The Extra Dimensions of John D. MacDonald

I was saddened by the death of John D. MacDonald, author of the Travis McGee detective series. But my friends and co-workers who have not read any of his Travis McGee books or his hundreds of other writings are beginning to look at me strangely when I try to talk about my sadness.

After all, I affectionately refer to the Travis McGee books as “my favorite tacky detective series” and recognize that most of them were written with a similar formula. How do I express my feelings about the death of an author I’ve read on and off for half my life?

MacDonald was a storyteller. I can only vouch for the Travis McGee series, and in those he spun an entertaining, action-packed detective story, and wove into the plot philosophical insights and pithy critiques of modern society. The main character is Travis McGee, a tall, gray-eyed, deeply sun-tanned “Marine Salvage Consultant,” a knight doing good deeds, battling with the windmills of society and himself. He lives on his boat, “The Busted Flush,” and drives Agnes, an ancient blue Rolls Royce pickup. In the boat slip next to him lives his friend Meyer, the huggable, dark and hairy economist who genuinely delights in talking with people.

I think I read my first Travis McGee story as a high school freshman. I immediately empathized with the major female characters. The ones I remember now are tall, big, attractive women who like to swim. As for me, during the previous years in grammar school I had been the tallest girl in my class. I was a scuba diver, thought myself ungainly and out of place, and still had to grow into my large hands, feet and facial features. At 14 years old, those female characters gave me hope that one day I too would grow up to look OK.

Later, there was a time in my life when it seemed I moved every year or two. It was reassuring to walk into almost any bookstore or library and find old friends in the Travis McGee stories.

One of my enduring fantasies was to bump into MacDonald in an airport and tell him how much I enjoyed his writing, his insights into society and what good old friends I considered Travis and Meyer. I won’t be able to do that now, so in my New Year’s toasts this year, I lifted my glass of Boodles gin to John D. MacDonald, Travis and Meyer, and all the storytellers who entertain and touch our lives.

NANCY I. GARMAN

Santa Monica