Monday, April 11, 2011

JDM on His Florida Neighbors

"'Look --' [MacDonald] pointed out through the mosquito screen across his own front yard. 'The neighbors. Now the guy over there, beyond those trees, he's a minister of the church. Right now he's under indictment for selling eight million dollars' worth of phony tax havens. Then there's another guy, just there; he's a qualified physician. He's never practiced, so far as I know. He keeps a Rolls-Royce in his driveway -- never cleans it. I don't know what he does. But every two weeks or so I hear his power boat going our to sea at three in the morning. Maybe an hour later, it comes back. That's what he does. I don't think I exaggerate too  much in the books.'"

Jonathan Raban, describing his visit with John D MacDonald in his 1987 collection of essays For Love & Money: A Writing Life.

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