Book Review

By Derryll White

MacDonald, John D. (1958).  Soft Touch.

This is one of MacDonald’s earlier novels, before he created the Travis McGee series  and launched that incredibly successful franchise.  ‘Soft Touch’ examines how fragile man is, how easily any of us are pulled away from our moral background by casual temptation.

Jerry Jamison is a returned soldier, a man getting by and giving an honest day’s work for an honest dollar.  He married a beautiful wife, spoiled by her parents and focused on herself.  She wants more of everything and Jerry bends, wanting more as well.

John D. MacDonald takes the reader lucidly through the temptations of life, and some of the possible consequences. The novel is a fast read but the moral weight lingers with the reader for a considerable time. MacDonald has always exhibited a mastery of his craft.

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Excerpts from the novel:

FEELINGS – You can be reasonably certain of something, and yet have the ability to force it out of your mind, to tell yourself it never really happened, it was just your imagination and jealousy.

MISTAKE – I drove to the office.  Liz was at her desk.  She looked at me with complete and perfect indifference.  For a time I had been a part of her life.  But all that had been very quickly canceled by a redhead slut on a staircase.  A suburban type, country-club, gin-fed, plump-legged, mischievous, meaningless slut – as exclusive as a roller towel, as standardized as beanwagon coffee, as significant as a handshake.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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