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a14 people & arts
Tuesday 6 OcTOber 2020
Obscure works by Chandler, Christie published this week

By HILLEL ITALIE long suffered from depres-
NEW YORK (AP) — Two sion, but seemed at ease
of crime fiction's most fa- with Messick. Addressing
mous storytellers, Raymond her as "Nita," Chandler
Chandler and Agatha would send her humorous
Christie, also knew how to notes, such as one around
get a laugh. Easter weekend of 1951:
Chandler, beyond the terse "Office will be closed Thurs-
and cynical narratives of day and Friday. On Friday
such Philip Marlowe novels you should go to church for
as "The Big Sleep" and "The three hours. On Thursday
Long Goodbye," was able you will have to be guided
to poke fun at his own life. by your conscience, if any."
His rarely seen "Advice to "The two remained good
an Employer" is a list of sug- friends even after she
gestions for how you can ceased working for him
ruin the day for those stuck and continued to provide
on your payroll, including "If a shoulder of support for
you cannot find anything, the ailing writer, helping to
just roar," and "Always tell arrange his wife Cissy's fu-
your secretary you have neral in January 1955 and
nothing to dictate until it is supporting him through
time for dinner. Then rattle alcoholism, hospitaliza-
off a lot of letters you have This combination photo shows mystery writers Agatha Christie in 1957, left, and Raymond Chan- tion, and various suicide
left since domesday." dler in 1946. attempts until his death in
Christie's detective Hercule Associated Press March 1959," Trott writes in
Poirot enjoys an amusing an afterword that appears
holiday in the 1923 story among others. The maga- Poirot." According to Tony story," Medawar says. "Ag- in Strand Magazine.
"Christmas Adventure," only zine's focus is on crime and Medawar, producer of the atha Christie is known for "'Advice to an Employer'
now being released in the mystery, but managing International Agatha Chris- the rigour and ingenuity shows us two significant
U.S. It's an easygoing tale of editor Andrew Gulli said he tie Festival (in Devon, Eng- with which she constructed facets of Chandler's per-
a Christmas gathering and wanted to offer some relief land), Christie likely drew a mystery and laid clues sonality that enhance our
a foiled attempt to fool the during the ongoing coro- upon her own childhood for the attentive reader to understanding of the au-
wily sleuth. When a guest navirus pandemic in setting a playful atmo- detect, and it is often for- thor," Trott writes. "While it
calls out to him, "Come "We decided early on that sphere, with the kids show- gotten how much humour illustrates his renowned hu-
down at once, please. we needed to publish an is- ing proper irreverence for there is in her stories, even mor and wit, it also shows a
Someone's been killed," sue that will provide some- the supposedly world fa- in her darkest tales of mur- far more personal, human
Poirot calmly replies, "Aha, thing light-hearted for our mous detective. der and mayhem." side. This light-hearted and
this is serious." readers," Gulli said. "Christmas Adventure" also Chandler's employer teasing tone is infrequently
Both pieces appear in the Christie's piece, the ba- is appearing in the up- guide, according to Chan- seen in Chandler's personal
new issue of Strand Maga- sis for the longer "The Ad- coming Christie collection dler scholar Dr. Sarah Trott, correspondence. Chan-
zine, a quarterly which has venture of the Christmas "Midwinter Murder," which was likely written in the dler's guard has dropped
published obscure work Pudding," was originally comes out Oct. 20. early 1950s, when Chandler completely, allowing us
by John Steinbeck, Mark part of a series called "The "'Christmas Adventure' is a hired a private secretary, a glimpse behind the
Twain and William Faulkner Little Grey Cells of Hercule particularly light-hearted Juanita Messick. Chandler curtain."q

Review: 'Missionaries' sees our forever wars as vocation

By FRANK BAJAK A young Marine veteran's militarism as a way of be- but a multitude of conflicts
Associated Press literary debut, the short ing and the consequenc- whose dizzying dynamics
Phil Klay's "Redeployment" story collection won a 2014 es of ill-conceived foreign vary by region, a dirty war
was a masterwork in most- National Book Award. meddling. mostly of rural civilians suf-
ly spare prose, its tonal "Missionaries," out Oct. 6 Two U.S. Special Forces fering forgotten.
range from laugh-out- from Penguin Press, is Klay's vets of Afghanistan and Ugly Americans mixed up
loud, Joseph Heller-esque next act. A big, ambitious Iraq — transitioned to mer- anew in somebody else's
absurdity to soul-crushing novel, it spans a few de- cenary and a military at- fight.q
bleakness. It may be our cades and continents and taché — have fought "in
best literary window into plumbs U.S. forever wars' enough murky war zones Solution Sudoku
the Iraq war. psychic imprint on peripa- to lack the near-religious
faith in democracy that
the war was sold on." Their
next stop is Colombia,
where Washington's tar-
geting-killing apparatus,
first turned on leftist insur-
This cover image released by
Penguin Press shows "Mission- gents, now hunts drug-traf-
aries" by Phil Klay. ficking warlords.
Associated Press Colombia is a tremen-
dously complex conflict.
tetic American warriors, In fact, it's not really one Puzzle on Page 13