Nice Day For Murder

Devoted fans of movie and rock stars know that there is a fine line between admiration and obsession. Kimmy Beach explores that line in Nice Day for Murder, a collection of poems about late American movie actor James Cagney. In the book, Cagney, known for his roles in gangster movies, is the victim of a fictional stalker who grows more and more obsessive. All the while, Cagney's onscreen and offscreen personas are blurred, with his tough-guy demeanor and loving, gentle nature melding with each other. The story, leading to its tragic conclusion, is told through poetry and letters both from the fan and Cagney's fictionalized voice.

Beach, a former stage manager who tutors English in adult education and is a teaching assistant in Red Deer, has long been a fan of Cagney and his screen work. She is especially intrigued by the many contrasts in Cagney's work and life, which come through in her writing. "He was very different as a person than he was as an actor, at least in his gangster films where he was very tough and violent. But as a human being he was quite gentle and preferred to sing and dance rather than shoot people in the head," she explains.

Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid was a great influence for Beach to create the book as poetry with other writing styles such as letters and newspaper clips mixed in. "I like the idea of a narrative running through a book of poems the way Ondaatje did it and I began to see that that was possible for my own work because I just started them out as a series of poems about Cagney and I had no idea where they were going and they sort of told me where they were going, eventually."

It wasn't difficult for Beach to get into the mindset of the obsessive fan who writes letters to Cagney with growing frequency and desperation. "When I was 19 I was driving along with my mother going to garage sales, and I stopped right in the middle of an alley because I saw this beautiful 1974 gold Mustang hatchback. I left the car running, ran up to the door and asked the guy if I could buy his car," Beach says, adding that the owner's response was not what she was hoping for.

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