Images of Yesterday, Forgiveness Today.

The Night and The Music, The Matthew Scudder Stories, by New York Times Bestselling Author, Lawrence Block.

Before last week, Matthew Scudder was a stranger to me. Had I known him prior to last week, I might have described him with the exact same words Ray Kinsella uses in the book, Shoeless Joe, to describe his father: “But I saw him years later, worn down by life.”

Had I met Matthew Scudder a mere two weeks ago, I might have said he’d been worn down by life. I might even have have called him a cynic, but not in the conventional sense.

Conventional wisdom defines a cynic as a person who believes only selfishness motivates human actions. Matthew Scudder is more a cynic in the historical sense, as in the sense that extraneous things fall away. Much of Matthew’s life (May I call him Matthew?) has fallen away. The original Greek cynics believed in living a simple life, rejecting desires for wealth, power, health and fame, to live a life free from an attachment to material possessions. That was the Matthew of two weeks ago, the man I didn’t know. The Matthew I know now has found reason to value a few things in this life, regardless of how fleeting and unpredictable life may be.

The Night and The Music is a collection of short stories by Lawrence Block. The narrator, Matthew Scudder, former cop and private investigator, sits across the table from me at Grogan’s. It’s late and the bar will be closing soon. He doesn’t fidget. He doesn’t look away. To paraphrase Faye Dunaway to Robert Redford, his eyes aren’t kind, but they don’t miss anything.

The booth in which we sit is tucked away in a dark corner, the seat worn smooth like a favorite leather slipper. These days he drinks sparkling water while I sip an expensive Scotch. I savor my drink, swirl the liquor around my tongue, feeling its warmth all the way down to my toes as I hang on his every word.

Matthew tells me his stories in a dispassionate voice. It’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s more as if he tossed off illusion long ago, having seen what we are capable of, the best and the worst and the inadvertent. We can’t fool him. He accepts both our action and inaction with grace and forgiveness.

The memorable moments of Matthew’s life range from the relieved confessions of a guilty conscience to the random nature of good and evil, to dirty cops, and honest working girls, to the fellowship found in drinking alone. He even remembers the nights he can’t remember, at least some of them.

The Night and The Music contains stories and vignettes of mayhem and murder, accident and deliberation, destruction and redemption, all told with an appreciation for New York City that captures both its grittiness and its vitality. Matthew recounts episodes in his life with grace and dignity. I hear the hint of a smile in his voice as if he wonders why on earth I find his stories so fascinating.

I’m no professional reviewer, I just know what I like. There is no question about it, Lawrence, your words make magic, your stories are poems.

Lawrence Block includes eleven elegant stories in this collection; two, Mick Ballou Looks at the Blank Screen, and One Last Night at Grogan’s, are published here for the first time. I actually think his Afterward makes an even twelve.

This is author’s first venture into the world of self-publishing. The Night and The Music can be found here and Lawrence Block can be found here.

(Sorry Larry, a little business to take care of - I’m over here Tuesday, at Rosey’s Reviews, and remember, it’s not too late to enter Monday’s contest.)

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