How are you doing, readers, with the LOL’s latest novel? As I’m making my way through Will Ferguson’s Spanish Fly, here are some notable parts:

Chapter 33

I love the way Ferguson describes the art of the con in musical terms, likening the take to the jazz of the day. “There was a musical quality to every con, a rhythm that seemed to play itself out. Even the shortest street scams had it. Longer cons were orchestral arrangements, corner hustles were quick little tunes, but every one was musical in nature…”

Chapter 36

Despite Virgil’s all-consuming passion for the con and much- inflated recollection of his roles in various famous takes, he passes along some noteworthy advice to young Jack. Lamenting the fact he got taken by carnies at the fair, way back when he rightfully won the big bear for Becky, Jack is happy to see Robbins Bros. fair disappear in the dust as the group passes by. Like a father passing along wise advice to a son, Virgil reassures Jack that all confidence men get stung at some point. The trick to rising above it? Don’t be bitter, learn from it.

“Someone knocks you on your heels, and you decide, in the ledger of life, that you’re going to be the duper, not the dupee. The carnie, not the mark.” Encouraging Jack to follow his example, Virgil relays the story of how he learned from the best, old Suitcase Simpson. “I tracked Simpson down, but instead of beating the tar out of him, I said, ‘Teach me.’ Well, soon enough, I learned to pull that switch as smoothly as silk from a sow’s ass.”

Perhaps not the most honourable role model and not the most ethical example, yet I suspect Virgil’s advice will come in handy for Jack, when the hinted at conflict between the two escalates. After all, Jack is learning from the best.

See you for Wordy Wednesday!

Cheers!

Shannon

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One of the fascinating aspects of our current book, Spanish Fly, is the multitude of cons. Every chapter is loaded with examples of the types of tricks used by the fast-talking swindlers of the day and those cons are entirely entertaining, especially when relayed by Ferguson—quite the Canadian funny man.

Reading about the ways in which the charmers, Rose and Virgil, deceive innocent—albeit often naïve and highly gullible—folks of their cash, is doing more than make me laugh. It’s encouraging me to be more observant and certainly a little more skeptical of schemes.

Chapter 28 opens with an interesting addition to Jack’s swindlers’ education when Virgil explains how he reads towns by their trees. Heading west, “into deeper hills”, the three-some are cruising the streets of Cuthbert, “a red-brick regional supply town lined with overhangs of oak.”

“The bigger the trees, the older the town,” Virgil says. “Older the town, older the money…For bigger trees, we need a bigger con.” It’s a particularly entertaining chapter as Virgil goes on to swindle the minister’s wife (the reader will cringe at the holy family being robbed of savings until the wife show’s her condemnation for others) by getting her to write a cheque to clear her account of “dirty money.”

There’s even a little foreshadowing as Jack comments, “It was fascinating to watch Virgil play people like that, like they were a fiddle and he was a man with twelve fingers. Made me wonder how someone would ever know they were being played. Made me wonder if I would know either.”

“Mrs. Pegler was a matronly woman of wide berth, who joined us at the park in a frantic whirl, her bosom arriving five beats ahead of the rest of her…She nodded. Breathless. Vigilant. Ready to do her civic duty.”

There’s plenty of humor, descriptive and mood-infused writing, and entertaining descriptions of the jazz clubs and swing dancing of the day in Chapter 29. There’s tribute to the talents of the “Negro” musicians and simply stated empathy for the plight of “coloured” people during the Depression, as Jack says, “I hadn’t had much contact with the Negro side of life, except in passing. I’d heard they were all hopheads and layabouts, but I never did put much stock in that. They’d been hardest hit by the times, no doubt about it.”

Check in for Wordy Wednesday for more insights into this ride of a read.

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