We're readers. Sometimes we plod through books so we can say we finished them. Sometimes we have a nice, light, forgettable time with one. Now and then we really, really love a work, and it changes us a little bit.
Then there are the few times in our lives when a book leaves an indelible mark on our very souls. I can list several of my own: Have Space Suit-Will Travel. Gateway. Boy's Life. The Drive-In. Christine.
One such volume is Murder at the ABA, by the renowned Isaac Asimov. It's virtually forgotten today, but I love it with all my heart.
It was 1976 and I was fifteen years old. I had been a serious science fiction reader for a number of years, and I was a hug Asimov fan. I had read the Foundation Trilogy, The Naked Sun, The Caves of Steel, The Currents of Space, and a multitude of short stories. Isaac was everywhere, one of the most prolific and beloved figures in the genre.
I got a spit-and-toilet paper Doubleday book club edition of Murder at the ABA from the great/not great Science Fiction Book Club. I began it immediately.
I was captivated from page one, and the book only got better.
The setup of Murder at the ABA is irresistible. It's what is now called a meta novel. The story features a colorful protagonist named Darius Just. He is a mid-list writer attending the American Booksellers Association convention. While there he finds himself embroiled in a mystery. Just's former protegee, who is a much more successful writer, is found dead in his hotel room.
Isaac Asimov is also at the convention. His agent wants him to write a mystery called Murder at the ABA, and he is there to get the feel of the hotel and the convention. Asimov and Just are friends. Isaac agrees to use the mystery as the inspiration for his own novel.
It's all played for a lot of laughs. The novel is peppered with footnotes as Darius Just and Isaac Asimov playfully spar over details in the narrative.
If that isn't provocative enough, the Darius Just character is modeled after Asimov's friend Harlan Ellison.
Asimov clearly had a lot of fun at his own expense and lampoons his reputation and his legendary-but-lovable boorishness. Darius Just is one of my all-time favorite characters, and it's easy to picture Ellison in the role.
The mystery itself is nicely executed. Asimov provides clues and hints along the way as Darius Just brashly storms through the con seeking answers.
This book has wit aplenty, romance, intrigue, and even some weird deviancy. Asimov declined to participate in Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthologies, claiming to be too old fashioned. The Dangerous Visions books took the genre to places it had never gone before. A decade or so later in Murder at the ABA, Asimov features a character with Paraphilic infantilism, or adult baby syndrome. John Waters would love it.
There's a whiff of old world sexism in the book's pages, despite narrator Just's repeated sympathy for woman's liberation. Many of his, and by extension, Asimov's, comments and observations would be harshly criticized today. It's never hateful and not too severe. I'm cautious to not be too judgemental about books and movies from the past and the outdated attitudes in them. You can bet your book collection that people will look back on the current supposedly enlightened climate with disdain.
It's hard to fathom that I read Murder at the ABA forty-seven years ago. I remember it vividly. More so than many books I have read in the past few months. It's not merely long term/short term memory glitches. I don't remember much about other titles I read from my teens. Murder at the ABA had that much of an impression on me. It is easily, by miles and miles, my favorite piece of Isaac Asimov fiction.
In 1979 the author himself called Murder at the ABA his favorite of the books he had written "so far". I don't know if it remained so till the end of his life.
What's uncanny to me is how little known Murder at the ABA is. It's long out of print and there isn't even a Kindle version. I can't believe it. As wildly popular as Isaac Asimov was and is, a reprint of this book seems like a no-brainer.
2022 has been an exceptional year of reading for me. I'm not quite at the midpoint of November and I've read a hundred books. After finishing number ninety-nine, I wanted something special. I was looking around and I saw that old copy of Murder at the ABA there on the shelf. Yes. A perfect choice.
I love this book just as much as I did when I was fifteen. I still love Asimov and Ellison, science fiction and horror. I suppose I've never grown up. I'm more comfortable with written words than with people. Murder at the ABA is like an old friend. A beloved companion I spent joyous boyhood hours with, and the reunion is everything I hoped it would be.
