Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: RARA-AVIS; Whassis like then? and "I Hate That Book"

From: Mark Sullivan ( AnonymeInc@WEBTV.NET)
Date: 24 Jan 2000


Jane, There was quite a bit of discussion of God Is A Bullet on the list, with a split decision on its merits. You can find it in the archives throughout the months of March and April 1999.

Series I came to hate -- I'd have to say the Spenser series by Robert B. I really liked the early novels, which I saw as nice Chandler homages, but by the time of Early Autumn and Rachel Wallace I had so tired of the macho posturing I had to quit the series. And I've never understood Grafton's appeal. I read the first and found it completely non-memorable. Later someone said I should try the second. By then I had completely forgotten the first, so I reread A and moved on to B, which was no better in my mind, totally faceless. And this is not a problem with female PIs, there are quite a few of those I like: Lydia Chin, V.I. Warshawski, Kat Colorado, Carlotta Carlyle, among others.

Acquired taste -- I know this is probably sacrilege on this list, but I'd have to say Killer Inside Me. I just didn't think much of it first time around; of course at the time, my mystery reading was almost exclusively PI fiction, had not moved on to noir. Upon re-reading it after trying a couple of other Thompsons, I came to understand why it is so highly regarded, though I still don't think it's his best. As a matter of fact, I prefer all three of the others in the Black Box anthology -- Pop. 1280, Getaway and Grifters. I gave Thompson that second chance because I liked so many movies based on his work, two of which were in the anthology I had bought but not read many years before.

Finally, two series that had to grow on me -- Amos Walker and Matt Scudder. For some reason I picked up several of each series before starting them, so I didn't just stop after the first book (I would not have gone out looking for more). The Walkers each got just enough better to go on to the next. I think it was either Midnight Man or Glass Highway that finally moved me beyond mild generic interest. Same for the Scudders, then 8 Million Ways to Die blew me away and Sacred Ginmill was just as good; I was hooked.

Mark

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