Re: RARA-AVIS: Sharyn McCrumb

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Wed, 21 Oct 1998 00:07:14 -0500 (CDT) When I mentioned Sharyn McCrumb, I didn't mean to run up a red flag. In
fact, I was using her as a writer who has written category fiction--cozies,
such as _Lovely in Her Bones_ [which, YEAH, I read before I saw the
Darkness]--and then turned to something less categorical, such as _If Ever
I Return Pretty Peggy-O_, which I chose to call a novel, and which I
remember being quite impressed by. "Novel," meaning nothing about the
"class" of the fiction, simply something noncategorical. But I am
operating as a reader, not someone in the trade.

I guess my overall point is that we should be more open to folks who break
the boundaries. Not that we need to talk about them on this list. But I'd
hate to think that rara-avians are so transfixed by the 20th century, that
they'll never look back at some of the taproots of noir, such as Dante's
"Inferno."

While I'm sounding off, I have to say that sometimes when the old grudge
stories come up, and everyone agrees, this place seems very like one of
those small towns where no one forgets. Doesn't matter what else you've
done, you'll always be the so and so that.... Here, I'm thinking more of
Oates' achievement, than McCrumb's or even Oates' views on other writers.
JCO has always been prickly and individual, so far as I know. I had to
chuckle when someone called her a feminist, though I suppose any
professional woman nowadays has to be somewhat of one. But I remember when
she clearly rankled the political feminists of the early 70s. Whatever her
views, I'll tolerate them or ignore them, and judge her for the fiction she
writes. I do the same for Ellroy.

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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