Written by Mark Sieber
Then there are the few times in our lives when a book leaves an indelible mark on our very souls. I can list several of my own: Have Space Suit-Will Travel. Gateway. Boy's Life. The Drive-In. Christine.
One such volume is Murder at the ABA, by the renowned Isaac Asimov. It's virtually forgotten today, but I love it with all my heart.
It was 1976 and I was fifteen years old. I had been a serious science fiction reader for a number of years, and I was a hug Asimov fan. I had read the Foundation Trilogy, The Naked Sun, The Caves of Steel, The Currents of Space, and a multitude of short stories. Isaac was everywhere, one of the most prolific and beloved figures in the genre.
I got a spit-and-toilet paper Doubleday book club edition of Murder at the ABA from the great/not great Science Fiction Book Club. I began it immediately.
I was captivated from page one, and the book only got better.
The setup of Murder at the ABA is irresistible. It's what is now called a meta novel. The story features a colorful protagonist named Darius Just. He is a mid-list writer attending the American Booksellers Association convention. While there he finds himself embroiled in a mystery. Just's former protegee, who is a much more successful writer, is found dead in his hotel room.
Isaac Asimov is also at the convention. His agent wants him to write a mystery called Murder at the ABA, and he is there to get the feel of the hotel and the convention. Asimov and Just are friends. Isaac agrees to use the mystery as the inspiration for his own novel.
It's all played for a lot of laughs. The novel is peppered with footnotes as Darius Just and Isaac Asimov playfully spar over details in the narrative.
If that isn't provocative enough, the Darius Just character is modeled after Asimov's friend Harlan Ellison.
Asimov clearly had a lot of fun at his own expense and lampoons his reputation and his legendary-but-lovable boorishness. Darius Just is one of my all-time favorite characters, and it's easy to picture Ellison in the role.
The mystery itself is nicely executed. Asimov provides clues and hints along the way as Darius Just brashly storms through the con seeking answers.
This book has wit aplenty, romance, intrigue, and even some weird deviancy. Asimov declined to participate in Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthologies, claiming to be too old fashioned. The Dangerous Visions books took the genre to places it had never gone before. A decade or so later in Murder at the ABA, Asimov features a character with Paraphilic infantilism, or adult baby syndrome. John Waters would love it.
There's a whiff of old world sexism in the book's pages, despite narrator Just's repeated sympathy for woman's liberation. Many of his, and by extension, Asimov's, comments and observations would be harshly criticized today. It's never hateful and not too severe. I'm cautious to not be too judgemental about books and movies from the past and the outdated attitudes in them. You can bet your book collection that people will look back on the current supposedly enlightened climate with disdain.
It's hard to fathom that I read Murder at the ABA forty-seven years ago. I remember it vividly. More so than many books I have read in the past few months. It's not merely long term/short term memory glitches. I don't remember much about other titles I read from my teens. Murder at the ABA had that much of an impression on me. It is easily, by miles and miles, my favorite piece of Isaac Asimov fiction.
In 1979 the author himself called Murder at the ABA his favorite of the books he had written "so far". I don't know if it remained so till the end of his life.
What's uncanny to me is how little known Murder at the ABA is. It's long out of print and there isn't even a Kindle version. I can't believe it. As wildly popular as Isaac Asimov was and is, a reprint of this book seems like a no-brainer.
2022 has been an exceptional year of reading for me. I'm not quite at the midpoint of November and I've read a hundred books. After finishing number ninety-nine, I wanted something special. I was looking around and I saw that old copy of Murder at the ABA there on the shelf. Yes. A perfect choice.
I love this book just as much as I did when I was fifteen. I still love Asimov and Ellison, science fiction and horror. I suppose I've never grown up. I'm more comfortable with written words than with people. Murder at the ABA is like an old friend. A beloved companion I spent joyous boyhood hours with, and the reunion is everything I hoped it would be.
Written by Mark Sieber
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