The Case of the Transposed Legs
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
9 journalers for this copy...
What's it about? Well, it's seldom much use asking what a Keeler book is about, exactly, what with the digressions and flashbacks and general weirdness, but this is what the jacket blurb says:
Warden Westman Pembroke has been warned. Someone is trying to get him fired and if Big Rudy Uberhulf, the meanest inmate at the prison, escapes, the warden’s job is history! But if the warden can pin Rudy with that weird murder of a guy who had his legs cut off and sewed back on —transposed left and right! — then all will be hunky-dory again at the prison. But why does Rudy want to read a short treatise on cats written by banned author Harry Stephen Keeler? Why, indeed!?
[For more on Keeler and his work, see William Poundstone's Keeler site.]
One of the amusing bits about this book is the recursive aspect; one of the plot elements centers on books by Hazel Goodwin Keeler and her husband Harry, whose books are forbidden to the prison inmates (!). The tales-within-tales are amusing in their own right; Hazel's contribution is a short story about an Eskimo brigand who's trying to steal the supplies (and the captain's daughter) from an Arctic-exploration ship, and it plays out like a rather effective melodrama. And the banned-from-the-prison-but-somehow-in-there-anyway book by Keeler is all about cats - a charming recounting of dozens of cats that he'd known, with details that I couldn't help finding amusing even though I suspected he'd constructed that story by taking elements from many other popular cat-memoirs. The very fact that these works are reproduced in the text entirely, even though that isn't required by the plot, tells you a lot about how Keeler likes to put books together!
Another aspect of this book that I got a kick out of was the "C.S.I." section. This book was written in the '40s, but there's a section about a recently-discovered corpse (the one with the transposed legs) in which more than one character goes into considerable detail as to the nature of decomposition under different circumstances, even unto different temperatures and the presence or absence of insects!
Another key plot element is the prison library, complete with what seems to be an elaborate system of rules, and which has a "Reading Counselor" on staff to rate a convict's reading ability and suggest alternate reading based on the books he checks out. [Did prisons do this back then, I wonder? Do they do it now?] As often happens with Keeler, this aspect of the story takes up a lot more time than is strictly necessary, but I admit I found it rather fun - especially when one convict spots The Man in the Iron Mask on one of the recommendation lists and muses that it must be about some wrestler, Victorious Hugo or some such...
The resolution comes quickly, and more or less out of left field, but it's quite satisfactory anyway.
Now: of all the other Keeler titles out there, which one should I look for next?
The book is a small softcover that weighs under 7 ounces, so postage shouldn't be too bad even for international mailings, and I'm willing to make it an international ring if I get enough participants who are able to mail internationally. Please post a reply in the forum thread or PM me if you'd like to participate, and include any mailing restrictions you may have.
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Participants, in mailing order:
dunzy [Canada]
bookpatch [CA]
Llednyl [OH]
Scoobs-buddy [KY]
NMReader [NM]
sunfi [OH]
...and back to GoryDetails [NH].
I sent this book off to BCer Dunzy in Vancouver to kick off the book ring. Hope you enjoy it!
The book's palm-sized format is so friendly that it's hard to put down, even fleetingly. But put it down I must, forsooth, with no buts (other than the "but" that began this sentence, upon which the grammatical purist will gaze frowningly.)
A claustrophobic Keeler -- not that there's anything wrong with that, given the Big House setting :) I didn't enjoy it as much as the skull's travels, but it was zany enough to please. (The embedded tales of icecap follies and feline friends defy adequate description; the last-line revelation about the eponymous legs was outrageous yet strangely appropriate.) Ah, those juggled phone-calls...sheer nostalgia by now in the e-age.
For cat-loving BXers who may wander by, here's Big Rudy's take on the beasts: "Who wants a cat for a friend? He ain't no different than a phoney crip beggin' jitnies on a main stem.". Those insightful words [or woids] could profitably be pondered, albeit imperfectly understood.
Gory's copy -- much appreciated -- is now legging it to bookpatch, the next ringer.
Of course the second mystery is the who and why of the Legs, and whether Mr. Keeler will be as wildly generous with his exclamation marks as he was in The Travelling Skull. I can hardly wait to find out! Thank you for sharing with me.
I spent probably too much time wondering about the discussion in the Keeler household that led to the preface note: "The two collaborators in this novel have wisely refrained from getting in each other's hair in its writing..."
...hmmm, glad they worked it out so we could enjoy this odd but pleasant journey.
Have PM'd Llednyl -- the legs are ready to travel again.
Released 15 yrs ago (10/25/2008 UTC) at Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Off to Llendnyl!
As someone who enjoys writing, I must say that I find Keeler to be rather inspirational. After reading his books, I say to myself, "See! Anyone can write a novel!" It's not that his books are poorly written - they aren't. It's just that you can tell he must have had enormous fun being so outrageous :)
I have Scoobs-buddy's address and will send this off sometime during the week.
Released 15 yrs ago (11/19/2008 UTC) at -- BookRing, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sent off to Scoobs-buddy today.
Released 15 yrs ago (12/10/2008 UTC) at -- Mail or by hand -rings, RABCK, meetings, Kentucky USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
sending to nmreader
Thanks looking forward to reading
I have been enjoying the book and the note at the beginning makes much more sense now then when I orginally saw it.
I enjoyed the stories inside the story. I was worried for the warden although I really don't know that I liked him.
I am very curious about the Travelling Skull after hearing so much about it in the journal entries.
Thanks for including me. I will mail today.
Released 15 yrs ago (2/8/2009 UTC) at
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I will be posting this with any number of other books that need to be mailed today.
Delivery Confirmation #: 0308 0070 0000 7646 0362
Released 14 yrs ago (4/6/2009 UTC) at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, Ohio USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
It's on its way home, it should be arrive in the next couple of weeks.
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Released 11 yrs ago (8/27/2012 UTC) at Department Of Mobility in Black Rock City, Nevada USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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