shall be First, Oh Firstborn from the Dead,

Hail, Sovereign Servant, our exalted Head!

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!

You are Life to the dead. Bring us out triumphant.