Rigoletto, he's HOME! ... good old Чарли Стелла ... Stieg Larsson

Amici:

Rigoletto is home! La maledizione is over!


Don't fret, this pup is TOUGH!


Rigoletto says: "We don't need no stinkin' discs ... I'm taking a nap ... sideways! Oh, Pop, go easy on the Chivas ..."


As singer, writer, composer and all around multi-talented New York woman, Deborah Karpel, wrote me in an email upon hearing the good news at work this week, The Curse of Monterone has been lifted!

Now, the first one of yous who writes me at Knucksline@gmail.com with a one paragraph explanation of just what that Monterone reference is all about (without copying it from Google--play fair) gets a signed copy of Johnny Porno (with a Rigoletto paw print).

Check out Ms. Karpel’s website ... she is truly talented.

Чарли Стелла ... say what? Our Russian publisher, Centrepolygraph has bought Johnny Porno. And speaking of JP, the Lake Mills Library in Wisconsin likes it too.

Check out some other Stella books my Russian friends have translated and published.

Those Rubles couldn’t come at a better time as we pay for Rigoletto’s surgery.

And those wild and crazy Italians are on board with these.

Now we move on to a successful author who, unfortunately, didn’t live to see his incredible success. Stieg Larsson and his Millennium Trilogy. I wouldn’t have bought these books if the book club I belong to (The Northeast Regional Super Duper Chapter Book Club of the Americas) hadn’t assigned the first book (which was liked so much by the club, the second book was assigned right behind it). Behind on the assignment, I read all three over the last 10 days. Below the Review.

Guilty Pleasures … Not everything the ugly one reads need have been written by Dostoevsky and/or George V. Higgins … in fact, most of it isn’t anything approaching near as good as those deadfellas … and every once in a while I like to take a read of something popular ... well, just to see what my reaction might be. Two weeks ago I ordered the incredibly popular best selling series by an author who died before ever seeing his own success (approaching 40 million in sales, I’m told).

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest …

Mr. Larsson’s writing style wasn’t necessarily something I prefer and there were far too many coincidences throughout the books (one at a time or over the course of all three) and there were times I felt as if I were reading a super hero novel that went far beyond the stretch of my too often limited imagination … and they sometimes offered what I call “the cool character map” (someone from every minority possible vs. the evil stereotypical bad guys) ... there was a lot of journalistic telling vs. showing ... and there were times when I stopped reading, turned to the Principessa and said, “35 million copies?”

And yet I read them one after another, compulsively, without taking a single day’s break (in fact, without taking more than a 6 hour break (for sleeping) and couldn’t wait to read what was going to happen next. I could find all the fault in the world with this trilogy when discussing it, but the bottom line is I couldn’t read it fast enough. And right now the Principessa Ann Marie (definitely the smarter half) is reading it with equal compulsiveness (and loving it).

So any writers out there doing any complaining about the state of the business (and it is in a poor state these days), think about what happened to this poor SOB. He wrote a mega lotto ticket series and died before he could enjoy the spoils of his victory.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... because whatever the formula, it worked.

Ingvar Wixell sings Rigoletto ... when they (the bastards who kidnapped his daughter) ask him “What’s new, clown?”, he responds with one of my favorite lines. “Nothing, except you’re more annoying now than ever.”



For those in need of something more familiar in the tragic opera, Rigoletto, here's Pavarotti singing La donna e mobile at the MET in 1981.



—Knucks