Richard Kuklinski is one scary guy - even if a tenth of what he claims to have done is true. I saw the forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz interview him in The Ice Man and the Psychiatrist and was completely fascinated with Kuklinski which is why I bought and read The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo.
If it wasn't for the subject matter (and I'm dubious as to the accuracy of the content), I wouldn't have lasted 50 pages of this book. It is so poorly written, repetitive and corny. If all you need to do to get published is transcribe audio tape, then pad the story out with poorly constructed metaphors and mashed cliches, not to mention the ".... ....."s (no that wasn't a mistake, Carlo actually uses strings of periods to add um.. tension? thought? meaning?) it's no wonder everyone (JK Rowling, Dan Brown / ok cheap shot - they don't transcribe audio, but they do write poorly) is doing it.
By half way through The Ice Man, I was wishing I'd highlighted text so I could go back and count how many times information was repeated and how many of the same cliches appeared. I would like to know exactly how many times "stone cold killer" was used to describe someone, or the description of Kuklinski's habit of clicking his teeth (left side of the mouth, if you please) was mentioned - I would like to know if Kuklinski actually said "and i made that clicking sound out the left side of my mouth right before I killed him" in the taped interviews or did the author apply that "tell" to each murderous situation himself (maybe he used the "find and insert" function in Word).
I would not recommend this book to anyone. I would, however, suggest the Kuklinski/Dietz DVD or another of the books written on the subject by any one other than Philip Carlo.
Read MoreFirst Food/Last Food
Thursday Things
I had an interesting day. Had a meeting and was on my best behaviour, had lunch with Fox, witnessed two confrontational incidents (one on the tram, one domestic outside the supermachet: even the druggie beggar girl outside Safeway has a boyfriend: I am truly alone forev0r), bought some makeup, purchased a new cardigan, bought baked beans and danish butter - but the real high-points are below:
Read More- buying two new books from Hill of Content
- drinking coffee at Pellegrini's
- listening to the barista at Pellegrini's say "What do you two loosers want?" when taking an order from a customer (I love grumpy people)
- telling the guy at Paperback Books that I had finally made a decision about which book to buy and he saying he knew something must've happened cos there was a change in the wind (I'd been in his store quite a long time)
- reading one of my three new books at Cafe Five while drinking hot chocolate
- drinking fruit/vegetable juice with a celery kicker at DeGraves with Eroica
- surprised to be offered a seat by a young man on the crowded tram (I said "why?" when he offered me his seat, he said "Because I'm nice" and I said "oh, what I meant to say was 'thank you'" does this mean I'm officially elderly? Fox reckons it's cos I'm a bewildered kiwi)
- going to Peko Peko for dinner
- drinking plum wine and scoffing edamame while waiting for Fox
- ordering two more plum wines (more for me, one for the Fox when she arrived) and a bottle of sake (mostly for me but for Fox too)
- drinking plum wine with a squeeze of lemon vowing never to drink it any other way
- giving Fox the name of the sake which I had gleaned from the waitress (the job Fox had tasked me with a few days earlier)
- ordering salmon sashimi, sweet potato gyoza and eggplant ohmygodio (that's not actually Japanese)
- looking up to find Willo staring in at us from outside
- welcoming Willo to dinner, and encouraging him to order beer, share the sake, try the lemony plum wine and eat the eggplant ohmygodio
- ordering one last plum wine and making Fox and Willo hang about while I finished it
- knocking over and smashing an empty beer bottle from another table while putting my coat on (won't technically make you happy but thought I'd mention it cos it made a great noise it makes as it smashes to smitherines)
- mushy DVD hunting
- showered, pyjama'd and softly sozzled in bed with my new books, ibook, and bulleted lists