my favorite authors died

Two of my favorite authors died last year. I have long been a fan of Robert Parker and his Spenser novels and Stuart Kaminsky and his Porfiry Rostnikov novels.

Spenser was a private eye and Rostnikov was a Russian cop. And I enjoyed reading them both.

I remember last year when Parker died, but I found out almost by accident that Kaminsky had also died. Parker was a lot older than me, but Kaminsky wasn’t.

Neither of these guys would have probably liked me. I am a charismatic preacher for a Pentecostal organization and a firm believer in the grace and reality of God. They were both, as far as I could tell from their writings, non-Christians.

Spenser had nothing but disdain for traditional morality and lived with his girlfriend. Rostnikov was an atheist.

Yet, for some reason, I liked them. Not sure why, but I read every book they wrote.

I kind of identified with Spenser in some ways. It was funny to see, but Parker wrote about Spenser since 1974. Spenser had been in Korea and quit smoking when he was 16 back in the 50’s. The problem came when Spenser was still around in 2010. For him to have been around now he would have had to have been in his 80’s,yet he was solidly middle aged. The only difference was his size.

When he started the Spenser books, Spenser wore a 48 regular and carried a .38 calibre gun. At the end he wore a 50 long and carried a much larger gun. He could bench press more and run longer, fight better – in fact do everything much better now than then. Parker was obviously a guy who, as a t shirt I saw one time said, the older he got, the better he was.

Rostnikov also was a lot older than he should have been. He had fought in World War 2 as a child of 10 in the Russian army. That was 65 or 70 years ago. By now he should be in his 80’s, but he was still in his 60’s. the only concession he made to time was to finally lose the leg that was damaged when he was that child soldier and get an artificial one. But, as a champion weight-lifter, he too got stronger as he got older.

The older I get, the better I remember myself when I was younger. Every year I get stronger and straighter and better at a lot of stuff. Not now, of course, but back when I was young. My youth becomes almost Olympian. It wasn’t, of course, but I remember it like that.

I miss those guys and am though reading their books. They know that there is a God now. I wish they had known sooner.