Why this book:  Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) strongly recommended the entire John D. MacDonald Travis McGee series in his podcast interview with Tim Ferriss.  This recommendation was subsequently reinforced by my friend David Johnson who has read all of MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels (and so much more) and who said he envied me the opportunity to read these for the first time. This particular one is short, fascinating, gripping, and a fun read – I’m a slow reader and I read it in two days.  A page turner.

My Impressions:  If All the King’s Men was a literary gourmet meal, then The Deep Blue Good-by is gourmet Fast Food.  It is a mystery novel – one of the 21  books in MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, written in the first person voice of  Travis McGee. McGee  might be described as a cross between Jimmy Buffett and Jim Rockford (the James Garner character in The Rockford Files TV series of a few decades ago.)  Travis McGee is something of a boat bum in his 30s, who lives on a yacht he won in a poker game, claiming to be enjoying his retirement in installments.  He accepts work when he runs out of cash – and his specialty is helping people recoup money they’ve lost unfairly or through some chicanery.  If/when he succeeds, his cut is  half of what is left after his expenses.

Written in the early sixties, the context is late 1950s/early 1960s America along the east coast and waterways of south Florida.  The story is very well written, fun, and through the  the voice of the Travis McGee character, John D.MacDonald shares his keen and (I thought) interesting insights about American culture, men and women (especially women) and people in general.

It’s easy to like Travis McGee.  He is un-pretentious, easy-going, un-ambitious, non-materialistic, suffers no fools, principled and compassionate.  He has a good head, a good heart, and the urges of a healthy male in his 30s.  His judgment and decision making balance these three in a way that most men would envy.  He appreciates, and is respectful and solicitous of the women he meets, and in this novel, his clients and many of the supporting characters are women.

The Deep Blue Good-by is an interesting story that takes us from the air-bridge between China, Burma and India in WW2, where airmen made small fortunes smuggling gold, cash and gems, while moving men and equipment between theaters during the war, to the sad and vulnerable world of women barely-getting-by on the south Florida coast. The antagonist is a charming, glib, and attractive former felon and socio-path who seduces and preys on the most vulnerable women he finds who can serve his needs.  Our “bad guy”  steals a fortune from one of these women in a way that law enforcement could not help, and so Travis McGee agrees to see what he can do to help her recover what he can.  Travis McGee is also the type of man who just can’t sit by while the vulnerable are manipulated and exploited.  He is a courageous, humble and principled protagonist who at the same time is very much at home in the partying and somewhat debauched world of boat owners and marinas of south Florida.

It is a rollicking good story, with sympathetic and interesting characters, and as I’ve noted, extremely well written.  I am a new fan and will read more of Travis McGee’s adventures.

A few memorable passages:

I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.

Reality is in the enduring eyes, the unspoken dreadful accusation in the enduring eyes of a worn young woman who looks at you, and hopes for  nothing.

I nursed a drink, made myself excruciatingly amiable, suitably mysterious and witty in the proper key, and carefully observed the group relationship until I was able to identify two possibles.

“If it’s pure recreation dear, without claims or agreements or deathless vows, I’m at your service. I like you.  I like you enough to keep from trying to fake you into anything, even though, at the moment, it’s one hell of a temptation. But I think you would have to get too deeply involved in your own justifications because, as I said, you are a complex woman. And a strong woman. And I am no part of your future, not in any emotional way…Now you know the rules, it’s still your decision.  Just holler.”

There is as much danger in overestimating as in underestimating the quality of the opposition.

Behind the agreeable grin he was as uncompromising as a hammer. Beast in his grin-mask.

Had I done any pleading  or begging, she would have slammed the door.  So I stood easy, mildly smiling. It’s a relaxed area.  There is code for all the transients.  If you are presentable, unhurried, vaguely indifferent, it is a challenge.

Bless them all, the forlorn little rabbits. They are the displaced persons of our emotional culture. They are ravenous for romance, yet settle for what they call making out…They yearn for security, but all they can have is what they make for themselves, chittering little flocks of them in the restaurants and stores, talking of style and adornment, dreaming of the terribly sincere strangers who will come along and lift them out of the gypsy life of the two bit tip and the unemployment, cut a tall cake with them, swell them up with sassy babies, and guide them masterfully into the shoal water of the electrified house where everybody brushes after every meal.