The Triumph of Evil

I'm listening to "The Triumph of Evil" by Lawrence Block, one of my mostest favoritest authors. I do believe I've read everything he's ever written.  But there are a few things that make this audio experience special.

The title is inspired by a famous quote: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" (Edmund Burke).  Block has tweaked the quotation a bit into "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do the wrong things" .

The book was written in 1973 so somehow I missed it.  It's currently out of print.  But by some act of serendipity, it was just recorded as an audio file and released as such this month.  That was the good news.

The "bad" news was that although it was available for download for free from the Broward County library and the one license for it was not being used, I had a heck of a time getting it downloaded.  I will not bore you with the details Dear Diary but after much finagling it now resides on my iPad.

This is probably the most thought provoking of Block's works which include such lighthearted offerings as the Burglar Who and Matt Scudder series which were adapted for the big screen in "Burglar" (with Whoopi Goldberg) and "8 Million Ways To Die".  This is obviously the work of a younger, idealistic, questioning Block who (with his Yiddisha kop) brilliantly dissects the events that might turn America into a fascist dictatorship.  Remember - this was written at a time of great student unrest, racial strife and a country deeply divided. Think assassinations, violence, political upheavals, right wing rage and back room manipulators.

Thank you Lawrence Block for many, many wonderful reading and listening experiences.  At 74, I hope you have not yet retired!

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PS
A note from Lawrence Block himself!  I am soooo happy!

Evelyn, thanks so much! I'm delighted you enjoyed the audiobook of The Triumph of Evil, and grateful to you for blogging about it.

As you note, the book's out of print—but it's eVailable as an Open Road eBook, and indeed that's what led to its being released in audio. The eBook revolution has resulted in virtually everything I wrote over the past half century being available again—and that's very gratifying, as I'm sure you can imagine. Here's a link to a blog page with a full list of what's out there: http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/about-lbs-fiction/

Again, thanks.

LB