I feel like this might be intended to be humorous

[walkitout]

I'm trying to read _Cuckoo's Calling_ (which I suspect is a pun, but I'm not sure), and the protagonist is named Cormoran (sic) Strike.

That's a whole lot of bird, already. Not only is that a whole lot of bird in that sense, but a temp - NAMED ROBIN - has shown up at Strike's agency (and he cannot really afford the temp, either) and he nearly knocked her down the stairs by opening the door into the stairway vigorously as she was trying to open it from the other side. He saved her by grabbing her ... breast.

A whole lot of bird. Only 20 pages in. I'm starting to wonder about this.

ETA: Robin's fiance is named Matthew. As in, Matthew 10:29? (And last night I realized there are bird references in famous noir titles like _The Maltese Falcon_.)

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180634


A Dirge
By Christina Rossetti
Why were you born when the snow was falling?
You should have come to the cuckoo’s calling,
Or when grapes are green in the cluster,
Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster
For their far off flying
From summer dying.

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?
You should have died at the apples’ dropping,
When the grasshopper comes to trouble,
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,
And all winds go sighing
For sweet things dying.

That's printed after the two title pages and the dedication

[walkitout]

In total. So, yeah, clearly that's what the title is about, and the poem is on roughly the same topic (death of the too young) as the book. The dead woman signs an email to someone "Cuckoo", as well.

Also, Cormoran's mum was named Leda.

I'm telling you, the bird thing is quite over the top. I get the title/epigraph, sure, but what are all these other birds doing in the book?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I also found someone pointing out that Robin-as-a-sidekick naturally evokes Batman.

I do not understand why Strike is not dead of acute alcohol poisoning. But that's noir for you.

alcohol poisoning?

[walkitout]

I'm trying to remember when Strike had more than 3 drinks in a row and coming up empty. Even the time he gets really drunk, I think it was just the three beers -- it was on a completely empty stomach, tho.

However, I agree. Noir is characterized by entirely too much drinking to be completely believable. I remember someone re-enacting some Ian Fleming book's descriptions of travel by rail and car and drinks/meals along the way, and feeling absolutely ill within 24 hours. I should try to track that down.

ETA: It was Jon Ronson! I read it in a book, tho.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/may/10/jon.ronson.james.bond

"I awake the next morning feeling unbelievably nauseous and constipated, and stumble blearily across the road for breakfast at the railway station."

Re: alcohol poisoning?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read it, but I recall his drinking way, way more than three beers. Okay, I checked, and while it only actually mentions his buying three beers, that sounds to me as though he was just getting started: "It took him barely an hour of steady, solitary, determined beer consumption to become properly drunk." If you're sitting there doing essentially nothing but drinking beer, it's not going to take an hour to drink three of them. Even though it's probably imperial pints, so three of them is almost five servings.

Wait, it also says "“Jus’ celebratin’ my fiancée zengagement,” he said, raising his eleventh pint in an unsteady toast."

So that's eleven imperial pints, which is roughly seventeen units of alcohol. In an hour.

Re: alcohol poisoning?

[walkitout]

Yup -- I totally missed the eleventh pint sentence. Yikes!

Re: alcohol poisoning?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

He is drinking Doom Bar, which is only 4%, so that takes it down to 14 units. But still, kind of a lot, especially for a one-legged guy with an empty stomach who isn't ordinarily that heavy a drinker.