Don't say goodbye Spenser

("Hon no Zasshi" May 2010 issue, essay)

Toshinari Masuda

First of all, I have to apologize to many people here.

For nearly thirty years, Spenser has been confusing the people around him by saying the lines he used in his work in a meaningless way.

Of course, the person being told has no idea what is being said. I couldn't tell if it was serious or a joke. I thought in my heart, "A person who hasn't read Spenser is bad."

When I dropped out of college, I went to say hello to a professor. The professor was worried and suggested that he manage to stay in college.

"Masuda is sick, but after quitting college, I wonder how much potential he has in the future."

"Ten with a scale that can measure up to ten" ("Goat of Judas")

The professor would have thought of me as a ridiculously irreverent man.

A few years ago, I made a hotel reservation over the phone. After hearing my name, the lady at the front desk said, "May I ask for your phone number?"

I of course replied:

"It's in the phone book, it's in the heading <Tough>" ("Early Autumn")

When he was young, he had a fight at a bar by an experienced baseball player. The other person is bigger than me, and I think he has confidence in his motor nerves. Even though I've only done judo, I took a boxing stance and quietly said:

"I can't throw a ball like you, but I can send you to the hospital before you touch my body" ("Loss")

The other person looked a little surprised and then apologized as if he had returned to me. Does he still believe that I'm an experienced boxer?

My blazer is, of course, Brooks Brothers.

In Japan, the 44-inch size was directly imported from the United States because the ones classified by the number of inches of the chest circumference were not sold. It is the same size as Spenser. To wear this size, I need to adjust the weight of the bench press to keep my chest constant. No more, no less.

She called her dating "Suze", pointed to the newspaper shelf at Kiyosk and said "Please put it in the Boston Globe", and when moving the apartment, "a property where you can see the cityscape like Boston from the window". I placed an order with the real estate agent. When I hit a car and it got scratched, I imitated Spenser and put a rubber tape on it to repair it.

He even tried to quit a newspaper reporter and become a police officer in order to become a private detective. Before Spenser became a private detective, he was an assistant prosecutor, so I thought it would be more realistic to first become a police officer, work for a while, and then switch to a private detective. And I really took the exam.

When the economy was bad, the popularity of civil servants was high and the magnification was close to 100 times, but it passed the written test lightly. Obviously. The other students were 18 years old, but I was 29 years old. However, it was dropped at the final interview.

When I heard the news of Robert B. Parker's sudden death, I think I was the most shocked in Japan. However, I reconsidered and thanked him. As the Spenser series grew older, he made friends who could be called Hawk, met Susan, and met Martin Quark and Henry Shimori. I think the reason why I have such a deep relationship is that I have lived my life in real time with this series.

However, there was only one regret.

I've used Spenser's favorite lines everywhere, but I didn't have the one I liked the most. I thought I'd say it someday, but I couldn't do it. Props were needed to make the scene. A prop called a boy about a junior high school student.

One night, about a week after Parker passed away, I invited my nephew in the first year of middle school to go to the shot bar.

When we sat side by side at the dim counter, a barten of the same age as me arrived immediately.

I said.

"Beer. If possible, Amstel. If not, other than Bud."

However, the barten silently looked at his nephew next to him and pointed lightly with his chin. I want to say that it is not a store for minors.

I said.

"He's a dwarf"

At that moment, the barten loosened his mouth and grinned. Oh, I thought I knew it. That's what Spenser said when he took Paul Jacomin to the bar in Early Autumn.

Said the barten.

"Parker has passed away."

"Oh······"

I couldn't be a private detective and became a writer. And, before I knew it, I realized that I was being released from the curse of a young machismo.

Then let's throw away the muscles. Susan describes Spenser as "you're hiding yourself in that muscle's armor," throwing away that muscle.

It would be the best offering to Parker to throw away the muscles and switch to a brush and provide my drawing Spenser for Spenser fans.

I do not dare to call this sentence "a memorial to Parker". Mourning is done with the work. I will create a Japanese spenser. So I'm sad enough to cry, but I don't say goodbye Spenser.

("Book Magazine" May 2010 issue)