Tom Franklin has done two exciting things since last we left him in Brasil: read and immensely enjoyed UP IN HONEY'S ROOM by Elmore Leonard AND para-glided off the top of a mountain and landed on a beach. Wait, is that four things? As for the latter, not since he took off his shirt to send e-mail has there been such excitement for Tom in Brasil. He was, in his words, "ushered up the slick wet mountain roads by suicidal motorcyclists who veered in and out and around trash heaps and potholes and each other; saw that giant spread-armed Christ [pictured - ed.] and drank copiously in his shadow... Riding up to the mountain we leapt from, I was in the back of a TR-7 (remember those little cars?) [no - ed.] with no seatbelt, riding on the trunk, looking up at the jungle and was happy indeed. There were monkeys everywhere and a cool wet feeling." Monkeys everywhere and a cool wet feeling! This is our favorite phrase about monkeys since Laura Lippman referred to a man turning to a monkey for support and "the monkey being cold to his pain."
