The Golden Orange

LA cops, lots of LA cops in various stages of their careers. Humor, lots of humor, some in forms you simply can't see coming. Intricate plot lines, lots of intricate plot lines, filled with characters, venues and twists that define Wambaugh.

Real fun and twisted. Great characters, unpredictable plot and superb writing. What else could you ask for? This is one of Wambaugh's most underrated novels.

Fear and remorse are Winnie's twins. He is an ex-cop who drinks too much. Drinkers have night visitations. Disaster ensues during Winnie's stint as a ferry boat pilot at Christmastime. He rams a motor yacht. Passengers panic. A boat parade is disrupted. The book describes divorcees-- tanned, beautiful, youthful-appearing. The emphasis may seem crass but it is understandable in terms of a policeman's view of the social scene. Tess Binder is one of the divorcees. She lives in a gated community. Winnie develops an infatuation for her. She takes him to a ranch her father owned. She has a remainder interest in it. It seems to Winnie that Tess's father may not have committed suicide, that his death is suspicious. He comes to believe that Tess is in danger because someone is attempting to extinguish her remainder interest. Since meeting Tess, Winnie's life has been filled with hope. Nevertheless, as time passes, Winnie begins to notice scars from cosmetic surgery and other imperfections possessed by Tess. Winnie is coaxed into drinking too much. He ends up in jail, basically his own idea, where he has nothing to do but face his alcoholism. His alcoholic darkness is lifted. Later his drinking resumes as his complete knowledge of multiple plot strands takes place. Wambaugh's achievement in this book is notable.

Sometimes a book takes a sudden twist that knocks you for a loop. Other times, you find yourself reading a book where you have a pretty good idea what the twist is going to be, only you keep reading because you care so much about the central character you hope you're wrong. The second kind is more impressive to me, and "The Golden Orange" is a perfect example of it. Joseph Wambaugh's 1990 novel focuses on a boozy ex-cop's love affair with a beautiful society girl on the coast of Newport Beach in Orange County, California. Maybe that's why people are down on it; it's more Raymond Chandler than Ed McBain. Yet I can't help loving "The Golden Orange," one of the most humorous and emotionally compelling novels I have ever read. There isn't anything here to surprise film noir enthusiasts, though this is much different in tone and story. With his masterly sense of characterization, Wambaugh starts off putting the reader in the shoes of Winnie Farlowe, a hard-drinking 40-year-old forced off the local police because of injury. Adrift, wishing he could return to a job where he mattered, he wastes his small pension drowning his sorrows in one of the few cheap dives in Orange County, occasionally getting a peek at the well-heeled around him. Winnie's a hard guy not to like, with his sardonic yet humble manner. Told he is ingenuous, Winnie asks: "Is that like ingenious? I used to be ingenious sometimes. Working on homicide gave me ingenious moments." He's so straight up he pays child support for his ex-wife's kids because he adopted them during the marriage. The only thing he's not straight up about is his drinking: "I'm not an alcoholic. I jist shouldn't drink rum!" After a mad drunken boat ride lands Winnie in the papers for a couple of days, into his bar walks an unexpected grace note. Tess Binder, a 43-year-old thrice-divorced "Hot Momma," saw his picture in the paper and felt something, it's hard to explain what exactly, that made her want to reach out to Winnie. In no time they're in bed, she's asking him to stay the week, calling him "old son," seeking his help in figuring out what happened to her father's lost fortune and why someone might be trying to kill her. Protective Winnie is convinced his life just passed perfect and is somewhere north of sensational. Except when he dreams. Wambaugh finds a cagey balance between amusement and gravity with the alcoholic Winnie. When we first meet him is having one of his three-in-the-morning wake-up calls with his version of pink elephants, two buzzards he visualizes pecking at his stomach. He's so used to them he's given them names. There's also a nice portrait of Newport Beach, Wambaugh's home turf when he wrote "The Golden Orange." After a small temblor gets his customer praying, a bartender wisecracks: "A day to go down in Newport Beach history...Fifteen square miles a greed and white-collar crime. And people finally pray because of a little four-point-sixer." Among the funny asides is a dissertation

In reading the previous reviews, I think this book has not been given it's due. I have read the book several times for the humor found within it. I have been a police officer for 26 years and found The Golden Orange to be full of police humor from the first chapter to the last. The lead character leads the life of a pentioned out officer who is constently battling his past using alcohol and levety to ease that past. Wambaugh molds every character into ones we can all relate to. The police characters are no doubt taken from Wambaugh's experience as police officer from the synical old timers to the optomistic green rookies. There are FEW books I would recommend as highly as this one for action, mystery and real belly laughs. I only wish he had 100 more like it.