All this talk of magical realism aside, I have noticed a few
hardboiled
authors who have injected some surrealness into the
proceedings (I'm not
talking real fantasy or sci-fi/crime crossovers, like
crime-solving
vampires, android gumshoes, or stuff like that). For example,
James Lee
Burke's been having dead people as recurring characters
lately, Jeremiah
Healy's John Cuddy frequently gets advice from his long-dead
wife, and Paco
Ignacio Taibo killed off his Mexico City P.I., Hector Shayne
in one book,
and brought him back in the next without a word of
explanation. Yet these
books are all pretty down to earth, other than all these
stiffs walking
around or yapping their heads off.
As for Maximum Bob, as an adaptation, I was disappointed. As
a spin-off
from the book, though, I think it has potential. My wife,
who's never read
Elmore Leonard, loved it; thought it was a great premise. I
felt the first
show was a bit fluffy and unfocussed, although the last few
minutes wrapped
it up nicely, and give it a bit of grit-the explanation of
all those
explosions. I liked that. With Leonard riding shotgun as
"consultant," it
could be interesting, anyway...and I'll watch any show that
has "Green
Onions" in it...
And Mark, I wouldn't say there's been no good films made from
Leonard
books. Mr. Majesyk, Hombre, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty and now
Out of Sight
come to mind. Mind you, like you said, a lot of them are real
turkeys.
Touch, anyone? Or Stick?
**************************************************
Kevin Smith
It's summertime, and the living is cheesy...What are you
reading this summer?
Tell us in this month's P.I. Poll on The Thrilling Detective
Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
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