A review by gengelcox
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything by John D. MacDonald

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

One of my fondest memories from childhood is having chanced across the filmed version of this fantasy romp by MacDonald, later known more for thrillers like The Executioners (filmed as Cape Fear with Robert DeNiro) and the 20-odd books in the Travis McGee series. Before all that, while learning his trade, MacDonald regularly sold short stories to the pulp magazines, many of them of the science fiction and fantasy variety, such as Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Galaxy. In the early 50s, he started writing novels and experimented with multiple genres before finally hitting paydirt with the McGee series in 1964. This was one of those experiments, what is termed in the business now as a “time-stop” novel, wherein the protagonist is able to stop time and go about doing various pranks (or worse) before restarting time. (Unlike time travel or time loop stories, time-stop has never been a particularly popular subgenre, with fewer than three dozen works, including Nicholson Baker’s 1994 novel, The Fermata, which I reviewed back in 1999.)

The basic premise is this: Kirby Winter has worked for his eccentric uncle Omar Krepps for years, first going to university in subjects dictated by his uncle, then as a philanthropist, giving away millions of money to deserving subjects all over the world on the down low (kind of like the old TV program, The Millionaire). Omar dies, but all he leaves Kirby is a watch and a sealed letter that isn’t to be opened for a year after his death. Unfortunately, the executives of Krepps other enterprises and other more unscrupulous characters believe Kirby has secreted the money away, leading to a search for the lost millions as well as Kirby’s need to hide. Eventually, he stumbles upon the secret of the watch, and what his uncle had in mind for him, and the plot resolves.

You might think I should have put a spoiler notice before that, but I’m not really giving anything away, because MacDonald spoils the whole thing in a preface structured as a letter at the beginning of the novel. The pleasure in reading this novel is not in its mystery, but in the fun of what happens with something so wild, the emerging character of Kirby and the Girl of the title, and, as always with MacDonald, an insight into how he viewed human psychology. The latter comes up several times, but strongest in a scene in which Kirby uses a ruse to escape from a locked room even though he is shot at and, instead of killing his captors, he does something else. This is a good comparison with Baker’s novel mentioned above, where the subject doesn’t use his ability to stop time for murder, but his ethics seem much more compromised than Kirby Winter’s.

That’s not to say MacDonald can be read a half century later without some cringe. His novels emerged from the pulp tradition, where men are men and women—even malicious ones like Charla or bouncy, worldy wise ones like Bonny Lee—are empowered more by their ability to be a bedmate than a partner. That said, both of the women mentioned above come across as strong characters, at least somewhat; unfortunately, they’re only two of the dozen or so encountered. Even more damning, MacDonald’s views on men confronted with a sexualized woman, is as problematic, especially in a situation at the end of the book regarding a bunch of sailors.

Still, it’s a fun book, one on par with Thorne Smith, Stella Gibbons, P.G. Wodehouse, Kingsley Amis, or David Lodge. I probably should see if I can find and rewatch the filmed version, although I fear the suck fairy might have visited it in the intervening years.